With Little Money: 4 Ways Spare Change Builds Income

Intro

Can sixty cents of card change buy stocks by itself? Yes, and a later step buys a tenth of a share for $20. Four steps in all, counting down to number one, the biggest.

1. Let an app round up your card payments and invest the change

Number four: let an app round up your card payments and invest the change. Say Maya pays nineteen forty at a shop. Her app rounds it up to twenty, the next whole unit. The sixty cents left over can buy her chosen stock or fund, automatically.

She picks that stock or fund once, and every round-up follows it. By our count, five payments of sixty cents add up to three. And nobody typed an amount. It happens with every card payment.

One app invests that change every Friday. Another waits until the change adds up to $5. One app adjusts that five-dollar mark to your spending. Another app's examples: two fifty puts in fifty cents, seven twenty-five puts in seventy-five.

By our count, that pair adds up to a dollar twenty-five, so four pairs make five. The change moves from your bank account, not from the card. To start, you switch on round-ups in the app and pick where the change goes. You can even choose a bigger multiple to round up to.

One app's round-ups need its paid plan, at nine ninety-nine a month. Others list plans from two fifty to $4 a month. One of these apps works in eleven countries for now, the others in one. Investing involves risk: values can go down as well as up.

Subscribe, because next we buy a slice of a share from $1. Every step and number in this video comes straight from official pages linked below.

2. Buy a slice of a share with the small amount you have

Number three: buy a slice of a share with the small amount you have. One broker's example: a share costs a hundred dollars, and fifty buys half of it. Its slices start from just $1. In another app, you type the money amount you want, or the fraction itself.

Its example: one share at 200, and a tenth costs twenty. By our count, ten slices like that make one whole share. A dividend is money a company may pay its shareholders from its profits. And a slice still earns its share of any dividend.

Say Maya owns half a share; a dollar per share pays her fifty cents. One limit: a slice usually can't move to another broker. To leave, you'd sell the slice and withdraw the cash. Not every stock or fund comes in slices.

As with all investing, market risk applies. Keep those fifty cents in mind for number one. So far: round-ups and slices. Which one would you try first?

Tell us the number in the comments. Next, buying on a schedule, without logging in.

3. Set a small amount to invest on a schedule

Number two: set a small amount to invest on a schedule, by itself. Recurring buys are made in money, so they often end in slices. One app's example: $10 every Monday, into one made-up stock. At forty a share, that Monday buys a quarter of a share.

Next Monday, at twenty, the same ten buys half a share. By our count, that's three quarters of a share for $20. One broker needs slices switched on before recurring buys can start. You choose a start date and a schedule: daily, weekly or monthly.

On that date, the buy runs soon after the market opens, then repeats. Another app adds every two weeks, and lets you pause or cancel anytime. To start, you open the trade menu and pick a recurring investment. You pick the frequency, the amount and the start date.

Availability differs by account type and where you live. All investing involves risk, as that app's page notes. Number one needs no new money: your payouts do the buying.

4. Dividends often arrive as cash

Number one: dividends often arrive as cash, until you switch reinvestment on. One app says dividends are credited as cash by default. Switched on, each cash dividend buys whole or partial shares of the same stock or fund. One broker does it at no charge.

Remember Maya's fifty cents? One app reinvests only payouts of more than $1. Smaller ones are credited to your cash balance instead. By our count, her fifty cents would wait as cash there.

Another app reinvests only inside its portfolios, not single holdings. There, reinvestment starts on, and switching it off keeps dividends as cash. In one app, reinvested dividends buy on the trading day after they're paid. To start, open the dividend reinvestment section and toggle the switch on.

Companies may reduce or stop paying dividends, so payment isn't guaranteed. Most of these apps work in one country for now. That's number one: once it's on, your payouts can buy more by themselves. Information only; results vary.

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