People Who Don’t Do These 9 Things Before 2021 Will Have Less Money Next Year (2024)

Time flies, and the end of the year will be here before you know it. Now’s the time to make a few smart money moves before 2020 comes to a close.

Here are ten strategic steps you should take if you want to start 2021 strong.

1. Spend the Money in Your FSA: Don’t Let it Go to Waste

If you have a Flexible Spending Account through your employer as part of your health insurance plan, remember this key fact: The biggest drawback with an FSA is that you lose whatever money you don’t use up by the end of the year.

You can pull money from your FSA to cover the cost of prescriptions, office visit copays, over-the-counter medical supplies, eyeglasses or contact lenses. Your account typically comes with a debit card you can use to pay for medical expenses whenever they come up.

Tick tock! Use it or lose it!

2. Give Your Family up to $1,500,000

Oh, to be a millionaire. Look, not all of us have the money to set up trust funds for our loved ones. But you could still give them up to $1.5 million.

A company calledBestowcan help you leave your family up to $1.5 million in term life insurance, and it can cost less than your monthly Netflix subscription.

We get it — it’s one more bill, and who has time to sign up? But we hear people are paying as little as $10 a month.*

It takes just minutes tosign upand see how much life insurance you can leave them — even if you don’t have seven figures in your bank account.

3.Knock Up To $715/Year Off Your Car Insurance in Minutes

When was the last time you compared car insurance rates? Chances are you’re seriously overpaying with your current policy.

If it’s been more than six months since your last car insurance quote, you should look again.

And if you look through a digital marketplace called SmartFinancial, you could be getting rates as low as $22 a month — and saving yourself more than $700 a year.

It takes one minute to get quotes from multiple insurers, so you can see all the best rates side-by-side. Yep — in just one minute you could save yourself $715 this year. That’s some major cash back in your pocket.

So if you haven’t checked car insurance rates in a while, see how much you can save with a new policy.

4. Buy a Piece of a Corporation (Even If You’re Not Rich)

Imagine if you had bought one share of Amazon for $18 when the stock first went public. Today, it would be worth more than $20,000 — despite all the ups and downs in the stock market.

But if you work for a living and don’t happen to have millions of dollars lying around, that can sound totally out of reach.

That’s why a lot of people use the appStash. They make it easy, plus they’ll give you $5 of stock in Amazon or Google (or another company of your choice) just for opening an account.

The best part? When these companies you invest in profit, so can you. Some companies even send you a check every quarter for your share of the profits, called dividends.

Enter your email address to quickly sign up (you only need to deposit $5 into your investment account to get the $5 bonus).

5. Ask This Website to Help Pay Off Your Credit Cards

No, like… the whole bill. All of it.

If you have credit card debt, you know. The anxiety, the interest rates, the fear you’re never going to escape…

And the truth is, your credit card company doesn’t really care. It’s just getting rich by ripping you off with high interest rates. But a website called AmOne wants to help.

If you owe your credit card companies $50,000 or less, AmOne will match you with a low-interest loan you can use to pay off every single one of your balances.

The benefit? You’ll be left with one bill to pay each month. And because personal loans have lower interest rates (AmOne rates start at 3.99% APR), you’ll get out of debt that much faster. Plus: No credit card payment this month.

AmOne keeps your information confidential and secure, which is probably why after 20 years in business, it still has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

It takes two minutes to see if you qualify for up to $50,000 online. You do need to give AmOne a real phone number in order to qualify, but don’t worry — they won’t spam you with phone calls.

6.Add $225 to Your Wallet Just for Watching the News

It’s been a historic year in news, and we’re all constantly refreshing for the latest updates. You probably know more than one news-junkie who fancies themselves an expert in respiratory illness or a political mastermind.

And research companies want to pay you to keep watching the news. You could add up to $225 a month to your pocket by signing up for a free account with InboxDollars.

