If you're
looking to ease into investing in the coronavirus economy with just a little
money, check out these easy-to-use tools.
Brandon Ballenger • January 18,
2021
Investing can be
intimidating in the best of times, and this isn’t the best of times.
Of course, you’ve
probably heard that the best time to buy is when everybody else is selling. But
maybe you’re not sure what to do with that information or feel like you don’t
have enough money to get started investing. Or maybe you’re not sure which
brokerage to entrust with your hard-earned money.
That’s where the best
investing apps for beginners come in. You can learn the ropes without the
trouble of dealing with a financial adviser or the difficulty of finding
trustworthy sources on the internet. In 10 minutes, with less than $500, you
could be set up in a smartly diversified portfolio with a company that will
help you learn as you earn.
Here are some of the best
investment apps and “robo-advisers” you could start with, and the strong points
for each.
1. Acorns: Beginner automated investing
Acorns charges
a flat fee of $1 to $5 per month depending on the features you want. The higher
tiers include money advice for you and your family, the ability to set up
recurring retirement contributions, and even a checking account with no minimum
balance, ATM fees or overdraft fees.
There is no minimum
investment.
Acorns is
one of the best investment apps for those who want to get started, even though
they may not have a lot of cash to invest at first. Its phone app is designed
to round up the price of your everyday purchases to the nearest dollar then
take that amount (your “change”) and automatically invest it in ETFs. It does
this automatically after you link it to your credit card or checking
account. Example: You buy a bag of groceries for $10.45 and
pay for it with your linked credit card. The price charged to the card is
rounded up to $11, then Acorns debits the difference (55 cents in this case)
from your account and invests it.
Acorns has “Found Money”
partnerships with more than 300 brands that work like cash back on a credit
card — except the money is earmarked for investment. There’s a delay of 90 to
120 days in getting the money, which is automatically invested.
2. M1 Finance: Flexibility without fees
M1 Finance allows
you to build a flexible, custom portfolio of individual stocks and funds or
choose from dozens of premixed options for free. While it will likely appeal to
experienced investors — and has a paid option that lets you trade or invest
during an additional time window, among other things — it’s also one of the
best investment apps for beginners who don’t want a lot of hand-holding.
M1 Finance lets
you automate your contributions and supports fractional share investing, which
is investing in expensive stocks without buying full shares. It doesn’t charge
any commissions or the management fees that are common elsewhere, but the app
can charge a $20 inactivity fee after 90 days for low balances. M1 Finance has
a minimum account balance of $100, or $500 for retirement accounts.
3. Robinhood:
No minimum simplicity
Robinhood is
an easy place to get started investing because it has no minimum balance, a
simple-to-understand interface, fractional shares and doesn’t charge
commissions or fees.
Robinhood allows
you to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, in addition to individual
stocks and ETFs (exchange-traded funds, which are simply diversified portfolios
of stocks, bonds or a mix of both).
The company also offers a
premium subscription called Robinhood Gold with a cost starting at $5 a month.
Gold offers access to investment research and data and margin trading, which
involves borrowing (with interest) from Robinhood to invest.
Ad
4. Stash: Education for beginners
Stash lets
you invest with no minimum, and monthly fees vary from $1 to $9 depending on
account type. The beginner account allows you to invest in fractional shares of
an individual stock, bond or ETF; the $3 per month “growth” account allows for
IRAs; and the big “Stash+” offering provides monthly market research and allows
for custodial investment accounts for kids.
Its Auto-Stash feature
lets you schedule regular investments, and, like Acorns, it allows you to round
up purchases and invest the spare change.
Stash recommends
investments to you based on the profile you build at sign-up. It’s also one of
the best investment apps if you want to get digestible educational content to
boost your trading knowledge.
Plus, it offers
personalized guidance, challenges and quizzes. It even has a podcast.
5. Betterment: Goal-based investment
Betterment LLC
helps you plan savings and investments for specific life goals such as funding
a safety net, a child’s education, a retirement nest egg or major purchases
like a home or wedding.
Betterment’s basic
plan has an annual advisory fee of 0.25%. (It also has a
premium plan with a fee of 0.4%, which offers access to professional advice but
requires a $100,000 balance.) Betterment says the
ETFs it uses have average fees of 0.11%.
It charges no other fees,
and there is no minimum balance for an account.
6. Ellevest: Investing for women
Ellevest,
as you might guess from the name, is one of the best investing apps for women
and was built around research on female investors.
This robo-adviser tries to account for the gender pay gap and the likelihood of
women living longer than men in designing portfolios, although male investors can
and do use it too.
Ellevest‘s basic plan
costs $1 per month; there are also Ellevest Plus at $5 per month and Ellevest
Executive at $9 per month. The higher tiers include support for 401(k)
rollovers and transfers, larger discounts on financial planning and career
coaching services, and a wider variety of goal-setting options.
There is no minimum
balance for the basic plan. The funds it uses carry fees ranging from 0.05% to
0.19%.
Save even more with a Money Talks News membership
Our readers report saving
an average of $991.20 each from the articles and videos we produce, but we’d
like to help you save even more!
Right now, you can lock in $60
instead of $120 on a yearly membership — that’s 50% off, for a
limited time only! You’ll also get an extra 50% discount on all of our personal
finance Academy courses, including The Only Retirement Guide You’ll
Ever Need, our comprehensive everything-you-need-to-know course to maximize
your funds in retirement.
But that’s not all… As a
member, you’ll enjoy our growing library of more than 13,000 money-saving
articles without ads; two free e-books, 208 Ways to Save Money Everyday and 108
Easy Ways to Earn Extra Cash; a members-only email address to ask us
financial questions; and many more
benefits!
Become a member
today and save 50%. Simply click the button below to secure your
special membership rate.
Disclosure: The
information you read here is always objective. However, we sometimes receive
compensation when you click links within our stories.
https://www.moneytalksnews.com/smart-moves-every-homeowner-should-make/
No comments:
Post a Comment