How to Start Investing with Your Everyday Spending: Review of Acorns Invest

I am not a financial professional & this is not financial advice, investment advice, or tax advice. The information provided here is for informational and recreational purposes only. Do your own due diligence before making financial decisions! All reviews are 100% my opinion and are should not be taken as financial/investing advice. “This post may contain referral links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost, if you sign up using this link. Thank you for the support!

What is Acorns

The Acorns app was founded in 2012 by Walter Cruttenden III and Jeffrey Cruttenden. The mission of Acorns is to look after the financial best interests of the up-and-coming, beginning with the empowering, proud step of micro-investing. The Acorns mobile app was created in 2014. The mobile app offers many different financial products. These products include taxable brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, investment accounts for kids, checking accounts, and savings accounts.

There is no minimum dollar amount required to open an account with Acorns. You do need to have $5.00 in your account to begin investing. The monthly subscription fee for Acorns is either $3.00 or $5.00 depending on the type of account you choose to open.

What is Acorns Invest

Acorns Invest is a portion of the Acorns app that allows you to invest money in a taxable brokerage account. A taxable brokerage account is an investment account that can be used to buy stocks, bonds, and ETFs. Once you download the Acorns app you must complete the initial sign-up process. During this process, you will answer questions that will help Acorns determine the correct investment portfolio for you. Questions asked include your age, income, goals, and risk tolerance. You will also link your checking account to the Acorns app during the sign-up process.

After the initial set-up is complete, you will then need to determine how you plan to fund your Acorns Invest account. The Acorns mobile app offers three different ways to fund your account. The first method for funding your account is through recurring investments from your checking account. These investments can be set up on daily, weekly, or monthly intervals.  You can select the amount of these investments and how often you want these investments to be withdrawn from your checking account.

The second method for funding your account is through the automatic round-up option in the app. The round-up feature makes investing effortless. For example, if you go to Target and spend $33.91. Acorns will round up the purchase to $34.00. Your account will be credited the 0.09 difference. Once your round-ups have reached $5.00, Acorns will withdraw the money from your checking account. You can also add a multiplier to your round-ups if you wanted to increase the dollar amount of your round-ups.

The final method for funding your account is through one-time investments. These investments are not automatic If after reviewing your monthly budget you realize that you have extra money left over at the end of the month, you may decide that money can be used to grow your Acorns Invest account. You would then go into the app and set up a one-time investment.

There are also opportunities within the Acorns app to earn bonus investments by shopping through the app. For example, the app is offering a bonus investment of $40.00 if you subscribe to the meal delivery service Hello Fresh through the app. If you were already planning to subscribe to this service, you might as well grow your investment account at the same time by doing something you were going to do anyway.

My Experience With Acorns

I opened my Acorns account in February 2020. Since I was new to investing I thought this would be a great way for me to start investing but with a small amount of money. I initially set my account up for roundups only but after a few months as I saw my money grow and added to my investments by setting up a weekly $5.00 recurring investment into my account. In September 2002, I increased my recurring weekly investment to $10.00.

The best feature of the Acorns app is that the money withdrawn from my bank account is automatically invested into my portfolio. Other companies that offer investment accounts require logging in to your account and deciding how you want your money invested With Acorns, I just go about my day spending like I normally do on groceries, eating out, shopping, and bills and the Acorns app does all the work of investing the transferred money into my portfolio.

I also like that Acorn’s mission focuses on empowering users. On their website, you can find articles, tips, and videos on different financial topics. Acorns send out market update emails that discuss the stock market’s current state. Over the last couple of months, there have been a lot of ups and downs in the market. These emails have provided insight and information about the market that I did not know about before. Keeping my money in the market long-term gives me the greatest chance of a high return when it comes time for me to withdraw my investments.

The main downside to the Acorns app is the monthly subscription fee. I am fine with paying the monthly subscription fee because I enjoy the convenience of the Acorns app.  I appreciate how easy Acorns has made the process of investing in the stock market and as a result, I am willing to pay a monthly fee.

Final Thoughts

I recommend Acorns Invest if you are just starting your investing journey. Investing can seem like an overwhelming and complicated process.  The Acorns mobile app offers a convenient and hands-off approach to investing You can just go about spending like you normally would and watch your account grow over time.

If you would like to start investing with your everyday spending, click below to open an Acorns Invest account.

If you use my referral link, you will receive a bonus of $5.00 invested in your account. 

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Your Elevated Life and Money Plan by Nakeshia