A Micro-Investing App For Beginners

The ETFs are selected for you by Acorns after you complete a survey about your financial goals, investing timeline and risk tolerance. Factors like your age, income and net worth are all taken into account when creating your portfolio. ETFs in your Acorns portfolio could include ones like the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, which mirrors the popular S&P500 stock index, or iShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF which provides broad exposure to US investment-grade bonds.

Investors, however, cannot currently buy or sell individual stocks through Acorns, although the company plans on launching this feature in 2022. If you ever want to break out of the training wheels and start trading on your own, consider a free stock trading platform such as Charles Schwab, Vanguard or Robinhood.

In addition to Acorns Invest, a taxable brokerage account, there is also Acorns Later, which allows you to open and manage a traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA and/or a 401(k) Rollover. Acorns Early is offered as an investment account for kids.

You can even opt to create an ESG portfolio which will be composed of ETFs that provide exposure to more sustainable companies.

Acorns also provides a checking account which has many of the features of a traditional bank account including, direct deposit, mobile check deposit, a debit card and fee-free withdrawal from over 55,000 Allpoint ATMs around the world.

If you’re set on really learning the ropes of the stock market, Acorns offers custom financial literacy content on the go. Its educational resources include a “Money Basics” blog and Grow + CNBC website.

The Acorns app is available to download for free in both the App Store (for iOS), where it has 4.7/5 stars, and on Google Play (for Android), where it has 4.6/5 stars at the time this article was written .

1. Personal plan for $3 per month that includes a checking account, investment account and retirement account.
2. Family plan for $5 per month that includes the three accounts you get with the Personal plan, plus additional investment accounts for your children.

While the app touts an affordable investing option for newbies, the monthly fee can eat up a big chunk of your returns if you’re only putting away a few dollars each month. To really take advantage, set up a larger recurring deposit into your Acorns investment account that’s in addition to any spare change that gets swept up.

Investing platforms like Robinhood and don’t charge any fees for trading stocks or a monthly fee to maintain a basic account, but they don’t have a robo-advisor service. SoFi offers its own robo-advisor through its SoFi Automated Investing service and does not charge any management fees, plus, you can open a cash management account with them for no fee as well.

If you’re looking for something a bit less entry level, consider a robo-advisor like Betterment. It’s a solid choice for those who still want to be hands-off with their investments, though more advanced investors have the option to customize through flexible portfolios.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast are investors in Acorns.