How to Make Money While Growing Your Nest Egg with Acorns

Want to make money doing things you already do? And have that money automatically go into investments — without even thinking about it?

Set up an Acorns account, and you can make money with cash back from buying things you would anyway, and you can also set an amount to automatically go regularly into your investments.

To make money just by using the Acorns debit card, you just need to shop at Acorns’ partner businesses. (And even when you’re shopping at different businesses, you can put chunks of change away with “Round ups,” where Acorns will round up your total to the nearest dollar, and invest that extra amount in your account. A no-brainer!).

A good way to make money with Acorns partner businesses is to shop for things you were going to buy anyway, using your Acorns link to that store’s website.  You just need to navigate to the Acorns web site, and then click into the partner web site form there. Also make sure to use your acorns debit card as the payment method at checkout. 

Partner businesses include:

(I’ve put them in alphabetical order, below, for your convenience). 

1-800-Flowers 15%

Adidas, 4%

 Apple, 1.5%

Chevron, $.50 

Chewy, 5%

Expedia, 3.5%

Groupon, 2%

HelloFresh, $40

Hotels.com, 2%

Instacart, $2

Lowe’s , 1%

Lululemon, 2%

Macy’s, 1.5%

Nike, 3%

Old Navy, 2%

Petsmart, 2%

QVC, 4%

Sephora, 3%

Survey Junkie, $10

Ticketmaster, 1%

TurboTax, 8%

Walmart, 1%

What I suggest is to check out the list of all the Acorns partners. Then, if and when you need to make a purchase, you can check it out and be sure to buy via clicking a link from the list.

Above: Some of Acorns most popular shopping partners.

If you’re going to buy something with the Acorns partners, you need to first login to the Acorns site with your account, scroll down until you see the logos for the partner businesses, then click on the one you want to shop.

In my case, I bought cat litter and food, which is something I buy regularly anyway. Why not get some money back while doing so, especially if it will be invested?

Clicking on the round blue Chewy icon on the Acorns site, then, takes me to their web site. (You will need to create an account with each partner web site, if you haven’t already).  A “shop now” icon appears, and I click on that. 

Next, go to your settings on the site and put in your Acorns debit card as the payment method. Now your purchases will automatically earn you the credit.

For example, I spent $58.69  on the Chewy site, buying cat litter, wet cat food and dry cat treats, which I need anyway…and with the 2% back I earn $1.17 to my investment account.

Of course, the more you spend, the more you get back.  Let’s say you spend $200 at Macy’s on new clothes you needed. $200.00 worth of clothes will get you 3% back, or $6.00. It may not sound like a lot, but if you do this for all the purchases you make anyway, it adds up!

According to Acorns, customers have earned $20 million plus from these hundreds of brands.

In order to earn points from shopping on the with the partner brands, you just need to go to the Acorns site or app and tap the shop now button under earn, and the partner that you wish to shop with.

Note: Acorns charges a flat management fee of $3 - $5 per month, so if you put very little in, this may eat away at your account. But if you’re putting away even as little as $20 every couple weeks, this shouldn’t be an issue. 

If you want to take the plunge and start earning, I’d appreciate f you’d sign up with my affiliate link, below…you’ll get a free $5 investment:

Join me and you'll get a free $5 investment! As a perk of referring users, I can get a reward too. Learn more and see terms here. https://share.acorns.com/juliawgal?advocate.partner_share_id=1667679327053102767

 Now start earning!

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