What Is Acorns Investment App? The Best Way To Start Investing With Little Money
You are probably aware of how important it is to start investing early in life. However, there might be many reasons why you are not doing so yet. Maybe investing sounds too complicated and you can’t find the time to learn? Maybe you think that you need a big amount to open an investment account?
In reality, there is no reason that should hold you back from investing. Here is what I see as the best way to start investing with little money – it’s called the Acorns Investment App.
It’s possible you have already heard the name Acorns from your friends and got to this post looking for honest Acorns investment app reviews.
In this Acorns review for 2019 I’ll cover:
- Who are the people behind Acorns
- What are the main Acorns services
- How much does it cost to use Acorns
- Pros and Cons of Acorns app – my own unbiased opinion based on personal experience
- How to sign up and get a $5 bonus
What is Acorns Investment App In A Nutshell?
Acorns is a financial application that enables you to start investing and improving your financial future.
Acorns app was created to help you make the first step into the investing world even if you don’t know anything about financial markets and instruments and barely have any spare money to open an account.
The main ideas of Acorns are simplicity and overcoming the mental barriers that keep people from starting to invest. There is nothing complicated in investing with Acorns. The only thing you need is to make a decision to start investing and open an account.
As other robo-advisors, Acorns will automatically make the investment decisions for you, building your portfolio based on your financial goals.
Who are the founders and managers behind Acorns?
Acorns was launched in 2014 by Walter and Jeff Cruttenden – a father and son with an extensive financial and mathematical background. Before Acorns, Walter had founded and served as a CEO of Roth Capital and the investment banking department of E-Trade.
Among the Board members and Advisors of Acorns, you can find two Nobel Prize-winning economists Harry Markowitz and Richard Thaler. These guys know something about investing!
The list of Acorn’s investors is quite impressive as well, featuring names like Blackrock, Capital Group, PayPal, Rakuten, and even Ashton Kutcher.
How Does The Acorns App Work?
Acorns app simplifies the investment process for you to the absolute minimum of effort. You decide on the amounts and the timing of funding and Acorns invests the money in the appropriate funds, based on your individual financial situation and risk appetite. All the process can be completely automated so it doesn’t require any additional effort from you after the initial set up. Let’s get into a bit more details on this so you can fully understand the options and choose the best one for you.
The main Acorns services are Investing (Acorns Core), IRA Retirement accounts (Acorns Later) and checking account with a debit card (Acorns Spend).
Let’s see in more details what these services can offer you.
What Is Acorns Core?
This is the initial and main business of Acorns that allows you to invest any spare change from round-ups and extra deposits into a professionally built diversified portfolio.
Let me explain the two major parts of the service – funding options and investment choices.
How to fund your Acorns account?
Acorns connects to your banking account and credit cards. You decide on the funding process that can be done in three main ways:
- Round-ups from your purchases. Let’s say you buy a meal for $8.45 and pay with your credit card. Acorns will register a $0.55 round up. You can choose to multiply the round-ups by 2, 3, or 10 if you want.
Once the total of the round-ups reaches $5, this amount will be transferred from your linked checking account to Acorns and invested.
- Recurring investment on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The optional amounts are $5, $25, $50 or $100. You decide on what day of the week or of the month to invest.
- One time investment of the suggested $10, $25, $50 or any amount of your choice.
There is no minimum to open an Acorns account but you need at least $5 balance to start investing. The threshold is very low, therefore this type of account is often called micro-investing account. However, Acorns has invested more than 1 billion dollars for its clients already.
Acorns Investing Choices
Based on your answers during the sign-up process (see more details on that below in the post), Acorns will propose you one of the five portfolios: Aggressive, Moderately Aggressive, Moderate, Moderately Conservative and Conservative.
The Aggressive portfolio is usually recommended to younger people with a higher appetite for risk.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Conservative portfolio is the most appropriate for people close to retirement, who have a low risk tolerance.
You can change the portfolio later if you don’t like the recommendation.
All the portfolios use the same 6-7 low-cost ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) that invest in a broad range of stocks and bonds: Large Companies, Small Companies, Developed Markets, Emerging Markets, Real Estate, Corporate Bonds and Government Bonds. The ETFs are from two of the best companies in the market – Vanguard and BlackRock.
The difference between the portfolios is in the proportions invested in each ETF. The more aggressive the portfolio is, the more weight it puts in stocks. More conservative portfolios invest more in bonds.
It is important to build a well-diversified portfolio, as it helps to reduce the risk: while one investment may lose money if the market is down, the other assets might compensate with profits and smooth the bumps.
Acorns portfolios were developed based on the advice from the Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Harry Markowitz.
