Sharebuilder Bonus = Free Berkshire Hathaway Stock!
It’s been about 8 months since I parlayed my $50 Sharebuilder bonus into $42 of EEM (and $4 cash, oops), which is now worth a whopping $52.70! I figure there are probably a few new readers since then who may have missed out on the fun. Here’s the basic deal:
Sharebuilder has some decent sign-up bonuses if you make one trade. Costco members can get a $65-85 Bonus. Everyone else can still get a $50 Bonus + Book. The bland version of is this deal is to open your account, buy a stock for $1 + $4 commission, get the $50+ bonus, and take out $45. But that’s no fun! Why not join Warren Buffett instead?
This is basically the same deal I did last time, with only tiny tweaks. If you are a Costco member, replace the $50 with $65/$85 if you want.
1. Go to the ShareBuilder website and start the application.
2. Be sure to enter the correct promotional code.
3. Deposit $50 of your own money (to make the 1st trade).
4. Pick the Basic Plan with no monthly maintenance fees and $4 trade.
5. Buy $46 of BRKB.*
6. Wait the 4-6 weeks for the $50 bonus.
7. Withdraw the $50 bonus. Net cost: Nothing!**
8. Don’t touch the account or make any more trades for 20-30 years.
* In Sharebuilder, you should put down your purchase amount as $50. They will take out the $4 commisson from that, and buy $46 of your stock.
** Well, that’s not technically correct. You will need to report your $50 as taxable income. If you want it to be truly free you could buy a smaller amount, say $40.
Why not just take the $45 and run? You could, perfectly good idea. But this is free money, they don’t even run a credit check when you open the account. If you invest it now, with Sharebuilder’s lack of inactivity fees and free dividend reinvestment, you could let it grow instead. Why not buy something fun and withdraw $1,000 when you retire or something? It’s like planting a little stock seed.
Why BRKB? With BRKB, you get to walk around knowing you own a piece of Berkshire Hathaway, the famed company run by the virtual deity Warren Buffett. If it keeps outperforming the overall U.S. market like it has been, that itty bitty share could pay for that flight to the Caymans in your early retirement.
BRKB is a Class B share, and is worth 1/30th of a Class A share (BRKA), but has no voting rights. Still, now you can feel obligated to read those Buffett letters to shareholders everyone is always talking about.
Alternatively, you could buy any other stock you like, I would suggest picking something like an ETF that is diversified and likely to go up over the long run, like my EEM. Any single company is more of a bet, but hey, Apple (AAPL) or Google (GOOG) might be fun.
This ain’t going to to make you rich, but so far I’ve gotten a 15% return on my EEM in less than 8 months, so I’m on my way to a free vacation someday courtesy of Sharebuilder! I might even try to get another bonus, and see if I get away with it…
Find more in Deals & Offers | 3/24/06, 10:17pm | Trackback
March 25th, 2006 at 12:23 am
I did this deal when you first mentioned it a while back. I actually put in $100 as my first deposit (I like round numbers) and bought 6.21 shares of PBW (clean/alternative energy etf). When I received the $50 bonus, I bought 1.45 shares of EWW (Mexico Index). EWW paid a small dividend which I reinvested, I now have 1.47 shares.
Happy to say that today, the account is worth $183.75. That’s a 22% return on the ETFs or an 83% return on my actual investment. Thanks for the deal Jonathan!
March 25th, 2006 at 5:25 am
Is there a min. transaction required for the bonus? Also, anyone who has a costco membership and signed up, did you receive some kind of verification that indeed your membership is elegible?
$50 is mentioned, but I can do a transaction for less, and still get the bonus?
March 25th, 2006 at 9:24 am
You just have to make 1 trade. You could buy $1 of stock if you wanted.
Yes, you need to enter your Costco membership number for the Costco bonus. I’m pretty sure they check.
March 25th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Does Sharebuilder check your credit history? If it does, is it a hard pull or soft pull?
When you select Basic Plan, do you have to make commitment for the “Auomatic investment”, such as invest certain amount every single month, or if it is ok for one-time investment and no more investment and trade forever?
Thank you!
