- How To Earn Money With Minimum Investment
- Earn Money Online With Minimum Investment Cost
- How To Make Money Online With Little Investment
- Earn Money Online With Minimum Investment Amount
You can do a lot with a little money — even as a beginning investor. If you have $1,000, $100, or even just $25, you can start investing today — right now.
In addition, our experts are available online 24/7 and are always ready to help. We help our clients earn money on the volatility of the Finance market. Today, this is an industry with a market capitalization of $130,654,120.10.
You’re never going to get rich if you don’t invest in some form. Technically, even lottery winners invest their money (by buying tickets) before becoming millionaires (by getting lucky).
I’m not at all suggesting you play the lottery. I’m suggesting you start building a real investment portfolio instead — right now, with whatever amount of money you can spare. In this post we’ll go through some tried and true methods that are a great place to start to invest with little money.
Quick note before we begin: If you currently have any consumer debt, it might be a good idea to pay off that debt first, before investing. Read our full post on ways to get out of debt fast.
How to Invest with Little Money
Here are 15 simple ways to invest small amounts of money:
1. Real Estate Crowdfunding
Money Needed To Start $500This one might surprise you, but you can invest in real estate without much money. With crowdfunded real estate, you can invest as little as $500.
The way it works is that you team up with other real estate investors, pool your money together, and buy some real estate. You become a partial owner of the property.
Any profit made from selling the real estate, or earning income from ongoing rents, would come back to you.
› Learn more:read our complete Fundrise Review.
2. Fractional Shares
Money Needed To Start $1You can find a lot of solid investing apps that charge no commissions or fees. So why do I recommend the Public app for iOS or Android?
Because you can open an account and start investing in the stock market right away — even if you have only $1 to spare. Public.com requires no minimum investment either to open an account or to invest in fractional shares of stocks, called slices.
That means you can invest in top companies, even if you can’t afford an entire share of the stock.
You can also invest specifically in the kinds of companies you believe in through Public’s themes. Whether it’s environmentally friendly companies or tech-driven firms, Public’s themes can help keep your investments aligned with your beliefs.
If you’re cash-poor or just not familiar with the basics of investing, Public can unlock the doors to the investing world.
Public.com no longer pays interest on uninvested cash.
› Learn more:read our complete Public.com Review.
3. High Yield Savings Accounts
Money Needed To Start $1Words like “investing,” “stock markets,” and “index funds” scare off a lot of would-be investors who think they’d need a finance degree to make good investments.
In reality, saving money in a high yield savings account is a form of investing, and you’ll have a hard time finding an easier way to invest.
Saving and investing are like siblings. You can’t really do one without the other. You can start slow — just save any loose change left over from the coffee you buy or the cost of parking. If you can put in, say, $5 a week, that can turn into $260 a year.
After 10 years — at 1% interest — you’d have $2,747. About $147 of that would be from compound interest. It’s not a lot of money, but you get the idea: Letting money grow slowly and steadily is a form of investing.
Today’s best online high yield savings accounts earn 0.8% to 1.4% interest which is a lot higher than the rate you’d get in a neighborhood bank account. If you do nothing else on this list, open up a high yield savings account today.
FDIC insurance provides the closest thing to a risk-free investment you’ll ever find — if you have $250,000 or less in your bank account or money market account.
› Want a quick start? Axos is an online-only bank that consistently offers competitive rates. Check them out now or read our full Axos Bank Review.
4. Robo-Advisors
Money Needed To Start $100Investment managers and financial advisors cost money, even if you open a brokerage account with a discount broker.
Coming up with enough money to invest and to pay fees and commissions on investments has rattled many would-be investors.
But cost is no longer a big issue. Now, a robo advisor like Betterment can manage your portfolio for a small annual fee — 0.25% of your account balance, to be exact.
On a $1,000 account, you’d pay $2.50 a year in management fees.
Or, if that’s too steep, you could use M1 Finance which charges no annual fee to automatically spread your investments among different index funds and bonds. Computer software does the whole thing, which is why it’s called a robo advisor.