Cost: Acorns core costs $1 per month. If you are a student, sign up with your valid .edu email address and your fee will be waived. Acorns is free for students, isn’t it nice?
What Is Acorns Later?
This is a separate IRA account that can be opened with Acorns if you choose to do so. IRA (meaning Individual Retirement Account) is a retirement savings account that comes with possible tax advantages for eligible investments.
Acorns helps you to make a decision about the right type of IRA – Traditional, Roth and SEP. I would recommend to check with a tax professional or a CPA before investing and see if you are eligible to invest in IRA, as there are IRS limits that vary for everyone’s financial situation.
Your IRA portfolio will be automatically re-balanced from time to time to reflect your age. The closer you are to retirement, the more conservative portfolio will be chosen for you.
Cost: $2 per month for both Acorns Core and Acorns Later. You can’t have only the IRA account without the Core.
What is Acorns Spend?
Acorns Spend is a checking account with a debit card that integrates the round-up and retirement savings in the easiest way. Acorns has partnered with Lincoln Savings Bank, a member of FDIC, to be able to offer this service to the customers.
There are some nice features like unlimited ATM reimbursements (get money back if you had to pay a fee for using an ATM), free bank-to-bank transfers, mobile check deposits and more. However, I’m not sure if this is really that better than any regular bank account you might already have, especially taking into account an additional $1 monthly cost. I never paid a penny to my traditional bank anyway.
Cost: $3 per month for Acorns Core, Acorns Later and Acorns Spend. It’s not allowed to have a Spend checking account without the Core and IRA components.
What Is Acorns Found Money?
Acorns Found Money is similar to cash back sites like Ebates or TopCashback. There is a list of retailer partners that will give you money back if you shop with them through Acorns. The difference is that the money will be added to your Acorns account and invested instead of being sent to you as a gift card. Of course, you can withdraw the money from Acorns if you want, but why not let it work for you as an investment?
The point with getting cash back for online shopping is finding the highest rate. I have checked several partners’ offers from Acorns Found Money and, in many cases, I was able to find a better rate elsewhere.
However, some of the offers were really attractive, as for example 1.8% cash back on Airbnb, which is totally absent from the majority of cashback sites.
Recently, I was planning two getaways for my family with Airbnb. As always, I tried to find a cashback site to make the purchase, but this time, my favorite sites didn’t offer me any cash back for Airbnb. Luckily, Acorns has Airbnb on the list of its Found Money offers, with a nice 1.8% rate of cash back. So I clicked on Airbnb from Acorns, booked our stays and got $36 into my investment account. Nice reward!
Another attractive offer is with Blue Apron – $30 for new customer signup, while other sites offer only from $5 to $20.
I recommend checking Found Money along with other cashback sites every time you plan an online purchase.
Is the Acorns Investment App safe?
When we talk about safety, there are two main components – the safety of your money and the security of your information.
Your money is safe, as Acorns is subject to strict regulatory oversight by several US authorities, such as FINRA, the SEC and the IRS. Acorns Securities is a member of SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation), meaning every customer’s investments are protected up to $500K.
Signing up for Acorns requires linking your checking account, with the username and password you normally use to access it. I know it might feel uncomfortable. However, this is pretty normal in the financial industry that utilizes strict security standards. Actually, Acorns doesn’t store your bank credentials at all. It uses SSL with 256-bit encryption and multi-factor authentication to protect your privacy.
Nothing is 100% secure from hackers these days, but if you use online banking, you can use Acorns with the same level of confidence.
Who Can Open An Account With Acorns?
You need to be a US resident, at least 18 years old and have a valid social security number.
There is also Acorns Australia, for Australian residents.
Is Acorns Investment App A Scam?
Acorns is definitely a legitimate service, regulated by financial authorities in the US, as I mentioned above. That being said, you must understand that there is no guarantee to make any short term profit, as this is the nature of any risky investment. I’ll elaborate about it in the next section.
Can You Make Money With Acorns?
As an investor, you need to understand that the main factor that impacts your short term profits is the financial markets movements. If the market goes up, you make money. If the market is down, you lose it. Of course, not all the markets (US stocks, Emerging market stocks, Bonds, Currencies, Commodities) move in the same direction, therefore the diversification is important.
What you need to understand is that if you lose money during some short period (it can be even a year or more), it’s probably not Acorns fault, but will happen with any robo-advisor.
Look at the chart below – this is one of the major US stock indices S&P 500.
You can see that there were some serious falls in the value of this index, but in the long term, the direction is always up. It’s very hard (actually quite impossible) to predict the right timing to buy and sell. The best thing you can do is to set up a periodical contribution and let the market do its job in the long term, building your wealth.
