Acorns is a great way to begin investing money for those who are not trained investors. This allows the everyday person to make money from their spare change.
What Is Acorns?
Acorns is an investment tool that is easy to use for the average person. There is no need to have advanced knowledge of investing or the best ways to invest. Acorns makes the process as simple as possible by allowing you to invest your spare change.
How Does Acorns Work?
Acorns is a platform that lets you invest your spare change. It does this by automatically rounding up your purchases to the nearest dollar and investing this “change” for you.
- With any debit or credit card that you have linked to the account, every time that you buy something acorns will calculate and charge the rounded amount. Note that this only applies to cards that have already been connected to your Acorns account.
- These bits of spare change are pooled into an investment portfolio by a computer program. If you prefer to manage these savings manually then there is also this option available. You will need to run through your purchases on the tool and approve the transfer into the portfolio.
- You can choose the portfolio that suits you based on how much risk you are willing to take. Acorns will automatically assign you a portfolio based on your data, but this can always be changed to better suit your needs.
In addition to these “spare change” investments, you can also add extra money to invest. You can do this either by transferring lump sums or setting up a direct debit from your bank account.
Fees
Unfortunately, Acorns is not a free service. The company charges $1 per month for taxable investment accounts. The fee is an extra $3 if you want to add Acorns Later (this is an IRA account) and/or Acorns Spend (the card and account). Adding an investment account for your children incurs a fee of $5.
Our Two Cents: flat fees can be a great advantage of Acorns if you are investing a larger amount of money as most companies will typically offer you percentage rates. In these instances, you can save a lot of money compared to other investment tools.
However, if you are only planning on investing a small amount of money then these fees can add up. You can always use your linked card for all of your expenses, automatically transferring more money into the tool. If you do not do this, and instead use another card, then you will have to add more money manually to make the most of the tool for the fee.
Additionally, if you decide to take your money elsewhere then you will be charged a transfer fee. This is $50 per ETF. Alternatively, you can sell your investments and simply transfer the money. This will not incur the $50 fee.
Will It Make You Money?
The simple answer is yes, but there is always a risk involved. Just like if you were to invest your money yourself there is always the odd chance that you could lose your money. This is just the nature of investing.
However, for the average person Acorns will indeed make them money. It makes the process simple and automatic, choosing the best investment portfolio for you.
This removes any of the hassle and hardship of having to carefully curate your own portfolio, allowing you more time to do other things.
How much money you can make by using Acorns depends on several factors.
- The risk level of your portfolio is a major contributor to the amount of money that you can make. Typically bigger risks yield bigger rewards. But, remember that you may lose your money by investing in riskier options.
- The other way to make the most out of Acorns is to invest more money. This way you can opt for a lower risk investment portfolio but still yield a high return because of the amount you have invested into it.
Although Acorns does all of the hard work for you in terms of investing, the more you know the better.
Pros and Cons of Acorns
Here we will give you a brief roundup of the major pros and cons of using Acorns to help you decide if the tool is right for you and your family.
Pros
- Simple and easy to use
- Automatically invests for you
- Can invest manually (as desired)
- Pre-determined and assigned investment portfolio
- Educational tools available
- Family plans
- Cashback at certain stores
Cons
- High fees for low investments
- Small investment portfolio
Summary
Acorns has revolutionized the way that we can invest. There is no longer the need to shy away from investing and miss out on great financial opportunities simply because you do not know.
Instead, the entire process is automated allowing you to invest your money carefully and wisely without any fuss. This means that you can go about your day taking advantage of the other benefits that the app offers, such as the cashback from selected retailers and family financial planning.