You can start with investments as small as $100, so it’s a great option if you want to avoid large fees and easier access to your money.
› Learn more:automate your investing now with M1 Finance or read our full M1 Finance Review.
5. Invest Your Spare Change with Acorns
Money Needed To Start $0Acorns lets you invest your spare change — literally — by rounding up your debit or credit card purchases to the nearest dollar. This means you can start an investment account with no money!
Just link your credit or debit card to the app, and once your spare change balance has reached $5, you can start investing with Acorns’ algorithm which buys into exchange-traded funds or ETFs.
Unlike individual stocks, ETFs diversify your investment instantly. Your portfolio’s performance will normally track the broader stock market’s performance.
With Acorns, you can choose your own risk tolerance. The app will invest your money conservatively or aggressively based on your preferences.
It will even round up to the nearest $10 instead of the nearest $1 to increase your investment funds more rapidly.
› Learn more:read our complete Acorns Review.
6. Get A Free Stock From Robinhood
Money Needed To Start $0Robinhood pioneered commission-free investing through its app. You can trade individual stocks, options, ETF shares, and even cryptocurrency with this app.
Robinhood’s model was so successful almost every other broker has started commission-free trading in response.
But Robinhood still shines because you can open an account with little money, and you can buy fractional shares. This means you can buy a piece of an individual stock even if you can’t afford a full share.
Since Robinhood was born in the smartphone age, the app works seamlessly on both iOS and Android phones. You can’t trade mutual funds or open an IRA, but Robinhood is still a best investment option for new investors.
What’s more? They’ll give you a free stock just for signing up.
› Learn more:read our complete Robinhood Review.
7. Certificates Of Deposit (CDs)
Money Needed To Start Varies by bankCertificates of deposit (CDs) work like savings accounts but you can earn higher interest rates by agreeing to leave the money alone for a set period of time known as a “term.”
Your CD’s term could be three months or five years. Normally, a longer term means you’ll earn higher interest rates. If you need the money before the CD’s term matures, you’d have to pay a fee and lose your earnings from interest.
The downside is that CDs offer much lower returns than other types of investments, but the risk is much lower. In fact, assuming you have an FDIC-insured bank, your risk is virtually non-existent.
Check today’s best cd rates.
› Want a quick start? CIT Bank consistently offers competitive CD rates. Check them out now or read our full CIT Bank Review.
8. Invest With the Stash App
Money Needed To Start $1Here’s yet another avenue for new investors who want to start with a little money: the Stash app. This low-cost brokerage app charges $1 a month ($3 to open a traditional IRA or Roth IRA).
The $1-a-month plan includes a checking account and a savings account, too.
You could easily transfer money into the stock market through exchange-traded funds or individual stocks.
And you could buy fractional shares to put smaller amounts of money in the stock market.
Stash also has automatic dividend reinvestment plans (DRIP) to keep even more of your money in play.
The whole point of Stash is to help new investors learn the ropes. If you already have investing experience but still want low fees and low minimum investments, see the Robinhood app above.
› Learn more:start investing now with Stash or read our full Stash App Review.
9. Ally Invest: For Banking & Investing
Money Needed To Start $1Ally Bank is one of my favorite online banks for high yield savings accounts. Now Ally has its own investment app, Ally Invest, and it’s a great fit for new investors with small amounts of money.
You can get commission-free trades on individual stocks, bonds, options, and exchange-traded funds.
There are no account minimums to meet before investing. (Ally does have high fees for mutual funds.)
All this sounds ideal, but I recommend Ally for new investors because of its research. For example, you can learn a lot about options and even run hypothetical scenarios before putting up actual money.
Since Ally has a quality high yield savings account, you can move money into Ally Invest seamlessly.
› Learn more:save and invest now with Ally or read our full Ally Invest Review.
10. Peer to Peer Lending
Money Needed To Start $1,000If you have $1,000, you could lend the cash to someone else as a form of investing. This kind of small investment can be risky because you don’t know if the borrower will honor his or her promise to repay the loan with interest.