As an investor, you should understand the short term risk and not let it disturb you. However, you should never invest the money that you might need on short notice, like your emergency fund or savings for your next vacation.
Related Post:
How Behavioral Finance Helps You With Financial Decision Making?
Acorns Customer Service
I happened to read some complaints about Acorns customer service being not responsive in cases of closing the account or referral bonuses. Well, I’m sure every company has some clients who had encounter technical or other issues and might be not fully satisfied.
From my own experience, Acorns has great support. Once I had unintentionally opened Acorns Later account just to see what IRA it will recommend for me (Traditional IRA, if you are curious). I didn’t fund the account and was afraid to get charged for it. My support ticket was answered on the next business day, account closed and no charges applied.
Pros and Cons of Acorns App
As every financial service, Acorns has its benefits and disadvantages.
Acorns Pros – Why I like Acorns?
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Low minimum investment
With a minimum of $5 to start investing, Acorns is an affordable service to everyone. You can’t say “I don’t have money to start investing” anymore. At the price of a coffee at Starbucks, you can open an account for your better financial future. Many other robo-advisors require amounts around $5,000 to open an account.
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Spare change round-up investment
Just between you and me, money doesn’t have a name. You can call it “round-up” or the “gift to my future self”. The result is the same – you invest X dollars. You can easily check the average amount of transactions on your credit cards and predict the monthly amount of this round-up money that will be invested. However, it’s much easier to agree to rounding-up than to set a recurring monthly investment, isn’t it?
Rounding up is just a genius psychological gimmick that helps people to overcome the belief that they don’t have any money to invest. I’m aware of several apps that use the same idea and I’m all for it, as long as it leads to the right financial decision.
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Simplicity and automation of the investing process
I see simplicity as the main advantage of Acorns. One of the major problems that hold people from investing is the fear of the constant need to make complex decisions about their money – building the portfolios, choosing financial instruments, finding the right timing. The research shows that in the long term the only thing you need is taking consistent action. The compound interest and the long term stock markets rise will do the rest.
Acorns automates the decision-making process for you. After the initial set up, your investments are on autopilot. Both round-ups and the recurring contributions are invested in the appropriate portfolio that is rebalanced from time to time when the markets move. It’s “set it and forget it” for you.
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Good investment choices
Acorns uses a small set of ETFs, but they are high-quality low-cost products. There might be better options in the market, but an average beginning investor doesn’t have the skills, time and money to find them. Sometimes, the “best” is the enemy of the “good enough”, as looking for the best can easily hold you from doing anything at all, especially when it’s not your main task in life.
Too many people think “I’ll do some research about investments when I have time” and it never happens. In the best case, they keep their money in savings accounts that barely pay any interest. In other cases, the money is just spent on another whimsical purchase and the idea of investing is forgotten again.
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User-friendly clean design
Both the website and the app are designed in a very user-friendly and intuitive way, without an overwhelming amount of choices. You will be able to find what you are looking for in a second.
6. Acorns referral program and Found Money
Acorns gives you these two options to add free money to your account. If you like Acorns, you can refer your family and friends and get $5 for each new account they open. They will get $5 as well.
Acorns Cons – What Could Be Done Better?
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The fees are high for small accounts
Though $1 monthly fee might seem like a tiny amount, this is not the right way to look at it.
In the investment management industry, the fees are usually set up as a percentage of the account value and the fee range is normally from 0.25% to 1%.
If we look at the annual fee of $12, it will be 0.25% of $4,800, meaning that if your account’s balance is below this number, you are going to pay quite a high fee to Acorns. For example, if you only have $100, your fee will be the whopping 12%!
Take into account that many other companies with lower fees require a pretty high minimum investment, while Acorns only asks for $5.
The good thing is that Acorns provides you with several ways to get the fee covered. Starting with $5 that you’ll get just for signing up through this post (this is a 5 months fee paid for you, right?), via referral bonus (another 5 months per each referred friend) and to the Found money where you might find some great offers as well. Remember my Airbnb cash back of $36? It will pay for the next 3 years fee!
2. A small number of investment options
Other automated investment services may offer more investment options, including commodities and currencies. It doesn’t guarantee better returns, though.
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No tax loss harvesting
Acorns doesn’t provide tax loss harvesting (TLH) as do several other robo-advisors. However, to get the benefit of TLH you might need more professional tax advice and it’s not material when the balance of your investment account is relatively small.
4. Checking account with fees? Not a great idea
If you already have a good and free checking account, that allows you to use online services for your needs, I don’t see the reason to open another one with Acorns Spend and pay additional $1 per month.
