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What is Acorns and how do I use it?
Posted on 2/19/15 at 7:01 pm
Posted on 2/19/15 at 7:01 pm
I saw an ad the other day for Acorns. From what I can gather, it looks at your daily purchases from debit and credit cards and rounds it up to the next dollar, or next dollar plus 1. It then takes this money and either saves it, or invest it into an account on your behalf. The fees are $1 a month and .5% of the total money invested (I think). I hope that I explained this correctly, but if not, please let me know.
Does anyone use this service and/or recommend it?
Does anyone use this service and/or recommend it?
Posted on 2/19/15 at 7:07 pm to Ice Cream Sammich
I use it, takes 10 minutes to set up
Eta: looks like it takes about $100 a month
Eta: looks like it takes about $100 a month
This post was edited on 2/19/15 at 7:10 pm
Posted on 2/19/15 at 7:13 pm to yellowfin
quote:
Eta: looks like it takes about $100 a month
So, if you invest less than $100, you lose money?
Posted on 2/19/15 at 8:53 pm to Ice Cream Sammich
Meant my deposits into my acorns account were $100 per month
Posted on 2/19/15 at 9:04 pm to yellowfin
Making any money putting so little? Thats about what I want to spend per month. Maybe more if I can see it growing.
Posted on 2/19/15 at 9:35 pm to Ice Cream Sammich
How do you want to invest it?
I just joined robinhood, but it's not the same concept, just no commission trading
I just joined robinhood, but it's not the same concept, just no commission trading
Posted on 2/19/15 at 9:37 pm to Ice Cream Sammich
It's a forced savings app? It's like a virtual water jug/piggy bank where you toss your spare change since we no longer have change.
Posted on 2/19/15 at 9:38 pm to Croacka
I don't understand stocks, mutual funds, etc. I saw this as a learning opportunity and possibly a way to make money. I have bough silver and gold before, but I want something to manage daily/weekly.
Posted on 2/19/15 at 9:39 pm to Ice Cream Sammich
It doesn't make any money for you
It just forces you to save
I accomplish this through payday automatic transfers to my savings accounts which means I never have the money in my checking account to spend
It just forces you to save
I accomplish this through payday automatic transfers to my savings accounts which means I never have the money in my checking account to spend
Posted on 2/19/15 at 9:41 pm to Croacka
You should look at robinhood
You can buy as little as 1 share of a stock...it's a good way to learn the market without having to worry about fees and risking a lot at once
You can buy as little as 1 share of a stock...it's a good way to learn the market without having to worry about fees and risking a lot at once
Posted on 2/19/15 at 9:45 pm to Croacka
I thought acorns invested your money for you. You can even choose how aggressive to make your investments. I will look at Robin hood though. Seem enough threads here for a year.
Posted on 2/19/15 at 9:51 pm to Ice Cream Sammich
Maybe it does, I'm not sure about it.
Robinhood is more hands-on
Robinhood is more hands-on
Posted on 2/19/15 at 10:14 pm to Croacka
Robin hood for Android yet?
Posted on 2/20/15 at 7:46 am to Ice Cream Sammich
I use it as my vacation fund. It works by monitoring your credit or debit card purchases and rounding each one to the nearest dollar. It takes the difference between the rounded amount and the purchase price and invest it into a mutual fund for you. You can choose how aggressive you want the fund to be.I like it because it's just a bunch of small investments that I dont really notice that add up over time. I wouldnt use it as primary investment account, but it's good for smaller amounts IMO
ETA: I also use Robinhood for investing in individual stocks
ETA: I also use Robinhood for investing in individual stocks
This post was edited on 2/20/15 at 7:48 am
Posted on 2/20/15 at 10:02 am to Ice Cream Sammich
Here's my basic rundown of the free options for beginner investors:
Acorns
As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, Acorns is sort of a forced piggy bank. Your transactions are rounded up to the nearest dollar, and the difference is invested into your Acorn account. Investment options are very limited (not bad, just limited; so if you are doing this to learn about investment I'm not sure its a great option, whereas if you are trying to save some cash it works fine). I haven't personally used Acorn.
Robinhood App
Robinhood offers commission free trading of individual securities. It's a very basic platform and you are essentially limited to buying and selling shares. As far as I can tell there aren't many limits to the securities available for trade. The interface is easy to use, but it is not very easy to track your purchases and sales (you can see how many shares you own and total cost, but it's not broken down by purchase date), so if you plan on doing a lot of buying and selling you should probably track it in a separate spreadsheet as well. I've used Robinhood basically as a way to gamble on oil prices, some short term and some long term.