So to lower this risk you could lend out your $1,000, in small installments of $25 or $50, to a lot of different people. This is how peer-to-peer (P2P) lending works.
Platforms like Prosper and Lending Club can help you get started with just a little bit of money. You choose which borrowers to finance.
You may want to try just a few smaller loans to see what the experience is like, then increase the amounts if you feel it’s worthwhile.
11. U.S. Treasury Securities
Money Needed To Start $100Although a Treasury security (aka a savings bond) isn’t a huge money-making investment option, it can be a stable place to put your money and earn some interest.
You can buy these through the U.S. Treasury’s online savings bond portal called Treasury Direct. You can buy fixed-rate bonds that have maturity periods from 30 days to 30 years. And the great news is that bonds can cost as little as $100.
These, too, can pull money right from your payroll if you’d like. If you’re interested in bonds but don’t want to buy them directly, robo-advisors like Betterment often mix in bond investments depending on your risk tolerance.
12. Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan
Money Needed To Start $5/paycheckEven if money is tight, you should contribute to the 401(k) your employer offers. You can choose the amount, so if you can only do $5 per paycheck, that’s at least a start.
This is so important because many employers match your contributions into your 401(k), up to a certain percentage. This means they’re giving you free money.
How To Earn Money With Minimum Investment
Many 401(k)s invest money in mutual funds for you so the money can grow with the market as you earn. Contributing to your 401(k) is one of the best personal finance choices you can make.
If your employer doesn’t have a 401(k) or equivalent, you can open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) at a bank or through a stock broker.
With an IRA you can deposit money tax-free each year. (The tax-free max for 2021 is $6,000.) With a Roth IRA you don’t get the tax break now, but you can claim it after you retire when you withdraw the money.
› Overwhelmed by your employer’s 401K? Blooom helps you optimize your retirement account, no matter who you work for. Check them out now or read our full Blooom Review.
13. Gold And Other Precious Metals
Money Needed To Start $50Investing in precious metals like gold or other metals can actually have a good payoff. There are doubters and critics, but the idea is that metals hold their value because they’re physical, tangible products.
The downside is that you won’t see dividends — it’s literally a piece of metal or rock that you’d lock away and hope to someday sell it for more than you bought it. However, the price of gold has gone up by over 300% in the past three decades.
It’s a risk, and you’re basically hoping that the demand for gold and other precious metals will skyrocket and people will be desperate for it. Demand tends to increase when there’s market instability like there was when the Covid-19 pandemic started.
If you think it’s a viable investment, you can buy gold or precious metals through your brokerage or from the U.S. Mint.
14. Stock Options
Money Needed To Start VariesStock options aren’t stocks. Options are contracts that give you the ability to buy or sell a stock at a certain price on a certain date — if you want. You’ll have options.
You can buy “calls” or “puts.” Calls are options that are projected to go up in price. Puts are projected to fall.
Options let you lock in a price well in advance, insulating you against later market instability. In times of market turmoil, options can become exceedingly valuable.
As you can already tell, dealing with stock options can get very complicated — and they’re also pretty risky.
But small investors could earn big rewards so I’m including options on this list. I’d suggest doing a little more research and getting some solid financial advice before buying in.
When you’re ready, Robinhood, the app I mentioned above, lets you trade options without paying a commission.
15. Target-Date Mutual Funds
Money Needed To Start $1,000In the age of robo-advisors and self-directed investment apps that depend on exchange traded funds, mutual funds can fall through the cracks.
But these professionally managed funds — which resemble ETFs that require more effort to trade — still have value, especially in the long run.
A target-date mutual fund, for example, can mix up your asset allocation as time passes and the target date approaches.
Early on, the mix will hold more individual stocks. Then, as your target-date approaches, the allocation will become more bond-heavy to lower the risk. This is an ideal option for passive investing.
I recommend looking into Vanguard’s target-date mutual funds.
FAQs About Investing With Little Money
Here are some common questions about how to invest with little money.
Earn Money Online With Minimum Investment Cost
Is it worth investing with little money?
