Hi friends! For today’s Friday Favorite, I’m sharing a new, easy-to-use investment tool that Will and I came across recently. For me, investing money has always been one of those topics that seems too complicated and time-consuming to figure out. But now, the investing tool we found is doing the thinking for me. It is too awesome not to share it with you all! It is Acorns, an app that allows you to invest spare change with ease.
Will and I learned about Acorns at a high school reunion, while we chatted with friends about the major expense of education for children. Our friends mentioned they were investing a certain amount of money into Acorns accounts to save for the cost of school for their two kids. They had calculated how much they needed to save based on the average growth of their investment and setup automatic payments into the app. Intruiged, Will and I looked at the app when we got home and decided to give it a go.
How to Invest Spare Change
Acorns provides a simplified, convenient platform that automatically invests spare change by rounding up your transaction to the next dollar. So, the change you would get from a cash transaction goes straight into your Acorns investment account. You can connect Acorns to one or more checking or credit card accounts. Similar to the couple we talked to, you can also setup recurring monthly payments into your Acorns account. The beauty is that you invest spare change that grows with the stock market.
I also love that this platform works automatically once your account is activated. For example, when I bought groceries for $32.43 last week, $0.57 was added to my Round-Up balance, and I did not have to do anything (hooray!). Once the Round-Up balance reaches $5, money is withdrawn from my bank account and added to my Acorns investment. In addition, you can customize which transactions you want to include in your Round-Up amount or make it automatically calculate all eligible transactions.
To really get your money growing quickly, Acorns users can boost the Round-Up amount by as much as 10 times. So that 57 cents from my grocery store purchase, could be increased to as much as $5.70 with Acorns boost options. The recurring deposit our friends set up can also be customized for a daily, weekly or monthly schedule.
Setting up Acorns
Will set up his own Acorns profile first, and then helped me with mine. Once you download and open the app, Acorns takes you through the steps to open a round-up account, connect your checking account, and create an investment account. You choose from a selection of five different reasons for investing:
- Long-term investment,
- Short-term investment,
- Major purchase,
- Children, or
- General.
With the future in mind, we created accounts as long-term investment vehicles. After your bank account connects to Acorns, you answer questions about your age, income, investment goals, etc. The answers are used to tailor your Acorns investment portfolio from a conservative to an aggressive investment strategy.
Once set up is complete and a bank account is connected, Acorns withdraws an initial deposit for your new investment stream. Below, you can see my Acorns account is currently set up with a monthly $5 recurring payment. I also connected two accounts to Acorns, so I get round-ups on top of my $5. As seen in the chart below, Acorns shows how your money can grow over time. It is pretty enticing to invest more money, right!?
Acorns Fees and Extra Perks
Many investment tools come with hidden costs or fees. For Acorns, there is no deposit or account minimum to get started, no commission fees and no penalties when withdrawing funds. Users pay $1 per month for your first $5,000, or 0.25% annually for accounts greater than $5,000.
If you are a college student, Acorns is completely free. There are no fees on accounts of any size for college students. You must have a valid .edu email address and employment status as a “Student” for up to four years from the date of registration.
I have used Acorns for about a month and have found the platform easy to use. There are a lot of cool features too, like the investment growth program, seen in the projected value chart above. This forecasts how much your money will grow based on your contributions. Also, Acorns has some amazing partners that you can shop with and receive bonus investment contributions, like Nordstrom, Comfort Inn and Apple, pictured below.
If you haven’t invested your money or find the process daunting. like me, I reccomend trying this platform out. If you want your money to grow, an investment option like this may be a better option for you than a standard savings account. It is awesome how much your money grows when it is properly invested.
If you want to give Acorns a try, click here to start investing and you will get $5!
Now I need to know. Do you use Acorns or a similar tool to invest spare change? Do you find investing money daunting like me? Or, are you a total whiz with money? If you have any advice or thoughts when it comes to saving and investing, please share.
Cheers!
Sarah Camille
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Thanks for making me aware of this! This is a no brainer for those who want to be smart with their money. Will sign up right away!
So true! I hope you find it helpful 😊
This is such a cool idea! It’s crazy how quickly money can add up. We started keeping all our change in a jar and it surprised me how much we had within a few months!
http://www.therookiewife.com
This app sounds so cool. Every penny counts. Thanks for sharing.
Great post! I never thought about investing money but this sounds really interesting. I might give this a try, thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks Becky! It really makes investing easy since they deal with putting your money in stocks and growing it 😊
This is awesome! I’ve never heard of this app, but every word in this post has me SO intrigued! Will definitely be checking it out! Thanks so much!
That’s so nice to hear!! I hope you find it as useful as I did.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about this, and I really want to try to up my financial wellness in the new year. Thanks for sharing this info! Saving this!
My uncle used to save all of his spare change in one of those big water jugs … this is so much easier! LOL
This is awesome! I am definitely going to look into the Acorns app. I know so many people who would benefit from this opportunity to save money. Yay!
this is super neat! i’m going to have to get into it!
Finances are something I want to learn more about. A little beyond the basics of day to day life.
Acorns would be good for students in college. If one is in graduate school, does Acorn also give this account for free? If so, I may look into it for a family member of mine.
Acorns is something we’re missing right now… We think that this post is very helpful for everyone and especially for us considering our purpose of long-term investments.
Inspired by your post 🙂
Acorn is a great tool for automatic savings, which can add up so quickly. Thanks for this post — it’s a great topic.
I am all about adding to my savings! Awesome post filled with great tips. : )
I absolutely love this! I didn’t even know it existed, but it would be the best way for me to set some money aside
had heard about it but you have provided good info.. thanks..
I’ve tried Acorns! Totally painless way to save and a great way to get momentum going with personal finances.
I am crazy excited to hear about this!! Thanks for taking the time to spread the word!