Anyone can visit the US Mint website and buy these coins. To prevent collectors from hoarding these coins, the US Mint puts a limit on how many coins one individual can buy. This means that the collectors cannot buy the quantity they need by themselves. They can either buy it from individuals who purchased the coins from the US Mint or they can buy it from a  broker such as PFS Buyer’s Club.

How the deal works

Before you make the coin purchase at the US Mint website, you can go to the PFS website to “opt-in”. By opting in, you are committing to sell your coins to PFS at a pre-determined price. Your profit is the difference between the price at which you buy the coins from the Mint and the price you sell them to PFS. In addition, you can get rewards points from your credit card. It takes about 10-20 minutes to buy the coin from the US Mint website and another 10 minutes to ship the coins to PFS once you receive the coins. You can make $100-$500 for 30 minutes of work. Not too bad.

PFS will send you an envelope to send your coins. PFS will pay for shipping + insurance. In case your coins get lost, you will get paid as long as you have proof that you shipped the item.

What is PFS Buyers Club? How does it make money?

PFS Buyers Club is a broker that has relationships with large coin buyers. PFS offers to buy the coins from you at a certain price and sells them to the collectors at a higher price. They make money on the spread between the price they buy and the price they sell.

One word of caution. If you opt-in to sell your coins to PFS, follow through on your commitment. Otherwise, you risk the chance of getting blacklisted at PFS, which will prevent you from selling coins to PFS in the future.

You can do better but involves risk

PFS is the safest option because they guarantee you a price even before you buy the coin from the US Mint. But PFS makes money by buying the coins from you and selling them to their members. So there is an opportunity for you to do better.

There are a number of other coin dealers that will buy coins.  Call them and check if you can get a better price. In most cases, these places will only buy the coin after you have them in your hands. In case the coin dealers don’t buy the coins for the price you paid, you may be looking at a loss. So there is risk involved here. But you also have the opportunity to make more than what PFS offers you.

Example

In May 2021, the US Mint announced the sale of two coins

Morgan 2021 Silver Dollar with CC Privy Mark – $85 per coin, 10 coins max per individual (investment – $850) + $4.95 shipping
Morgan 2021 Silver Dollar with O Privy Mark, $85 per coin, 10 coins max per individual (investment – $850) + $4.95 shipping

PFS had an offer to buy 10 coins for $1,000 – that’s a profit of $145.05 for each coin set or $290 for both coin sets. On top of that, I get 2% cash back on $1700 spend – that’s another $34. So I am looking at a potential $324 profit from this deal.

How to track deals

Even if you have no intention of selling your coins to PFS, sign up for their membership. It’s free and PFS will send you emails when a good coin deal pops up. The email will contain details on the date of the sale, the price at which Mint sells the coins, the price at which PFS will buy it from you, and your profit. In addition, the email will have detailed instructions on how to purchase the coins at the US Mint website.

PFS typically accepts a limited number of opt-in. So you need to sign up quickly if you are interested in selling to PFS.

Use the right credit card to earn rewards

Major credit cards code purchases from the US Mint differently. For example, American Express codes them as cash advances which will incur fees and will not earn you any rewards points. Similarly, all U.S. Bank and Elan credit cards do not earn reward points on US Mint purchases.

I use the Citi Double Cash Card, which gives me 2% cashback. In my experience, all Chase, Citi, Barclay, Capital One credit cards will give you reward points or miles.

Most of the apps on the internet that allow you to make passive income are from companies you have never heard of. But not in this case. Nielsen Computer And Mobile Panel is owned by a well-known company, The Nielsen Company.  Nielsen is known for Nielsen TV ratings and has a good reputation for handling people’s data with transparency.  In other words, Nielsen is a company you can trust, unlike many other internet-based companies.

How to passively make money with Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel

How does Nielsen Mobile Panel work?