March 25th, 2006 at 11:56 am
No hard pull when I did it, no automatic investments required.
March 25th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
I already have an account with Sharebuilder. Does anyone know if I can I open a second account and take advantage of this $50 bonus offer?
March 25th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Thanks! Just signed up…
March 25th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Thanks for the tip! By the way, ShareBuilder now offers the Vanguard Emerging Markets Viper VWO (I know you said it wasn’t available when you got started last year). It has a lower expense ratio than EEM.
March 25th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
It seems that the 4$ transaction fee is only good for automatic investing, otherwise it is 15.95. So you only get the 4 dollar price if you have X number of dollars put in on a regular monthly schedule.
March 25th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
From their fee schedule - “Automatic investments are recurring or one-time purchases of stock”. So you can just set it to recur… never.
It does cost $15.95 to sell, but only $4 to buy. I’ve done it is all I can say.
March 26th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Once in a while Sharebuilder offers commission free trade specials. It’s usually one free real time trade. So read your emails from Sharebuilder.
March 28th, 2006 at 5:32 am
I’d like to take advantage of this, but I’m a total newb to online investing. Do you do the “Sharebuilder Plan” option?
Thanks.
March 28th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Thanks. Just signed up. I will probably go with something crazy like BH!
March 29th, 2006 at 12:28 am
Has anyone tried using their “tell a friend” feature in addition to the promo code for $50 + book? If you refer a friend using their form, you will receive 5 free trades and the new person will get $25.
I’m wondering if the new person can use the promo code and still receive the $25 as well?
March 29th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
BRKB trades for over 2K (class B shares)- ? can you elaborate on what you did? thanks!
March 29th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Laura - Sharebuilder allows the purchase of partial shares.
March 29th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Hi, Jonathan,
I followed your first Sharebuilder post and bought EEM. Now I have a question and hope you know the answer. How do I report tax? Sharebuilder.com will not issue tax forms because dividend is less than $10. Now do I need to report the dividend on Form 1040? Is dividend only thing I need to report? How to and can I claim foreign tax credit for it? It’s stupid for the tiny dividend of $.58, but you never mess with IRS, right?
Thanks,
March 29th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
Ha, good catch. I would have forgotten about it. I have .53 cents of dividend income (Dang! If it was less that 50 cents I could have rounded down to zero). Just round up to $1 and include it in the rest of your dividend income (all qualified dividends? not 100% sure), as if you got a 1099-DIV from Sharebuilder. I wouldn’t worry about foreign tax credit, it won’t hurt you if you just don’t claim it.
March 30th, 2006 at 8:18 am
I just signed up and bought $100 (actually $96) worth of EWA - the iShares MSCI Australia Index Fund. I’m very bullish on Australia because it has vast resources - stuff they can sell to India and China. Plus it has a stable government. When my $85 Costco bonus appears, I’ll pull it out and sit on EWA as long as I can stand it (5 years?)
April 2nd, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Just signed up for this. I came close to doing it the first time you posted but hesitated and missed the chance. I’m gonna do the same as Steve and fund with $100. Small enough I won’t miss it, but enough that it’s worth watching
April 4th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
Hey Jonathan,
When you were looking over the Sharebuilder site did you happen to see anywhere if I could open a second account under my wife’s name or is it just one promotional $50 per household? Did you open a second account for your wife?
Also, where do you put the $50 from them on your tax forms? Just add it into your income? Or do they send you a 1099?
Thanks
April 5th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Hi Jonathan- love the blog.. asked a few questions so far- how can you buy the BRKB for a partial amount and for the $4 commission? I did exactly- am costco member so i get the 85 i think.. anyway- basic plan (even see this on account summary)- but my options are to
1. buy symbol__ (no prob- fill in BRBK)
2. shares __?
3. order type- two choices: market 15.95 or limit for 19.95.
So basically I don;t see the partial shares option- but really biggie is the 4 commission- I don;t see it.. please help,
thanks, Laura
April 5th, 2006 at 8:16 pm
Not sure if you can get a 2nd bonus, but you can definitely open another account. The $50 did not show up on my 1099, it is up to you whether to report it.
