Everyone always wants to beat the stock market. Watch The Opening Bell on Fox Business sometime. Every day you’ll see 100 million penny stock investments that would have made you rich, if only you’d heard of them and invested $1,000. Same goes for crypto. If you’d bought some random alt coin on May 2nd and sold it June 23rd, you’d be up 10,00%.

Most of these opportunities are virtually impossible to capitalize on, and they often come with huge risk.

Because of this, today’s article looks at several realistic ways to beat the stock market (we’ll say 7% ROI or more), without having to dig through the Jamaica Stock Exchange or time GayCoin price arbitrage.

Pay Your Bills Early (If There’s A Discount)

It turns out, I’ve been enjoying 10% annual returns (and thus beat the stock market) every year by simply paying my bills early. You can often get a discount on things like rent or other recurring expenses if you pay them in advance.

You can also do this with bulk purchases (Wall Street Playboys has a whole article covering this). Buying soda or razor blades in bulk sounds boring, except it does save a lot of money. Personally, I buy flavored water in bulk from the grocery store and saves me $113.15 (plus time) each year when compared to buying at a convenience store.

Making a bulk purchase or paying bills early isn’t sexy or exciting, but the savings do add up. And, there’s very little effort involved. Buying an extra case of something or talking with your landlord takes 10 minutes (at most) but you can end up saving thousands of dollars within a single year.

Join Amazon Associates (Easiest Way To Beat The Stock Market)

Amazon Associates is Amazon’s affiliate program. Whenever you see an Amazon link online, there’s a good chance whoever posted it is using this referral system and earns a small commission (between 4 – 8% on whatever they sell). So if somebody clicks your referral link and orders a $10 eBook, you get $0.40. If they buy a $3,000 Howard Miller Grandfather Clock, you get $120.

Amazon Associates is a great way to supplement your income without having to do a whole lot. Especially if you’re using it with social media.

Once a month, I’ll tweet out what I’m currently reading (this month’s big book is Merchants of Grain). It’s fun to share interesting or obscure titles, and the extra couple bucks doesn’t hurt either. Additionally, this non-intrusive little 10 second activity adds up to a couple hundred dollars per year in extra income.

Not huge money by any means, but still equivalent to owning an extra $10,000 or so in dividend producing assets.

One Amazon Associates Tweet per month is like depositing $1,000 into a buy and hold forever index fund.

Look For Shareholder Perks

Many individual stocks actually offer special discounts and opportunities for their owners. Berkshire Hathaway is probably the most famous for this, giving you access to extra discounts on GEICO insurance.

Other companies also offer various perks and incentives. Starbucks and McDonald’s will sometimes attach vouchers for free food and beverages to their annual reports. And certain hotel chains provide discount bookings if you own enough stock. Churchill Downs Racetrack even gives shareholders two free season passes if you own 100 shares or more.

Buying stock solely for the benefits is never a good idea, but it is worth considering if you’re already interested in a particular business.

Learn About Tax Deductions

Earlier this year, rap trio Migos threw “The Stripper Bowl” where they spent $500,000 on exotic dancers. A lot of people were upset over this, and social media was full of very smart experts talking about how this was a terrible use of money. However, I’d bet $10,000 that this event actually cost the Migos nothing. And it may have even saved them some cash. Why? Because the money was probably billed as a business expense, and used as a tax write-off.

Whoever came up with the idea probably realized that they could save hundreds of thousands of dollars on their tax bill while also enjoying a classic stripper orgy.

Tax deductions are a topic you’ll want to talk with your accountant about, but everyone should have a sole proprietorship or small business. This is a fantastic way to legally enjoy write-offs on things you already do and enjoy. If you have an office job, you’re automatically in the highest tax bracket and there’s not a lot you can do about this. But when you have a small business, you can often deduct many of your expenses.

Buying a new laptop? It’s probably a business expense.

Working from a coffee shop? There’s some sort of deduction there.

You get the idea.

To give  a personal example, I took an international trip last week and looked at some investment properties. Guess what? Plane tickets, hotels, taxi fare, etc are all deductible. In the same vein, there are many business owners who have a nice car or boat that’s bought through their business and helps reduce their taxes.

You can use your LLC or sole proprietorship’s write-offs to beat the stock market in terms of savings or lifestyle improvements.

Again, talk with an accountant but it is something worth considering.

Use A Referral Link When Opening Your Brokerage Account

(Coinbase Referral Link Offer)

Look up referral offers before you open a bank account, or brokerage fund. These will often provide massive (10%+) returns if you just follow the basic sign-up instructions.

Certain banks offer $200 – $500 cash bonuses if you open a new account. Additionally, most stock and crypto platforms have specific bonuses that are exclusively available when you sign-up through another member’s referral link. Coinbase gives you $10 in free BitCoin when deposit $100. But, they only do this if you’re using someone else’s referral link (like this one).

Robinhood does the same thing, giving you one free stock (could be worth $1, or $100) when you join via referral link (such as this one).

Other programs (like Fidelity and TD Ameritrade) do this too. So if you’re going to start investing, take 5 minutes and look at what each referral program offers. Doing so gives you an amazing return on investment right from the start.

Final Thoughts

Common sense is never common. And it is amazing how many people look for some incredible return or “sure thing,” without noticing all the easy victories which surround them.

Many folks will spend hours arguing about BitCoin or reading some investment forum, but don’t bother spending 5 minutes asking if they can get a discount by paying three month’s rent early. Or, you have amateur investors who’ll shill out thousands of dollars for a FOREX trading course, yet they never realize that opening an Amazon Associates account will provide them with an infinitely better return on investment.

Even something as easy as opening a brokerage fund through the right referral link will instantly improve your annual results.

Realistically speaking, you can beat the stock market through basic strategy and thinking about where your existing money currently goes. And if you still want to take big risks or swing for the fences, use the money you’ve just saved. This way there’s zero downside.