If you put your money to work by investing, you can profit daily from passive investments. Passive income-generating investments that don’t require your active involvement include exchange-traded funds, individual stocks and bonds and real estate investment trusts. You can accumulate funds to start investing, as well as generate some daily income, by saving money and putting it into bank savings accounts and certificates of deposit. Talk to a financial advisor before starting to invest to get insight into your personal situation.
Investing for Daily Money
Money can earn money in many different ways. Interest, dividends, rent and price appreciation are some of the most common. Interest is income you receive in exchange for giving your money to a financial institution, corporation or government entity to use for a time.
Buying shares of publicly traded companies can generate income in the form of dividends, which are payments public companies make to owners of their stock as a way to share profits and reward shareholders. Investing in real estate can produce income in the form of rent paid by tenants. You can also make money by selling a stock, bond or another asset that has appreciated in value since you purchased it.
Most of these ways of making money by investing won’t actually send you a payment every day. You may be able to only occasionally access your funds, including any interest or other income you have earned. Often investing requires patience, as gains only appear after a period of time that could be years. If for some reason you need to sell when valuations are low, you risk losing money.
Ways to Make Money Daily with Investments
All investments are designed to earn money for investors. Beyond that, each investment has different characteristics that can make one more suitable than another for some purposes and some investors. Here are some of the most common ways to make money with investments:
- Savings Accounts: A savings account is more properly a place to accumulate funds for investment than an investment itself. Federally insured savings accounts offer high safety and easy access, but the interest rates banks, credit unions and other institutions pay are rarely enough to overcome the loss of purchasing power caused by inflation. Currently, the best-paying savings accounts offer interest rates of approximately 4%.
- Certificates of Deposit: Bank and credit union CDs are safe and pay more interest than savings accounts but you have to give up access to your money for a period of time. You can earn up to 4.75% in annual interest from today’s best-paying CDs.
- Bonds:Businesses and governments borrow money by selling bonds to investors who receive interest payments and, when the bond matures, their money back. Bond investors know in advance how much interest they’ll get, so these are called fixed-income investments. Payments may arrive twice a year or on some other schedule. Sometimes investors buy a bond at a discount from face value and wait until it matures to sell and receive their gains. Unlike bank accounts, bonds are not insured and investors can lose money if issuers default. Bonds pay widely varying interest rates depending on the length of the bond and the stability of the issuer.
- Stocks:Publicly owned corporations sell ownership shares in the form of stocks as a way to raise capital. When a share’s value rises, the shareholder can sell it on a securities exchange to make a profit. Share values generally rise over time and stock market returns average 10% a year. Stock investing is long-term, however and involves the risk of loss.
- Dividends:Some public companies make regular dividend payments to owners of their stock as a way to share profits and reward shareholders. Dividends provide generally reliable income that typically arrives quarterly or semi-annually. The value of the shares may also increase, providing another form of income from appreciation.
- Exchange-Traded Funds:ETFs are pools of funds gathered from many investors and overseen by professional investment managers. ETFs invest in baskets of stocks, bonds and other securities that seek to mimic the performance of a benchmark such as the S&P 500 Index. Because they are diversified, they may be less prone to price fluctuations than individual stocks. ETF shares trade on securities exchanges like individual stocks. Investors can sell ETF shares that have been appreciated to produce income.
- Real Estate: Investing in real estate can generate regular rental income. You can buy properties to manage yourself, or buy shares of a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) run by professional investors. REITs give individual investors partial ownership of many different properties. Historically, REITs produce returns of about 12% per year, but they can be higher or lower during real estate market cycles.
The Bottom Line
Your money can make money to provide daily income from investments. Bank accounts, certificates of deposit, stocks, bonds, ETFs and real estate all offer opportunities to earn income without actively having to work for it. Each investment alternative offers a different mix of safety, liquidity and income potential. Generally speaking, those that reliably provide regular income pay less than the riskier alternatives that require a long-term commitment of your funds.
Tips for Investing
- A financial advisor can help you assess the various options for generating daily money. Finding a financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard.SmartAsset’s free tool matchesyou with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
- Use SmartAsset’s investment calculator to show you how an investment can grow over time. You can find out how much your investment is likely to be worth at the end of an expected return.
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