You can download the mobile app for iOS or Android on your mobile device. There is also a browser add on available for desktops.  When you sign up, you have to provide your email address and answer a few demographic questions.  The app asks for names and birthdates of your family members to build a demographic profile of your household.  While sharing this data may be concerning, Nielsen never sells your personally identifiable data to third parties.

The entire sign up process takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Mobile users can earn up to $50 per year. Earning money with the Nielsen app is truly passive. You don’t have to do anything once you sign up.

The app is currently available in five countries – the United States, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. To sign up, you must be 18 years or older.

How do users get paid?

Users can start accumulating points once they install the app.  The reward points can be redeemed for gift cards at popular retailers like Amazon, Target,  and Starbucks. There is no option to redeem your rewards for cash. Nielsen also has monthly sweepstakes where users can earn $10,000 per month that is split among 400 winners

Points are added to your account monthly. Once you have 800 points ($5) in your account, you can redeem it for gift cards.

While there is no minimum usage requirement, you must use your phone (for phone calls, searching for things on the internet, etc.) to earn reward points. Nielsen can generate data it needs only when you use the phone.

How does Nielsen make money?

Nielsen tracks how people use their phones and tablets.  While it may sound bad, almost every app on your phone does this. Nielsen is transparent about the data it collects.

Nielsen collects consumer data and helps online companies understand trends in shopping habits. This allows online companies to tailor their offerings to what consumers are looking for.  Online companies pay Nielsen for this data and Nielsen pays you to collect that data.

Does it slow down the phone or train the battery?

I use an Android phone and was able to download and install the app without any problems.  I have not seen my phone slow down or battery drain faster than before. After I installed the app, I almost forgot about it for weeks. It just runs in the background and helps me make money passively.

What kind of data does Nielsen collect?

Nielsen is upfront about the data it collects.  The level of transparency you get with Nielsen is refreshing in this internet-age where companies think they can do whatever they want with your data. Nielsen even has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Data collected by Nielsen includes GPS, IP addresses, the websites you visit, information about your phone’s hardware and software, etc. You will need to fill out a survey when you sign up but again, all the data Nielsen collects is anonymized. You can read the FAQ section on Neilsen’s website to learn more.

It is important to know that once Nielsen gets your data from the app, it strips off all personally identifiable information.  So the data can never be tied back to you. It combines data collected from other people who use the app to understand consumer trends.

Does it matter how much you use your phone?

There is no usage requirement – you can use your phone as little or as much as you want. The app collects data in the background and we collect your rewards.

Bottom Line

Nielsen Computer And Mobile Panel is a truly passive way to earn up to $50 per year. Nielsen is a reputable company and is transparent about how it handles your data. Once you install the app, just use your phone as you normally would, and start collecting rewards. Rewards can be redeemed for gift cards at major retailers. There is no cash redemption option available.

Here are three quick ways to make passive income. The three apps listed below have decent passive income potential and are easy to use. Most importantly, they don’t sell your personal information like most companies. If you can refer friends, you can make even more money with these programs.

UpVoice – $75/yr + upto $100 in referrals

UpVoice is a Chrome browser extension that monitors ads shown on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, and Amazon. The ads shown to you are captured anonymously and you earn points when an ad is detected. If one ad is detected for the day, you have reached your goal. You don’t get credit for more than one ad per day. You can make up to $75 per year with just one ad per day. You can earn more by referring other people to UpVoice. Anyone who signs up with your referral code gets $5 and you get $5. The minimum payout is $10.

UpVoice works only on desktop computers and not on mobile. Since UpVoice detects ads, you must disable your ad blocker.  You get rewards in tokens – 60 tokens is $1. Sign up bonus is 300 tokens (or $5) and you can receive 10 tokens daily for visiting participating sites.

Honeygain – $50/month + 10% referral bonus

Most of us don’t use all the data we sign up for with our internet service provider (ISP).  Honeygain allows users to make money by sharing their internet connection (unused bandwidth). You will not notice any difference in your download speeds since Honeygain uses only the bandwidth you don’t use.

