6 Things You Should Do With Your Money, According to Experts

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It’s official. You’ve made it to stepping stone #1 on the path to financial freedom. Stocked with a cool $1000 in your checking account, you’re ready for your next play. So what will it be? Investing? Insurance? Shopping? Believe it or not, you might be ready for all those and more.

Here are 6 moves we recommend for leveling up your money game.

Get up to 5% cash back on socially-conscious merchants

Let’s get real, if you use a traditional debit card for purchases, you’re throwing money out the window. It’s time to get in the rewards game.

Our favorite is a debit card with the perks you’d expect from a high-end credit card. With the Aspiration card, your first $1,000 in purchases will net you a cool $100 cash reward.

You’ll also qualify for up to 3 to 5% cash back on socially-conscious purchases. Make that up to 10% cash back with a subscription to Aspiration Plus.

Subscribed to Blue Apron? More green, plus up to 1.00% variable APY on your savings account balance if you subscribe to Aspiration Plus and meet conditions.

Add in a 55,000+ network of fee-free ATMs and no minimum credit score, and the Aspiration card is truly the best of all worlds.

Enter your email address and set a password to get started and see how much you can save. And don’t worry. Your money is FDIC-insured up to $2.46 million per depositor by being swept to FDIC Member Institutions (visit fdic.gov and Aspiration’s Program Banks for more information), and your data is 256-bit encrypted. So yeah, it’s safe.

Invest in Tesla, Amazon, and Apple with as little as $5

Now that you’ve established a healthy 401(k), chances are you may want to dabble in the world of investing. Years ago, such experimentation may have required thousands of dollars.

But today, technology makes investing easier than ever before. Thanks to a company called Stash, you can now invest in familiar brands like Apple, Amazon, Disney, Tesla, and more with as little as $5.¹

Signing up takes a few minutes, and all investments are held by Apex Clearing Corporation, a third-party SEC-registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC. Apex Clearing is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). This means the investments in your account are protected up to $500,000 total (including $250,000 for claims for cash). Translation: you can trust them.²

(To note, SIPC coverage does not insure against the potential loss of market value. For details, please visit www.sipc.org.)

As if that weren’t good news enough, Money.com readers get a $5 bonus after depositing $5 or more into their personal portfolio.³ Just use our link to sign up.

Apply for up to $1.5 million for your family for as little as $10 per month

If your plans for providing for your family only involves decades of 401(k) growth, it's time for a wake-up call, none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. And unfortunately, accumulating $1.5 million with that idea is going to take some time.

What won’t take time? A term life insurance policy to establish a $1.5 million buffer. You may apply for a life insurance policy offered by Bestow in only minutes with no wait time for as little as $10 per month. Let Bestow help protect you with the funds your family may need in the event of your death (if approved).

A free quote takes just a few seconds and could save your family from unnecessary struggle. What do you have to lose by checking?

Scrap your pricey car insurance

Chances are, your current auto insurance company is charging you through the nose. And yet if you’re like most drivers, you haven’t bothered to mess with it in years.

The good news? A company called Gabi will do the hard work for you, showing you competitive rates and explaining how to get any money back from your current insurer.

Even more good news: Gabi's average user saves close to a thousand dollars — $961 to be exact.

See how much you could save on car insurance now.

Save even more when you shop online

Online shopping can be a real time-saver. And often, it can be a money-saver, too. But if you don’t know where to look for hard-to-find coupons, leaving the “promo code” box empty at checkout could be costing you.

Now, a free tool from Capital One is taking the toil out of online shopping with a browser extension that instantly finds and automatically applies available money-saving coupons.

Want more? It will tell you if a lower price is available somewhere else when you shop on Amazon or Target.

Download the Capital One Shopping extension today and start saving.

Make the pros pay off your credit cards (and save big)

Anyone with credit card debt understands the anxiety, fear, and dread associated with multiple mounting bills. What most don’t understand is that there is an alternative.

If you owe less than $50,000 or less on your credit cards, AmOne can match you with a low-interest personal loan to pay off your credit cards.

The result? A single monthly payment with APRs as low as 3.49%. Checking your rate is free. See how much you could save today.

Money.com is a paid Affiliate/partner of Stash. Investment advisory services offered by Stash Investments LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Investing involves risk. Holdings and performance are hypothetical.

¹ 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. All investments are subject to risk and may lose value. All product and company names are trademarks ™ or registered ® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

² For uninvested funds, your Stash account is enrolled in the APEX FDIC-insured Sweep Program. Deposits to the Sweep Program are covered by FDIC insurance up to $250,000 limit per customer at each FDIC-insured bank that participates in the Sweep Program. Once your cash is deposited with the participating banks under the Sweep Program, such cash will no longer be covered by SIPC. Learn about the FDIC Sweep Program.

³ Promotion is subject to Terms and Conditions. To be eligible to participate in this Promotion and receive the bonus, you must complete the following steps: (i) click through the link above, (ii) successfully open a Stash Invest Account (otherwise known as your personal portfolio) in good standing, (iii) link a funding account (e.g. an external bank account) to your new Stash Invest Account, AND (iv) initiate and complete a deposit of at least five dollars ($5.00) into your Stash Invest Account.