Do you find yourself with a few spare minutes each day with not much to do?
What if I told you that in just a few minutes each day, you can significantly improve your finances? There are a lot of tasks you can do if you have 15 minutes to spare. These aren't hour-long tasks that you won't be able to finish in a day – these are fairly quickly, often forgotten, and super easy to do.
Today, I'm going to share seven things you can do in just 15 minutes each that will have a marked impact on your finances.
These small tasks are easy but important and they can have a big impact on your money situation.
1. Look for Your Missing Cash
There are millions of dollars sitting in state unclaimed property accounts. If you've ever moved, you may have left a deposit check behind. A bill may have been refunded. A tax return unclaimed.
Find out if you're owed some money by visiting MissingMoney.com – endorsed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.
You, or someone you care about, might be very happy you did!
2. Answer Some Surveys
Want a few extra bucks in your pocket? Rewards sites, especially those with paid surveys, offer the opportunity to earn a little cash in your downtime.
Swagbucks and MyPoints are the two stalwarts of the industry (and both owned by Prodege, with a A+ rating by the BBB). Both offer a $5 bonus for new signups.
Another good survey site is Ipsos i-Say USA, run by Ipsos. Ipsos is based out of Paris, France but does a lot of market research, you may have seen them mentioned during the Presidential election because they partner with Reuters to do a ton of surveys. They've been in business since 1975!
Here's our list of all the legit paid survey sites available.
3. Shop Through Cashback Sites
If you joined Swagbucks to do surveys, you can always use their shopping portal to earn points on the dollars you spend.
Otherwise, another popular site that you've probably heard of already is eBates. New users can get $10 when they join through our link and make $25 in qualifying purchases within 90 days. You'll also get the cashback from making those purchases, effectively double dipping with the bonus.
4. Slash Your Investment Fees
You can't predict what the stock market will do in the future (hopefully keep going up!) but you can check how much you're paying. High fees are the secret investment killer because they invisibly erode your investments. Sometimes they're unavoidable… sometimes you're simply overpaying.
Personal Capital is the tool I use to track my net worth but they have a free retirement fee analyzer that will tell you if you're overpaying.
Fees matter a lot!
If you have a 401(k), get a free analysis from Blooom and find out if you're getting the most out of it.
5. Get Paid Hundreds to Open a Bank Account
The days of toasters and t-shirts are long gone. Banks are now willing to pay hundreds of dollars for new accounts – a prime example is Chase.
If you open a Chase Total Checking Account & Savings Account you can get up to $350!
You can get $200 when you:
- Open a new Chase Total Checking account and
- Deposit at least $25 and
- Set up and receive a Direct Deposit with 60 days. The direct deposit needs to be an electronic deposit of your paycheck, pension or government benefits.
- If you close the account within 6 months of opening, they will take back the bonus money.
The Chase Total Checking account has $12 monthly service fee unless you do one of the following:
- Have a monthly direct deposit of $500 or more into the account, or,
- Keep a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or more in the checking account, or
- Keep an average daily balance of $5,000 or more in any combination of qualifying Chase checking, savings, and other balances.
Once you meet the requirements, the bonus will be deposited within 10 business days. The bonus will be reported as interest.
You can also earn another $150 with a Chase Savings Account:
- Open a new Chase Savings account and
- Deposit $10,000+ in new money within 20 business days and
- Maintain a $10,000 balance for 90 days.
- If you close the account within 6 months of opening, they will take back the bonus money.
The Chase Savings account has $5 monthly service fee unless you do one of the following:
- Keep a minimum daily balance of $300 or more, or,
- Have at least one repeating automatic transfer of $25+ from your Chase personal checking account, or,
- Have a linked Chase Premier Plus Checking, Chase Premier Platinum Checking, or Chase Private Client Checking account.
Once you meet the requirements, the bonus will be deposited within 10 business days. The bonus will be reported as interest.
Available in: AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MI, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, WI, WV.
Learn more about Chase Total Checking
Before you open any account, check online to find the best offers available.
6. Cancel Your Useless Subscriptions Automatically
A few years ago, I collected all the subscriptions I was paying for and realized I was wasting a ton of money on things I no longer cared about. $10 here, $15 there, it added up. I just didn't have the energy to call up each of these places and cancel – that's when I discovered Trim.
Trim is a free app that will cancel all this stuff for you. Absolutely free. (if you use Comcast, they even have a Comcast bill negotiator that will haggle with them for you!)
Just sign up, link up your accounts so it can find the subscriptions, then cancel the ones you don't want. So easy.
7. Check Your Credit Reports
One of the most important numbers in your adult life is your credit score. That's all based on your credit reports, which are held at three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion).
By law, they must give you a copy each year. You can use my Waterfall Method or just request all three at once through AnnualCreditReport.com.
Then, sign up for Credit Sesame (free) so that you can monitor your credit for free.
Fix any error you find immediately, no matter how trivial, because the fix can take a few weeks.
Don't wait until you need a loan to do this!