I have an Internet investment that I want to tell you about. It is a guaranteed winner. A guaranteed winner? Yup, and it is one of the safest investments you’ll ever make. You might be skeptical. Internet stocks are risky. Some analysts are talking about a Web 2.0 bubble. Shares of LinkedIn, the social networking site, doubled on their debut. And Yandex, Russia’s version of Google, came public at a price-to-earnings ratio over 75X—that’s not cheap. If you invested in Internet stocks in the late 1990s, this may all sound eerily familiar to you. You wouldn’t dare make an Internet investment today. Not after losing 90% the last time you invested in this sector. But what if I told you your return on this investment is entirely up to you. There is no relying on the whims of the stock market. Sound too good to be true? It’s not.
The best part about this investment is that it will cost you less than a hundred bucks. I’ve already invested money in this opportunity, and I’ve advised my friends and family to do the same. We’ve even made this investment at Young Research.
OK, enough of the suspense. What is the investment, and how do you buy it? It’s an Amazon Prime membership. I know—probably not what you were thinking, but hear me out. An Amazon Prime membership offers compelling value. It can save you loads of money on shipping and tons of headache. And no, we are not getting paid to push Amazon Prime.
If you aren’t familiar with Amazon Prime, it is a membership program that entitles you to free two-day shipping and $3.99 one-day shipping on most products sold on amazon.com. Amazon also recently added unlimited streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows through Amazon Instant Video for free. The more you order from amazon.com, the more you save in shipping and sales tax, so you decide the return on your $79 investment.
What is even more appealing—to me, at least—is Amazon’s new Subscribe & Save option. If you have a membership at Costco, Sams, or BJ’s, Subscribe & Save is right up your alley. The warehouse clubs are super for stocking up on household goods, but these stores can get busy, and loading and unloading big boxes of detergent and paper towels can be a hassle. And if you have little ones, you know how fun trips to the store can be!
With Subscribe & Save, you cut out, or at least cut down, on your warehouse club visits. Amazon lets you subscribe to many everyday household consumables and even some food items. All Subscribe & Save products are sold at a 15% discount on Amazon’s regular prices, and they are shipped for free. Your items are delivered to your doorstep at regular intervals that you can pick. I haven’t done a price comparison between my warehouse club and Amazon, but the prices I’m paying appear competitive. And even if Amazon’s prices were higher, the time and hassle I save with Subscribe & Save make Amazon the hands-down winner.
How do you get started with Subscribe & Save? It’s a cinch. Log in to your Amazon account and search for an item you want to buy. Let’s say you want to buy some paper towels. Type “paper towels” in the search box on the Amazon website. A list of the different brands of paper towels comes up. The first item on the results page, Bounty Huge Role Select-A-Size, is eligible for Subscribe & Save. Click the item, and on the right-hand side of the page that loads you’ll see a little blue box with ordering options. Pick the quantity you want to order and the frequency of delivery. You can get monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, or semiannual delivery. Then just add the item to your cart and check out.
No more fighting crowds, dragging the kids around the store, or loading and unloading bulky boxes. Amazon will deliver your paper towels right to your doorstep. Could there be a better investment?
Jeremy Jones, CFA
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