From another thread I brought up the Acorns app.


*What is it?

Its a micro investing platform thats funded using money rounded up from card transactions. Every time you use your card whatever is left over be it 99cents or .01 cent is sent to your Acorns account automatically.

If your total from a transaction is $1.09 then .91 is sent to your Acorns account
If your total from a transaction is $1.99 then .01 is sent to your Acorns account.

I also just learned that if you have other invest accounts linked to the main account thats feeding Acorns then anytime money goes from the main account to the investment account a single dollar goes to your Acorns account.

*So, what? This is is like Keep the Change thingy from Bank of America or Wells fargo?

Kinda. The big difference is that the money is placed in the markets across a mix of stocks and bonds. (large+small company stocks, emerging markets, real estate stocks, gov bonds, corporate bonds, international stocks). Rather than have money sitting in a savings account earning a percent of a percent in interest the money is used to earn and grow.


*Can I get under the hood and select individual stocks, funds, etfs, etc?

Not really. You just have to set your risk level. The levels are, Conservative, Moderately Conservative, Moderate, Moderately Aggressive and Aggressive.


*Anything else?

Kinda, I also have it set to drop in 20 bucks each Monday.


*Does it work?

Absolutely, I've been using it in the background since January and I'm just under 1k. Thats $1000 gained doing nothing but setting it up and going on about my life.

I personally believe in "bucketing", thats having your money parked in several places while also earning money in several places. This is the dumbest most easy things to do. It's like giving your future self a gift off GP.


*What else you using?

Betterment, Robinhood plus some other stuff, but we're talking about mobile investing right now.


If you want a invite code let me know or PM me. The invite code gifts you 5 free dollars for getting started.

!

which if you look at the big picture is pocket change.



Acorns is completely free to download. Once an account is opened, there are no fees on $0 balances and after that we only charge $1.25 per month for accounts with a balance under $5,000 and 0.275% per year (charged monthly, computed daily), for accounts with a balance of $5,000 and over. For more information on our fees, including our Fee Estimator, please visit the PDS on our website.

How many transactions are you doing a month? Let's say you do 50. On average you will round up $0.50 on each to put in this acorn account.

So you've invested $25 and paid $1.25 in Acorn fees (I'm not even considering any potential expenses in the actual investment accounts)

That's 5% of your investment gone off top each month. The market isn't giving 5% monthly returns on the regular. Probably more like .7% per month in good times.
You are paying 5% each month and getting around a 1% return on investment. Doesn't sound like a good deal to me unless I'm missing something.

So you are losing big time in this thing because the fee is so large compared to the investment size.

To me, it looks better just stuffing your money into a savings account

-There are always nay sayers with this sort of stuff which I understand to a degree

-But at the same time, I think in terms of human behavior and this is but one tool to counter human behavior to produce a good outcome (i.e. people rarely save and saving is seen as a laborious endeavor - this is a tool to passively do some saving for you)

-Often when pushback comes up no solution is offered or if a solution is offered its something that is a big more complex or more geared towards people who want to tinker. Its kind of like the Apple vs. Android argument. Android users want to tinker and customize and Apple users just want convenience at any price.

-I am but one person but my market gain/loss is +3.28% and my total gain/loss is +2.80% is that amazing? Not exactly, BUT if you consider the fact that a regular degular savings account has a yield of, what .01 to .03% PLUS a minimum balance this is nearly a no brainer.

No account minimum needed and a higher rate of return?

there's nothing wrong with the core of what you're saying, of course, but this product targets the kind of people who need outside discipline.

Perhaps at some point they further their financial literacy, but in the meantime it seems like a fairly innocuous way for them to realize how easy saving funds can be

The amount is fixed...

It's $1 whether 20.00 goes in or 300.00 goes in..

My fees over 4 mos are $4.. my total investment based on JUST fractions of a $ was 219.12

If you strictly round up, the fees are killing you to the point where they greatly outweigh any investment gains.

If you round up plus add a hundred bucks or so a month, it could be worthwhile. Definitely not a good investment, but you won't be losing right out the gate.

But at that point, the novelty of the app goes away. The round up feature doesn't really contribute much to even cover fees. It's the additional saving component that is useful. And you might as well use another less costly platform for that

Everybody keeps saying it's for people who don't have discipline. But you have to have the discipline to consciously save extra to make this thing worthwhile.

The number I quoted was strictly round up.

Fees suck but $4 on 219 is not even 2%

Out of that $219, how much was gains from your investment?

For folks doing that many transactions, yeah your right on..

but for folks trying to get their feet wet, this might do, for now.. until they get to where you at with it


@silentintellect

but this is another way to save a few coins.

I will give it a try and see how it goes.

.

I throw a little money this way and that way on payday and I think it would prolly be another 3 to 5 dollars a week on top of the roundups.

It's been very dope for me..

two simple issues though

1. You can access the money too easy.. As soon as you see it accrue enough you can tap it... instead of say a traditional investment account that you wont pay attention to for years.

2. while the $12 a year doesnt seem bad. It seems the majority of the investment is in index funds anyway. You could just simple open a vanguard etf and have it deduct x amount a day/week/month with no fee.

>2. while the $12 a year doesnt seem bad. It seems the
>majority of the investment is in index funds anyway. You
>could just simple open a vanguard etf and have it deduct x
>amount a day/week/month with no fee.

here is the thing, at least for me, I would say that this is more of something for small & short term (under 3 years) investments

But thats just me, I'm also stuffing money into other places and other investment accounts.

good points made however

very useful .. and I like getting the monthly text that says I saved <some amount> over the course of a month.. great for an emergency

I was using betterment but then left (at the time i had this and vanguard.. I just kept the vanguard) I do miss how you can set your risk tolerance, vanguard doesn't have that so I might go back


I just started using robinhood.. the plan is to stash money in there probably for year before buying (who knows that may change)

I have it set where a small amount goes in once a week and once I have enough to buy something I like I go for it.

I move slow and I think long.

Its just another bucket.

for long long long term stuff I go with a brokerage firm

@silentintellect

I still contribute a weekly amount, but the round up was my whole reason for using this after jumping ship from BoA.