Don’t have $40 billion to invest in Twitter? Unless you’re Elon Musk, there’s just no way. But thinking that you must be among the super-wealthy to make investments that pay is simply untrue. Almost any amount of cash that you won’t need to keep a roof over your head and food on the table has potential. For the sake of illustrating this idea, though, let’s look at an arbitrary $1,000.00.

Here are five ways to put that money to work for you. Each is simple and easy to do and involves minimum to no risk. Let’s take a look.

1. Pay down your debt

You may be thinking, “That’s not an investment that pays!” You’d be thinking wrong. If you have debts you’re paying interest, often very high rates when it comes to credit card debt. The more debt you have, the bigger your monthly payments. Pay off the debts with the highest interest rates first, and you’ll find you’ll keep more of your money each month, which will allow you to make other investments such as those listed below.

2. Instead of paying interest, earn interest on others’ debt

No, you don’t have to be a bank to do this. It’s called peer-to-peer lending. One tool to use your $1,000.00 for earning interest is an online service called Lending Club. You can invest either automatically using the investment criteria you set or do it manually by browsing available opportunities and choosing any you like.

But as in any investment, make sure you choose notes that reflect your tolerance for risk.

3. Diversify your money

How do you diversify $1,000.00? It would seem hard to do unless you invest in Exchange Traded Funds (EFTs). With ETFs, it doesn't cost much to diversify your money and make sure you don't make a “single stock mistake.” But what is an EFT?

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of pooled investment security that operates much like a mutual fund. Typically, ETFs will track a particular index, sector, commodity, or asset, but unlike mutual funds, ETFs can be purchased or sold on a stock exchange the same way that a regular stock can. 

These are simple investments and an easy way to diversify, but as with all investments do your due diligence.

4. Invest in art 

Sounds expensive! But I recently read about a company called Masterworks that allows anybody to invest in multimillion-dollar works of art. You just sign up for a free account and put in what you can afford.

Why contemporary art? Prices for art have historically outpaced the S&P by 164% from 1995 – 2020. However, this type of investment should be considered long-term. But if the piece of art you’ve invested in sells, your share in the profits could be big.

5. Stop overpaying when shopping online

Imagine getting an alert when you’re shopping online at Amazon or Target and are about to overpay.

Just add it to your browser, and before you check out, it’ll check other websites, including Walmart, eBay, and others to see if your item is available for less somewhere else. Plus, you can get coupon codes, set up price-drop alerts and even see the item’s price history.