Absolutely! Everyone has to start somewhere. No matter how small you feel your savings are, learning to invest is a vital part of building wealth and working towards financial freedom.
Learning how to invest with little money provides a few benefits. The first obviously is a return on your capital. Even if you only make a few dollars in interest or profit, that’s money that you wouldn’t have otherwise.
The next benefit is the experience and knowledge you gain from making a small investment. If you don’t know how to invest $100 right now, you probably won’t know the best way to invest $10,000 later. Or even $1 million later in life. Every millionaire started small by learning how to invest with little money first.
Lastly, watching your money grow is incredibly empowering. It is proof that you can build wealth, even with a small income or little savings. Learning how to invest with little money is absolutely worth it.
What can I invest $100 in?
With $100, you can invest in fractional shares, group real estate projects, savings and retirement accounts, or even start a side hustle or business. Thanks to living in the 21st century, there are investing apps that allow you to invest in just about anything you want to.
For more detailed options, read our post on How To Invest $100.
How do beginners invest in stocks with little money?
One of the best ways for beginners to invest in stocks is via mutual funds inside an employee sponsored 401k plan. Contributions are automatically deducted from your paycheck, and the money is invested broadly across the stock market.
If you have spare cash and want to invest outside of traditional retirement accounts, there are a number of beginner investing apps that cater towards new investors. Acorns, Robinhood, or TD Ameritrade are good examples. They have a simple sign-up process to open a trading account and begin investing.
Whilst we typically recommend a mutual fund or index fund investing for beginners, if you are looking to invest in individual company stocks, please read our post on the Best Stocks to Buy For Beginners.
Why should you invest anyway?
Investing adds a third dimension to your personal finance life. Instead of depending solely on trading your time for money — by earning a wage or a salary from your job — you can start building another income stream through your investment portfolio.
At first, you won’t earn much. But that’s OK. Just get into the habit of diverting part of your monthly income into investments month after month and year after year.
If you’re really serious, get a part-time job and invest all of those wages. Or start a side hustle or a DoorDash delivery gig and invest your earnings.
Over time you can slowly decrease your dependence on working for an income. For example, I made $45 an hour on my investments last year. (Warren Buffett made $1 million an hour from his!)
You’ll need time and patience to build this kind of investment portfolio. But you don’t need a huge amount of money to get started.
Should I invest or pay off debt first?
Having debt while trying to build wealth is like running up an escalator that is moving downwards. It’s not impossible to climb your way up, but with each step forward you are still moving backwards a little.
New investments may make you money, but if you carry consumer debt the interest payment may wipe away all your gains. Typically, it’s smarter to abolish all high interest debt instead of investing. Pay off your high interest credit cards, car loans, and personal loans as soon as possible.
Paying off debt IS a form of investing. It’s risk free, provides an instant return, and can improve your credit score in many ways.
More reading: Ways to get out of debt fast
Tracking Your Investments
One of the most important practices in investing is to monitor your overall financial growth to see how your wealth is accumulating over time — a practice called net worth tracking.
Thankfully, there’s a free app for that! The best tool to help monitor and track your investment is called Personal Capital.
How To Make Money Online With Little Investment
Personal Capital is an online investment management company that allows you to connect all your financial accounts and view them in a single dashboard. They offer free budgeting tools, expense tracking, and a number of advisory services to help monitor and grow your wealth.
- Check out our full Personal Capital Review
Start By Making Small Investments
Earn Money Online With Minimum Investment Amount
There are several ways to start investing, even if you don’t have a ton of money in the bank — even if you have only $5 or so for your initial investment!
Yes, investing can be risky, especially when you’re buying securities and not CDs. We all fear the risk, but isn’t it a risk to not invest?
What happens if an emergency hits? What if you’re never financially free and can never afford to stop working all the time?
With these simple investment strategies, there is no excuse to wait until you have saved thousands. That’s the bottom line. You can start today!
This was very educational and made me feel much better about other ways of investing with small amounts of money. I CAN be ready for retirement!