How much money you make depends on how many devices you enroll, the amount of traffic you share, your location, and your network speed. Honeygain has a calculator that allows you to approximately calculate your monthly earnings. With 3 devices, you could make around $50 per month. You can enroll up to 10 devices

So how does Honeygain make money?  It sells your unused bandwidth to large companies and market research firms that need cheap internet bandwidth for their operations.

You can make $20 per year from one device. Honeygain allows you to connect two devices from one IP and unlimited devices per account.

Honeygain offers a $5 signing bonus.  Honeygain also has a referral program that allows you to refer others with a personalized link or code. You get 10% of the earnings of the people you refer.

PacketStream – $20/yr per device + 20% referral bonus

PacketStream, just like Honeygain allows you to make money by sharing your unused bandwidth. It also pays the same as Honeygain- $0.10 per GB (or $1 for every 10 GB) but where Packetstream stands out is that it’s referral payout is 20% (against 10% for Honeygrain).

PacketStream allows others to use your IP  for VPN, watching Netflix in another country, etc.  Keep this mind if you sign up for Packstream. You can read more about it here.

Things to Watch Out For

Privacy Policies

Take a few minutes to read the app’s privacy and security policy. Ensure that your personal data is not collected and sold to third parties.  The three apps listed above anonymize and aggregate the data. Your personal data is not shared in any way. Also, Ensure that the apps do not access your storage or camera.

Understand how the apps make money

These apps make money by sharing bandwidth or monitoring ads. They add new monetizing methods often. Understanding how they are making money is key to ensuring that your bandwidth is not used for any unintended purpose.

Here are a few ways in which a side hustle will benefit you.

1. Gets your creative juices flowing

At work, you may be limited to the kind of projects and activities you can pursue. But when you have a side hustle, you can let your creative juices flow. You will look forward to coming home and working on your projects.

Unlike at work, there is no pressure when you work on your own projects. Most people produce their best work when no bosses are looking over them and there are no deadlines to meet.

2. Expands your skillset

Whether your side hustle is related to what you do at work or it is completely different, it has the potential to expand your skillset and make you more valuable.

If your side hustle is related to what you do at work, the mere act of repeating and refining your skill will make you more productive at work and more valuable.

If your side hustle has nothing to do with what you do at work, then you are learning new skills that will be valuable in the future.

3. Expands your network

When you run a side hustle, you will run into new people that you will not meet at your normal office job.  They may be potential customers, partners, and people who share a similar passion.  Having a good network will help you get your next job or find your next customer for your side hustle.

4. Income security

Not all side hustles generate income right away.  But when they do, you can use the extra money to build an emergency fund, reduce credit card or to invest.  The extra money will allow you to take vacations that would otherwise hurt your finances.

The extra income will allow you to reach your financial goals quicker.  Having multiple sources of income diversifies your income. It reduces stress when the economy goes sour or if your job is at risk.

5. Uses your time wisely

Instead of spending your time on social media, you are using your time to build skills and follow your passion.  Research shows that checking social media updates every few minutes makes you unhappy.

We are happiest when we do what we love.  Having a hustle you enjoy will make you happy.

6. Gives you options in an evolving job market

The job market is constantly evolving.  Job security is not what it used to be as employers are quick to layoff employees if their business deteriorates even slightly.  Many companies prefer hiring freelancers and consultants rather than full-time employees.

Having a side hustle in a changing job market gives you options. If your side hustle picks up, you can work as a freelancer and have a more flexible schedule compared to having a 9 to 5 job.

7. Avoids having regrets later in life

Many people, especially late in their career, regret that they didn’t start a side business when they were young. Don’t be one of them.

Start something, even if it is small.  Over time, the side hustle will grow beyond your expectations. You won’t know if your side hustle will work if you don’t get started.