Tastyworks 100 free stock shares bonus; I did this and got stock worth over $300

This is the kind of deal that I would never post unless I did it myself.  

Tastyworks is the name of a relatively new online discount brokerage platform that will give you 100 shares of a select stock (valued between $1 and $6 per share, which means a total value of $100 to $600 bonus) if you open an account with them and deposit $2,000 and keep it there for 3 months. After 3 months, you can withdraw your $2,000, take your 100 shares and sell them, keep them, transfer them, close the account, whatever. 

You will receive the 100 shares bonus a week after you fund the account, but remember that even after you receive your bonus, you must keep your $2,000, plus the value of the bonus shares in the account for at least 3 months, or they rescind the bonus.  Here's an excerpt from their terms:

"The funds deposited to Qualified Customer’s account, plus the initial value of the Stock received (less any losses on the Stock) are required to remain in Qualified Customer’s account for a minimum of three months starting the day shares deposited into account, subject to extension from date of entry, before withdrawal in order for Qualified Customer to receive the value of the Stock (“Three Month Period.”) The value of stock Qualified Customer receives will be credited to their account upon deposit, but will be debited out of Qualified Customer’s account if the Three Month Period requirement is not met, and will not count toward Qualified Customer’s buying power until the end of the Three Month Period. Qualified Customers can sell their Stock once deposited into their account, but the proceeds will be subject to the foregoing Three Month Period requirement."

I completed this promotion and I did receive 100 shares of WTRH, which is worth $336 as of today. That's a 16.8% return on my $2,000 investment over 3 months.  Not bad, eh?  After 3 months, I withdrew my $2,000, but I did keep the account open, because I kind of like the company and the platform.  Please do read their terms and do your own due diligence when redeeming this promotion. 

This is my referral link, and thank you for using it. 

Stockpile promotions: get $20 worth of stock for $10 via Groupon and send a completely free $5.00 worth of stock to any young adult you know

When I was 20 years old, I graduated from college, landed a job in a New York media-buying agency, and knew exactly nothing about money and investing.  Less than nothing.  Fortunately, I had a boss at work who mentored me, and he taught me how the stock market worked, what a P/E ratio meant, and how important it was to invest (and a million other pieces of financial wisdom). For that I am eternally grateful.  The world of investing can be incredibly intimidating to young adults, and it's important to learn investment skills early on, because, as cliched as it sounds, it is never too early to start saving and growing your money.

Enter Stockpile.  Stockpile is a site (and an app) that allows you to buy fractional shares of stock and also allows you to easily gift stock (or fractional shares of stocks) to family and friends with "stock gift cards," starting at only $5.00.  Yes, $5.00.

So you can actually gift $5.00 worth of a share of Google to your 21-year old niece, allowing her to dip a toe into the pool of smart investing and wealth-building.  You can gift $20.00 worth of a share of Amazon to your grandson. Etc.  This is a fantastic way to introduce young adults to finance and the stock market.  They can continue investing with small amounts, if they so choose, and Stockpile members pay only 99 cents per trade.  I love the idea of getting young people involved in investing early on, as well as being able to invest with small amounts of money.

Here are two fantastic Stockpile promotions that are currently live:

1. Groupon has got a $20.00 Stockpile voucher for $10.00.  That means you can own or gift $20.00 worth of a stock for only $10.00. (To me, this was a no-brainer and I bought it right away.  You can make an easy profit on this almost immediately.)  You need to redeem the voucher on the Stockpile website by opening an account.  You can keep the $20.00 worth of stock or gift it to someone.  


2. Stockpile will send FREE $5.00 stock giftcards to "any kid, teen, and young adult you know."  All you need to do is enter their names and email addresses here. The recipient has until 1/31/18 to open a Stockpile account and redeem the gift card for a $5.00 fraction of a share of either Google, Apple, Tesla, Facebook, or Disney.  Stockpile's terms:   Limit one gift redemption per customer. Recipients must be US residents who do not have a Stockpile account. Each $5 gift will convert into fractional shares of stock when the gift is redeemed into a Stockpile trading account (e.g., a $5 gift converts into 0.1 shares for a stock trading at $50). Free gifts must be redeemed for stock by January 31, 2018. Securities transactions executed by Stockpile Investments, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Stockpile reserves the right to modify or suspend this offer at any time to prevent abuse or fraud or for any other reason. 

FYI, if you would like to gift stock or a fractional share of a stock to a minor, that minor can have a custodial account at Stockpile, which basically means it would be managed by an adult and then when the minor comes of age, he/she would take ownership and control of the account.  This is great way to start investing in your kids' ( or grandkids', nieces', nephews', etc.) future!

Open a RobinHood account, get a FREE share of stock!

And now for something a little different.

RobinHood is a smartphone app-based brokerage company with two amazing features:  $0.00 trades and no minimum balance requirements. They've been open for about 3 years and are members of FINRA and SIPC.  As of 2017, they have over a million users and they have processed $30 billion in trades, all of which made me trust them enough to open an account with them.  I like inexpensive and safe online brokerages, and you can't get less expensive than zero per trade.

They have a fantastic new offer.  When you are referred to RobinHood by a current customer and open an account, you will get one free share of stock. The person referring you will also get a free share, so thank you for allowing me to refer you!  After you become a RobinHood customer, you can refer your family and friends.

Now, what that share of free stock will be worth is anyone's guess...it could be a share of Facebook (currently around $170), Apple (currently around $152), Microsoft (currently around $75), or (more likely) a share of an under-$10 stock, but you know what, in any case, it's FREE! According to RobinHood, you have a 98% chance of receiving a free stock worth $10 or less and 2% chance of receiving a stock worth more than $10.   When I opened my (referred) account, I got a free share of CHK (Chesapeake Energy) worth $4.20, and when I referred my husband, he got a free share of GRPN (Groupon) worth $4.56.

You can sell your free share after 2 trading days, and you can withdraw the entire amount and close the account after 30 days, if you so choose.  I'm keeping mine open because I'm going to be using it for a while (I love free trades). For the last 20 years, I've been primarily using eTrade for my portfolio and pay $5.00 per trade, so I'm definitely going to try out RobinHood and keep the account open, at least for a while.

This offer is kind of a no-brainer...you've got nothing to lose by joining and a FREE share of stock to gain.

Because RobinHood is a regulated brokerage firm, they need to abide by the rules verifying your identity, they do have to collect some personal information from you, including your social security number, fyi.  Among other reasons, that prevents people from setting up phony accounts.

There is no minimum amount to initially fund an account; I opened both mine and my husband's account with just $10.  Currently there are no fees for maintaining or closing an account. If you close your account, you'll need to liquidate and transfer any assets in the account to another bank account or brokerage account, and then once your account balance is zero, you can request a closure.