Loyal3
Also commission-free trading, but with more limitations. Purchases are done in batch, not real time, so you are subject to fluctuations in the market on purchase date, and there are a limited number of companies available. On the other hand, you can invest in $ amounts rather than shares, so its the easiest way to buy shares of more expensive companies, and its easy to set up recurring monthly purchases. This is more for buying and holding long-term. I invest about $300 per month using Loyal3 into what I call my "Robot Fund", divided between AAPL, AMZN, DIS, FB, GOOGL, INTC and MSFT. Basically I think there is a decent chance one of these companies will end up owning some technology that eventually becomes the most valuable thing ever, and I like being able to pick my own allocations.
Acorns
As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, Acorns is sort of a forced piggy bank. Your transactions are rounded up to the nearest dollar, and the difference is invested into your Acorn account. Investment options are very limited (not bad, just limited; so if you are doing this to learn about investment I'm not sure its a great option, whereas if you are trying to save some cash it works fine). I haven't personally used Acorn.
Robinhood App
Robinhood offers commission free trading of individual securities. It's a very basic platform and you are essentially limited to buying and selling shares. As far as I can tell there aren't many limits to the securities available for trade. The interface is easy to use, but it is not very easy to track your purchases and sales (you can see how many shares you own and total cost, but it's not broken down by purchase date), so if you plan on doing a lot of buying and selling you should probably track it in a separate spreadsheet as well. I've used Robinhood basically as a way to gamble on oil prices, some short term and some long term.
Loyal3
Also commission-free trading, but with more limitations. Purchases are done in batch, not real time, so you are subject to fluctuations in the market on purchase date, and there are a limited number of companies available. On the other hand, you can invest in $ amounts rather than shares, so its the easiest way to buy shares of more expensive companies, and its easy to set up recurring monthly purchases. This is more for buying and holding long-term. I invest about $300 per month using Loyal3 into what I call my "Robot Fund", divided between AAPL, AMZN, DIS, FB, GOOGL, INTC and MSFT. Basically I think there is a decent chance one of these companies will end up owning some technology that eventually becomes the most valuable thing ever, and I like being able to pick my own allocations.
Posted on 2/20/15 at 10:10 am to Croacka
quote:
You should look at robinhood
Only works on iOS for now. I received an invite and had to give it away.
I use Acorns. It takes the change left over from a transaction that it would take to round to the next dollar. It accumulates them until it reaches $5 and invests them
Posted on 2/20/15 at 12:21 pm to Ice Cream Sammich
quote:
From what I can gather, it looks at your daily purchases from debit and credit cards and rounds it up to the next dollar
So I looked at this more because it seemed odd to me if they were actually using the credit cards for the investment money because the cc company would charge a fee. Basically it looks at your credit card purchases determines what it would cost to round up to the next dollar, then transfers that amount from your checking account into the (mostly Vanguard) ETF's you select within the app.
The Acorn fees are $1/month for under $5k and .25%/yr for accounts over $5k. On top of that the ETF's have fees between 0.05% and 0.2%.
Posted on 2/20/15 at 12:44 pm to Ice Cream Sammich
I use it much like Dustinm27 uses it.
I set it through my checking account.
If you spend $2.50 on something, it rounds up to $3 and invests that $0.50 into your Acorns fund.
If you spend $2.01 it will invest $0.99, etc, and so forth.
Its wise to note: Acorns waits until you have $5 of round ups before withdrawing from your account. Once your roundups hit $5, it then pulls $5 from your checking account. It does not withdraw the change from each individual transaction.
I started back in late december and have around $80 in my account. A really cool thing to set and forget. I honestly forgot about it and checked the other day.. I invested "moderately aggressive" because, why not?
It's a modern, neat little spin on the coins and piggy bank way of saving. I'll probably use it towards vacations or fun activities as well!
I set it through my checking account.
If you spend $2.50 on something, it rounds up to $3 and invests that $0.50 into your Acorns fund.
If you spend $2.01 it will invest $0.99, etc, and so forth.
Its wise to note: Acorns waits until you have $5 of round ups before withdrawing from your account. Once your roundups hit $5, it then pulls $5 from your checking account. It does not withdraw the change from each individual transaction.
I started back in late december and have around $80 in my account. A really cool thing to set and forget. I honestly forgot about it and checked the other day.. I invested "moderately aggressive" because, why not?
It's a modern, neat little spin on the coins and piggy bank way of saving. I'll probably use it towards vacations or fun activities as well!
Posted on 2/20/15 at 3:33 pm to Ice Cream Sammich
Search for my thread about acorns. They've reduced fees twice. I'll try to link when I get a chance.
Edit: NOFOX explained the updated fees.
Edit: NOFOX explained the updated fees.
This post was edited on 2/20/15 at 7:33 pm
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