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Easy, Low Cost Investing with Acorns

Easy, Low Cost Investing with Acorns

A few months ago I signed up for an Acorns account. At the time it seemed like a simple way to save a few extra dollars every month (money that I wouldn't have done anything with anyway), and it wouldn't feel like a sacrifice. For the most part that has been true. 

How Acorns works. 

When you sign up for Acorns you link one or more checking accounts to your Acorns account. Acorns then monitors the transactions in your account and rounds each of of them up to the nearest dollar. So if I spend $3.12 then Acorns records a "round up" amount of $0.88 or if I spend $198.97 then Acorns records a "round up" amount of $0.03. Once the total of my round ups gets to $5.00 Acorns withdraws that amount from my checking account and invests it in my Acorns account where it can earn money on the stock market. This process allows people to begin investing in the stock market for a very low rate (most of the time you have to start with a significant up front investment). If you get a windfall Acorns also allows you to make additional investments at any time. 

My experience

Overall I've been please with Acorns it has allowed me to relatively quickly save up some money. I haven't left it in long enough to make any significant earnings through interest, but over time that should change. 

These are the things I've appreciated:
It's easy (once my account was set up and linked I didn't have to do anything else). 
It's painless (because it's such a small amount at a time I hardly even notice it). 

Cons:
Really the only downside has been the $1.00 per month investment fee. When the invested amount is low this fee usually wipes out any gains through interest, once the amount gets higher though that should change. 

I'm happy with Acorns and plan to keep using it. If you are interested in trying it out use this link for a $5 sign up bonus. 

https://acorns.com/invite/5NFMB7

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