You can do a lot with a little. For many of us, that spare change in our wallets is a nuisance reserved only for parking meters, bus tickets and buying snacks. However, there are lots of better ways of putting your spare change to use. Here are just a few ideas.
Save it
You can sometimes save a lot of money just by collecting spare change. The most popular way to do this is to collect spare change in a jar and then wait until the jar is full – this money could then go be used for shopping or used to buy a meal out or could be put towards a holiday. Another option is to take all you change at the end of the month and deposit it into a bank account. This could be a savings account that you can collect interest off of – it could even be a savings account for your children to eventually use when they’re old enough.
Invest it
Another option is micro-investment. There are certain ways in which you can invest your spare change. The easiest way to do this is to save your money in an account then invest in from here. Micro-investment apps like Acorns offer an ingenious way of investing your spare change by rounding up every transaction you may to the nearest dollar and then deposit the leftover change into a special account – from this account the app then recommends different ways to invest your money. This could allow you to increase your funds if you happen to get lucky and invest in a rising share.
Gamble it
You could save up your spare change and use it to gamble with. This money could be used to buy tickets for the US Powerball online, bet on a horse race or buy scratch cards. You should only ever gamble with as much as you’re willing to lose – give that most of us don’t mind losing our spare change, this is the best money to gamble with.
Donate it
Your spare change could go to a charitable cause. Every month you can save it up and then donate it to a different charity of your choice. Alternatively, you could use to give to the homeless or find someone collecting coins on the street for a cause.
Throw it at your debts
If you’ve got debts that need paying off, you could use your spare change to help pay these off more quickly. best way to do this is to save it up in an account and then transfer the total amount each month to the creditor of whom you’re in debt to. Many lenders reward customers that pay more than the minimum debt payment each month by lowering interest rates. As a result you could end up paying much less in the long run.
