App Review: Acorns Investing

Acorns is one of the premier robo-investing platforms currently available.

If you remember the BOA keep the change savings account, it’s quite similar. Except this platform gives you the potential for a great return on your investment.

Keep reading for my full review of how it works.

How It Works

Keep the change. Acorns takes the money you spend, say it’s $5.50 for a hot dog, and invests the remainder, rounded to the nearest dollar, into your investment account.

While this may sound like it’s not worthwhile, believe me, it is. I’m running just over 11% (As of 1/23/18) on my returns so far this year.

When you sign up, you decide your risk level and recurring investment. I invest $50 a month on top of what I invest through my “roundups,” which is the cash, rounded up, from my expenses on the account I personally chose.

I picked a couple of cash back credit cards, which help to negate the monthly $1 fee. So in essence, I have a free investment account. With my recurring investment as well as the $25 or so I get from roundups, I’m looking at about $75 a month in total investments.

So far, I’m really happy with the program and I wanted to talk today about the app. I really like it and I’ve seen several updates so far, all for the purpose of creating a better user experience. They clearly did plenty of app testing before the updates, as each one makes the app easier and easier to use.

The Acorns App

The app’s homepage tells you how much your account is currently worth. Here, you have several options. You can check out the past, present, and future.

The Present is the landing page. Clicking on the Past option will show you how much you’ve invested, your dividends, referrals, etc.

The future option is called Potential. Potential shows you where your account will be in X years and you can see how much your total investment will likely be if you change your investment. To do this, simply click on Change My Future.

The Menu

The menu has several options:

• Invest
• Round-Ups
• Performance
• Found Money
• Grow
• Invite Friends
• Withdraw
• Settings

Invest

Here you can switch up the round-ups. That right. There is a multiplier. You can choose 2x, 3x, and 10x. What this means is if you choose the 10x options and your normal round-up is $.50, the same round-up will pull a total of $5 from your checking account. If you want to pass up the recurring investment option and build your portfolio quickly, this could be the best option for you, especially if you use your linked accounts often.

You can also add a linked account on this page. I highly recommend using a cash back credit card or checking account. You also have the option to make a one-time investment. If you’ve recently had a windfall come your way, now is the time to add it.

Round-Ups

Here, you can see your round-up investments as they come in from each account.

Performance

This is the option I look at the most. You’ll get a sweet line graph that shows your growth and compares your individual growth with how it compared to the market. Swipe over to see how much you own of each category and how many shares of each ETF you own.

Found Money

This is an interesting part of the program. When you purchase items or services through an individual company that is partnered with Acorns, a percentage of your purchase will go into your investment account. For those of you who travel often and shop online all the time, this can help to beef up your account really fast.

Grow

I honestly don’t spend any time here, but it seems to be a blog. If you enjoy reading personal finance posts, check it out. You never know what you’ll learn. 

I read personal finance blogs pretty often, but I don’t like reading on my phone. It’s just a personal thing.

Invite Friends

Acorns has a referral program. If someone uses your code, after their first investment you’ll receive $5 into your account. I’ve made $15 from referrals so far. So I can honestly say this program is pretty sweet.

What’s better than free money?

Withdraw

One of the first rules of investing is to not touch your money. But if you need to take out some cash, this is how you do it. I’ve yet to withdraw cash from my account and have no intention of doing so, as I’m fully aware of the power of compound interest.

Settings

This is a pretty typical Settings section you’ll find in pretty much any app.

My Thoughts

I absolutely adore this app. They clearly did plenty of app testing to make it right and I’m sure I’ll see even more improvements in the future. I’m making great money off the program and I’m excited to see what the future holds.

If you don’t know much about investing but you want to make your money go to work for you, I highly recommend Acorns.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below and I’ll respond as soon as I’m able.