It’ll present you with short news clips to choose from every day, then ask you a few questions about them. You just have to answer honestly, and InboxDollars will continue to pay you every month.

This might sound too good to be true, but it’s already paid people more than $59 million.

Enter your email address here and you’ll immediately get a $5 bonus to get you started.

7. Become a Real Estate Tycoon

Take a look at some of the world’s wealthiest people. What do they have in common? Many invest in large private real estate deals. And here’s the thing: There’s no reason you can’t, too — for as little as $10.

A company called Fundrise lets you get started in the world of real estate by giving you access to a low-cost, diversified portfolio of private real estate. The best part? You don’t have to be the landlord. Fundrise does all the heavy lifting.

Fundrise’s Starter Portfolio has a minimum of only $10 and is geared toward first-time real estate investors. Your money will be invested in the company’s Flagship Fund, which already owns more than $250 million worth of real estate around the country, from apartment complexes to the red-hot housing rental market to larger last-mile e-commerce logistics centers.

Want to invest more? Fundrise offers a variety of account levels and features to fit every type of investor’s needs. Once invested, you can track your performance on Fundrise’s website and mobile app, and watch as properties are acquired, improved and operated. As tenants pay their rent, you could earn money through quarterly dividend payments, and over time, you could earn money off the potential appreciation of the property. Since 2014, Fundrise investors have earned roughly $100 million in dividends alone.

So if you want to get started in the world of real-estate investing, it takes just a few minutes to sign up and create an account with Fundrise.

*Past performance is not indicative of future results. The publicly filed offering circulars of the issuers sponsored by Rise Companies Corp., not all of which may be currently qualified by the Securities and Exchange Commission, may be found at www.fundrise.com/oc.

8. Let This App Pay You up to $83 When You Win Solitaire Games

Lots of us already play Solitaire on our phones for fun or just to pass the time. Want to see if you can win money at it?

There’s a free iPhone app called Solitaire Cash that lets you play for real money. You could get paid up to $83 per win.*

You might be thinking: There’s got to be a catch. This is definitely one of those spammy apps, right?

Wrong. There really isn’t a catch. Sure, you can pay to play in some higher-stakes tournaments, but there’s no pressure. And, in fact, there aren’t even any annoying ads.

With each game, you’ll battle it out against at least five other players. Everyone gets the same deck, so winning is totally a matter of skill. The top three players who solve the deck fastest can win real money — anywhere from $1 to $83.

Over on the App Store, it has over a million downloads and more than 15,000 ratings, averaging 4.7 stars (out of 5).

To get started, just download the free app and start playing your first game immediately.

9. Get up to $500 in Free Stock

An investing app calledRobinhoodwill give you up to $500 worth of free stock in companies like Visa, Microsoft and GE, just for downloading its app and opening a free account.

Robinhood is free and easy to navigate, which is why more than 10 million people use it — including both news junkies looking to outsmart the market and people who want to carefully put a few bucks away in a long-term investment.

How to claim your free stock: It takes just a couple of minutes tosign upand see how much free stock you can get.

*The Penny Hoarder is a Paid Affiliate/partner of Stash. This material is not intended as investment advice and is not meant to suggest that any securities are suitable investments for any particular investor. Investment advice is only provided to Stash customers.

**You’ll also bear the standard fees and expenses reflected in the pricing of the ETFs in your account, plus fees for various

*Bestow: Policies are issued by Bestow Life Insurance Company, Dallas, TX on policy form series BLI-ITPOL. Bestow Life Insurance products may not be available in all states. Policy limitations or restrictions may apply. Not available in New York. Our application asks lifestyle and health questions to determine eligibility in order to avoid requiring a medical exam. Prices start at $10/month based on an 18-year-old male rated Preferred Plus NT for a $100k policy for a 10-year term. Rates will vary based on underwriting review.

*Solitaire Cash: Real Money tournaments are not available in the following states: AZ, IA, IN, LA, ME, MT, SC, WA