5 Ways To Invest Your Money
The internet has created a variety of new ways to invest your money. These investment opportunities can often be a fast, convenient and effortless way to make money. All you need is money to invest and internet access, to get involved in investing. Here are just five digital investment options you could consider.
Online savings accounts
If you’re looking for a no-risk way to invest your money, a savings account is always the best option. Unfortunately, many savings accounts have low interest rates compared to other forms of investment. However, you can often get higher interest rates by forgoing your high street bank and choosing an online savings account instead. Because these online banks don’t have the costs of owning/renting physical premises they have less overheads and can generally reward customers with more interest as a result. Use comparison sites such as Magnify Money to compare these online savers.
Peer-to-peer lending
Peer-to-peer lending is a means of giving out loans to other people online. The debtor then pays back the loan with interest, allowing you to make a return in the long run. Peer-to-peer lending is best done through a regulated peer-to-peer lending site – using such a platform can help to ensure that your get your money back. Many peer-to-peer lending sites such as Ratesetter allow you to choose who you lend to based on their cause and the amount of money they’re looking for. There are even crowdfunding options in which multiple lenders can contribute a loan to one person – a good option if you haven’t got much money to invest with.
With peer to peer lending you are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Borrowers defaulting on their loans is an obvious risk that investors need to assess. My advice when assessing whether or not to invest in peer to peer is to consider what amount of money you can realistically afford to lose.
Spread betting
Spread betting is an alternative to investing in the stock market. Instead of buying and selling stocks and shares yourself, spread betting allows you to place bets on whether these share and stocks will go up in value or go down in value. Sites such as CMC Markets offer more information on how this works. Spread betting is tax-efficient and you can invest lower amounts of money than you would buying stocks and shares.
Financial spread betting is popular as it offers a genuine opportunity to make a lot of money. However, with any kind of financial trading there are advantages and risks involved in financial spread betting. If you’re considering giving spread betting a go you need to exercise appropriate caution.
Domain names
It’s also possible to make money by investing in domain names. This involves buying a domain name cheap and selling it for a higher value. Some domain names have sold for thousands and even millions. In 2010, insurance.com sold for over $35 million making it the most expensive domain name. Buying domain names requires a certain level of speculation, although you can simply take your chances on a random domain name. You can buy domain names via sites such as Go Daddy.
The most common domain names that can be sold for a profit are usually one (or a combination) of the following:
- Generic names
- Geographical locations
- Business names
- Major events titles
Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies are currently one of the trendiest digital investments. These are digital currencies that can be traded much like foreign currencies (they were originally created to get around foreign currency transfer fees). Bitcoin is the most famous example, but there are plenty of other cryptocurrencies to choose from. This type of investment can be fairly volatile – the changing value of cryptocurrencies is very difficult to predict. However you can pretty much invest as little or as much as you want giving you control over how much you’re willing to win or lose. Sites like Blockgeeks can help to provide more information on this form of investment.
Like most investments, there are risks attached to investing in cryptocurrency. One major risk is hacking, as your investment is not protected, there is no way to retrieve your lost or stolen bitcoins. Another issue with cryptocurrency is that because it’s so new, the government is yet to put regulation in place. There’s no predicting where the cryptocurrency market could be in a few years’ time so this is one to avoid for the more cautious among you.
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Please do your research before investing your life savings into something you’re not 100% sure about! Your capital is at risk with almost every type of investment. If you want to increase your income (without investing) I’d recommend a side hustle to help you on your way!