All About Interest

One man's journey to financial independence.

Robinhood Review – How to Receive a Free Share of Stock and Free Trades

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So E*trade decided to buy out Capital One Sharebuilder, the consolidation will happen towards the end of the year.  I’ve been looking at adding a new broker for a while.

A friend of mine opened up a Robinhood account, I planned to check them out but honestly it didn’t catch my attention until they recently started offering a free share of stock.

FREE TRADES

The draw to Robinhood is FREE trades.  Yes, that’s right.  There’s no commission.  They earn their money from interest on cash balances.

FREE STOCK

Yes, you get a FREE share of stock just for signing up!  I’ve confirmed you don’t even have to transfer over any money, you only have to link an account.  In fact you COULD sell the free stock and withdraw the money and close out your account if you want to.  However, with FREE trades, I don’t think anyone would do that.

So I opened an account with his link, super simple.  It’s very basic and easy to use.  I transferred over $500, which was available for investment immediately.  This wasn’t necessary for the free reward but I plan to use my account.  Two days later I was awarded a free share of stock.

This is directly from their site:

How does it work?

We’ll add 1 share of free stock to your account when your brokerage application is approved. You’ll be able to keep the stock or sell it after 2 trading days.

How does Robinhood choose which stock I get?

The shares of free stock are chosen randomly from our inventory of settled shares. Because the shares are chosen randomly, you may not receive the same stock as others.

The value of the share you receive may be anywhere between $2.50 and $200, and fluctuates based on market movements. We choose companies based on the price of each share, from the most popular and highest total value (market capitalization) companies on Robinhood.

To me this is a no-brainer.  FREE trades and a FREE stock.  I signed up and got a free share of CHK.  Yes, it wasn’t MSFT or APPL but maybe you are luckier than I am. Can you sell the share after 2 days if you don’t want the stock, it’s a FREE trade of course.

OBTAIN YOUR FREE STOCK

Step 1: Follow my referral link and sign up, it took me about 1 minute:  Robinhood Link for Free Stock

Step 2: It takes up to 48 hours for you to receive a free stock, you will get a notification to a link that looks like this:

You get to pick one of the boxes and scratch it off to reveal your stock.

That’s it!  I’d love to hear what other people have received.

I plan to use my account to buy a share or two of Apple , MSFT or another tech company each month since my portfolio weight is very low in technology.

 

THE GOOD

1.) Your money is protected like a normal brokerage account.

Investment accounts with Robinhood are covered by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which is a nonprofit membership corporation that protects money invested in a brokerage that files for bankruptcy or encounters other financial difficulties. SIPC was created by Congress in 1970 under the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA), and its focus is extremely narrow. It has no authority to investigate or regulate its members – it exists only to restore investor funds (up to $500,000 for securities and cash or $250,000 for cash only per account) held by financially troubled brokerages. All Robinhood accounts are protected under the SIPC.

2.) Free trades, that’s right it’s unlimited free trades

3.) The current promotion gives you a free stock valued from $2.50-$200.

4.) Simple to link bank account

5.) Transferred money is available instantly for investment

6.) No minimums to get started

7.) Refer a friend and you both get a free share!

THE BAD

There’s not much research tools available (this is ok for me as I have other brokerages I can use for this)

 

I’m curious if anyone has used Robinhood yet?

If not you should signup: Robinhood Link for Free Stock

 

 

Review of the Intermatic ST01: The Best Low Watt LED Timer on the Market

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Intermatic ST01 7 Day Programmable In Wall Digital Timer Switch for Lights and Appliances, Astronomic, Self Adjusting, Heavy Duty

 

You may have seen my previous post: DIY: How to Install a 3-way programmable light timer.   One commenter was asking about a low wattage solution and I’ve been meaning to post an update on my new timers I’m using with LED light bulbs.  The install is essentially the same as the above link.

I purchased 4 of these Intermatic timers in December of 2015.  They have all been working flawlessly with LED bulbs and the install was super easy.

Key Features:

 

  • Set it once – follows daily changes for sunrise/sunset times
  • Single-pole or 3-way applications up to 100 feet
  • Controls all lighting and heavy-duty loads like fans and appliances
  • Up to 40 on/off settings per week
  • Incandescent/fluorescent/LED/CFL-compatible

I had a problem with the Honeywell timer working flawlessly with LED’s.  It needed a specific minimum load.  This timer works perfectly with one low-watt LED bulb. Mine are currently used for outside lights with candelabra type LED bulbs.

I’m currently using these FEIT bulbs exclusively with these timers with no issues:

Feit LED 4.9 Watt LED Candelabra Light Bulbs 3-Pack (911482)

Motif Investing Review

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If you’re like me then you like free money.  Seriously, who doesn’t like free money!  So when I heard Motif was offering $150 to open an account, that got my attention.  I tend to shy away from Mutual funds or ETF’s because of management fees.  The great thing about Motif is that you can buy up to 30 individual stocks at once for just $9.95!  Yes, 30 individual stocks.  You are creating your own ETF without the fees.

Let’s back up a minute.  Here’s a quick overview of Motif in a Youtube Video:

What is Motif Investing?

Motif is a discount brokerage company that lets you invest based on themes.  You can build your own or use an already made motif – that is a basket of stocks.  You can have up to 30 individual stocks or ETF’s in each Motif.

Explore Motifs

There’s a lot of motifs already created with many themes.  Once you log in and select Explore Motif’s, you are presented with several options.   If you don’t like any existing, then you can create your own completely custom motif.  There’s a Motif for almost anything you can think of.  Would you like to invest in Chinese Solar or a hot Rental Market, there’s one for that!  For this example I’ve selected Dividends under the heading, Investing Classics.

Motif_Dividends

Once you pick a theme, you can choose different motifs.  I clicked on a new one called Growing Dividends.

Customize Your Motif

motif_growing_dividends

What’s really cool is that I can add/delete any individual stock that I want and I can also move any of these sliders to pick a different weight.  Once you are done customizing, you can purchase your motif.

Another cool feature is that you can join the Creator Royalty Program and select the option to add your motifs to the program.  When another investors purchases your motif then you are eligible for compensation based on a royalty system.

The Pros

Pricing – You can purchase 30 stocks at once for only $9.95.  Most brokerages charge at least $5 for each individual stock.

Customization – if you don’t like a stock in a particular motif, you can switch it out with a different one.  You can also change the weight of that particular position with ease or create your own custom motif.

Investing Social Network – You can interact and see comments or feedback from other people buying these motif’s.  You can invite friends from Facebook or meet other people with like investing ideas.

Multiple Account Options – You can create an individual, joint, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA or Trust Account for estate planning.

 

The Cons

Research – Motif is a discount firm and doesn’t have a lot of research tools.

Minimum Purchase – You must make a minimum purchase of $250

Motif Investing $150 Signup Bonus – The Fine Print

Motif_150_bonus

This Motif Investing offer is available for new brokerage accounts that get funded with $2,000. You must deposit the funds within 10 days after opening your account.  The funds must remain in the account 45 days after. The total bonus is based upon the amount of motif trades made within 45 days. The payout levels are as follows:

  • 1 motif trade will receive $50
  • 2 motif trades will receive $75
  • 5 motif trades will receive $150

This offer isn’t valid for retirement accounts such as IRAs. Currently Motif Investing does not have an expiration date for this offer.

If you’re interested in signing up, please follow the banner at the top or bottom of the page.  I wouldn’t be promoting this product if it wasn’t something I wasn’t going to use.  I’ll be sure and share my first purchase once my account has been fully funded.  Is anyone else already using Motif?