Laura - Do not click on ‘buy real-time’. What you want to do it add it to your Sharebuilder plan, but make it a one-time investment. Easy way is to type in brk.b in the quote window, click on ‘buy’ button, and then ‘add to sharebuilder plan’. Hope that helped.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Thanks- that worked- not sure about that costco bonus til it hits..
thanks for the tip on the costco checks being a good deal (I even searched around after reading your summary)- I had til 3/31 as a costco exec member to get checks and I squeeked in before going back to regular costco member..
also- wow- switched my crappy Bank of america checking - a whopping .2% for earnings- for all balances. Ironically- for 5 days w/ presidential bank with our intro deposit of $5,000 we got $3.something, meanwhile one month at b of a we got $3.8 dollars at our then $40,000!!!! I wish I had read your blog sooner- keep up the good work!!
Thanks, Laura
April 6th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
I’m sure no one is reading this post anymore, but I called Sharebuilder today. They said since the accounts go by SS#, both spouses can open accounts with the FREEGUIDE50 code and get the $50 bonus.
Now I’ll have one with BRK B and one with VWO!!
May 22nd, 2006 at 11:14 pm
can someone explain how to buy $46 worth of stock. It asks for # of shares, but I don’t know the amount that $46 can buy.
July 13th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
Hi There! Great blog! I do the costco promotion everytime the passport booklet comes out. I upgraded a year ago to Executive membership and I swear it has paid for my membership easy. Plus Executive members also get a 2% rebate as well. I have opened a Sharebuilder acct. for each of my kids as well “custodial acct” My son eventually bought Atari for like $0.50 cents he bought $85 bucks worth. My daughter started with Mattel. I was told you can keep doing it every time they have a new offer approx. every 3 months. My kids are going to get new ones for their car funds next!
I love sharebuilder as well. I only have about $50 give or take every 6 weeks or so but it really adds up after a while. My two accounts are worth about $1000 now. It is actually fun for a stay at home mom like myself.
November 29th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
I just did a second go round with 3 new accounts (me, joint, custodial) to get the $90 Costco Cash Cards. Of course I now have 7 Sharebuilder accounts with a total of about $1000 in them (inlcuding gains and bonuses).
December 21st, 2006 at 8:11 am
I cant add BRKB in Sharebuilder. It cannot find that stock. How did you?
February 6th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Michael,
Can you explain how you set up to many accounts?
I’m married and have four children…can I get $ from account based on my wife and each one of my kids?
Felipe
February 6th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Should be able to do one for each of you, wife, and kids. It is all about distinct names and ownership within the time period (I think Sharebuilder restricts you to one new account every 60 days based on my personal attempts).
February 8th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Michael,
Sorry for me being confused.
Can I, today, sign up my wife and 4 kids individually and get the bonus?
Thanks.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Dear Hema…I added BRK B by looking through the most popular stocks on the sharebuilder site, I think it is near #36 or lower. I already do automatic investments so the page asked me if I wanted to add BRK B to my auto invests. If you can’t find this then try entering this exactly: BRK B (notice the “space” after the K) Hope this helps
October 26th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Hey, gr8 blog….really helpful info to stay on top….
I have a question regarding Sharebuilder. I am already account holder with Sharbuilder, but i can nt figure out how to buy a share. can you plz put little more detail…..
oh.. by the way ..did I mention I am a brand new ‘newbie’ in this game….any help will be appreciated..
thanks again
November 30th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
I heard once that Berkshire Hathaway owned Costco as one of it’s companies. Do you know if they still do?? Because I see where one can directly purchase stocks of Costco from Mellon Bank ( via the Costco website). So I figured that would be a good thing to do (that is, if BRK B still has Costco as one of its holdings) What do you think?? Thanks Kate
December 17th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
They are now offering a 1 month trial on the regular subscription plan so this makes the offer even better…
1. Sign up for free trial.
2. Please one time plan trade
3. Receive the account bonus.
4. Change from the standard to the basic plan (no monthly fee).
Cost of the trade: $0.00 because it was included in the standard plan which is now free during your first month if you sign up for it.