Earn between 11.7% and 73.17% on your economic stimulus check

It's May! The federal government announced that economic stimulus checks will start to go out this month. If you filed a tax return and aren't filthy rich, you will be getting one of these. The amount varies based on filing status and number of children, but for the single person it is $600 and that is the amount I will use to calculate the gains I am writing about. If you were entitled to a refund and had it direct deposited, this check will also be direct deposited to the same account as your refund. In most other cases the check will be mailed to the address you listed on your return.

Now, $600 isn't a lot. In fact, it's so insignificant that you should have no problem tying most of it up for awhile to earn some monstrous gains. The first step you should take is to find a referral to an ING savings account there are several links here and open up a savings account, link that account to whatever account your stimulus check was deposited in. ING is currently offering a sign-up bonus of $25 for opening an account with $250 or more (you MUST have the referral to get the bonus).*UPDATE* Here's a link to an E*Trade account that offers a $25 bonus for opening and funding their "Complete Savings" account. The minimum to open is $1 and no referral is needed. That's it, welcome to a 4.17% return on your money, and there's more!

Prosper, a peer lending site, is offering a $25 bonus for opening an account and lending $50 to a borrower (I think you can get a sign up bonus for being a borrower also). Simply link your prosper account to your new ING account to fund the loan. You'll also receive interest on the $50 that you loan. Prosper is currently boasting returns in excess of 8%, which I won't count in my return calculations as it isn't a given. After these two steps, you have earned $50 on your $600 a gain of 8.3%.

If you haven't got a paypal account go get one here. Link your paypal account to your new ING account, then go to worldwinner, create a new account, sign in, upgrade to a cash player, fund your account with $20 (paypal via your ING account). They'll instantly double your initial deposit. You can withdraw your cash back to your paypal account at any time and move it back to your ING account. Gain so far: $70 (11.7%)

Now, admittedly, this is quite a bit of work for $70, but it will all take less than an hour. An hour that you're probably on the clock for anyhow, and a guaranteed rate of return like that just can't be beat. A quick search can probably turn up a few more sign up bonuses. Here's one that won't cost you anything to sign up for and pays $25 (is due to expire May 15th, 2008, but has been extended before)



If you take advantage of all of these offers your gain will now be $95. If you are a frequent traveler to Hawaii - or even a not-so frequent traveler, but live in a Hawaiian Airlines gateway city on the mainland, here's a way to get a round-trip ticket to Hawaii and one inter-island ticket for $100. First go to Hawaiian Air and sign up for a frequent flier account. Then get and use the Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Airlines visa card and use it once for a bonus of 20,000 miles ($50 annual fee) do the same thing for the Bank of America Hawaiian Airlines visa for 20,000 more miles (another $50 annual fee). By following these steps, you have earned 40,000 miles on Hawaiian Airlines. Enough for one R/T from the mainland (35,000 miles) and one inter-island flight (5,000 miles) or enough for eight inter-island flights. These are both good deals for certain people. I just did a quick search, a flight from Las Vegas to Kona is ~450 each way. It's hard to quantify the value of frequent flier miles, but free frequent flier miles.com - an expert on miles and their value values them at 1.6 cents each, valuing these 40,000 miles at $640. I also recently priced a three-leg island hopping airfare at $204 or 15,000 miles, which would value these miles at $544 total dollars - so let's go with that - you get $544 dollars worth of something for $100 dollars (only $5 of it was your own money)...you could figure a gain here of $439 on your original $600 or 73.17%. Warren Buffet and George Soros are trembling with fear!