5. No human advisors available
If you want to talk with a professional about financial markets and investment choices, you won’t have this option with Acorns. Usually, personal advisors are available for investors with larger accounts (more than $100k – $200k).
6. Money withdrawal takes time
Take into account that money withdrawal can take several business days, as ETFs can’t be sold immediately. That’s another reason why Acorns (or any other investment account) shouldn’t be used for an emergency fund.
My Final Thoughts On Acorns Investment Service
I consider Acorns Core a great option if you fall at least in one of the following categories
- College Students (who get Acorns Core for free)
- First-time investors without financial knowledge
- People who want to invest but struggle to find the money or commit to savings
- People who want to learn about financial markets
- Investors looking for hands-off, “set it and forget it” approach
It would not be the right option for more sophisticated investors who want to build their own portfolio, chose what funds to buy, invest in individual stocks or decide on the timing of each transaction. If you have a large amount to invest (above $100k), you’d better check with a financial advisor and your CPA for possible tax benefits and holistic financial planning.
Acorns Later can be a good choice if you don’t max out your 401k through your employer.
Acorns Spend doesn’t look like a great idea, in my opinion, because of the additional fee.
One last thing to consider: Acorns gift card can make a great present for birthday, graduation or holidays to get your loved one into the investing world and help to establish healthy financial habits.
How To Sign Up With Acorns?
Opening an account with Acorns is super easy and quick. Just click on the button below:
You’ll go through the quick signup process and verification and will be able to start investing.
For detailed walk-through of Acorns App, with step-by-step screenshots that show you how the app looks like from inside, go to the following post:
How To Sign Up With Acorns Investment App – New User Walk-through
Please let me know if you have any additional questions about Acorns and I’ll be happy to help.
Related Posts:
The Best Free Personal Finance Software – Personal Capital Tool Review
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I really want to participate in investing in acorns. But because it is not an American citizen. should not be able to register. so you can show people like me how to register.
Hi,
Unfortunately, Acorns doesn’t allow non-US residents to register. Can’t help you with this.
Mary
I have heard of Acorns. A great article and you laid it out so well. Easy to read and understand. Thanks for saying there was an Acorns Australia too! I am putting it in my Pocket to refer to later. I may just do this!
Hi Valerie!
I’m happy to see Australian readers on my blog! Yes, Acorns is available in Australia, so you can try it! Nothing to lose, with the $5 signup bonus.
Happy investing!
Mary
Great review Mary! It’s so important to start investing early in life. So many people put it off and wait. They have the misconception that tomorrow’s going to be better. Or there’s going to be time to play catch up.
But that’s not true. The money that’s invested from a very early age has so much time to grow and accrue compound interest.
You correctly pointed out that the cost of Acorns is expensive for folks starting out with small amounts. So it’s pretty important to get balances up quickly so as not to pay 12% fees. Yikes! That’s huge.
Hi Debbie,
Thank you for your insights! I absolutely agree that the early start gives the biggest advantage in investing.
With respect to the fees question – what I like about Acorns is that it allows you to earn money and even more than the fee.
The signup bonus gives you 5 months of paid fee. Any referred friend – another 5 months. I got even more from Found Money, so I’m not worried about these fees for the next 3 years.
Otherwise, yes – the fee percentage can be way too high.
Mary
Hi Mary. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. It’s quite timely too. Although I will be retiring at the end of the school year, I’ve decided I also need to add an investment account to my other income streams. I read an article a few days ago that encouraged retired persons to consider investments. Based on their stats, someone in their sixties or seventies realistically has another 15 to 20 years of living that will need to be funded.
Acorns sounds very interesting. I love the idea of setting up the account and then knowing that everything is being taken care of for me. The rounding-up feature is also appealing. Along with Found Money, which I had never heard of before, Acorns is offering a completely painless way to build a nice investment account.
One thing that concerns me, and you touched on it, is allowing Acorns access to my bank account. Can you comment a little more on this? I’m wondering if my bank can set limitations on what Acorns can do with their access to my account? I’m also concern about the accounts being hacked into, since this seems to happen to businesses on a regular basis.
Thanks so much for such a well-researched article. I’m going to take a closer look at Acorns, based on your information. I’ve also bookmarked your site…it’s a real winner!
Hi Nancy,
It’s never too late to invest, though the best results can be achieved if you start early. When you are retired, I’d guess that Acorns will recommend you a more Conservative portfolio, with higher proportion in bonds.
Acorns asks you for your checking account credentials only once, to establish the connection that will be used for an automated payments (round-ups, recurring investments and fees). The credentials are not stored by Acorns and encrypted for this transaction. It’s not different from how your credit card charges the monthly payments if you set them up to be withdrawn automatically.
I’m so humbled by your compliments to my website! You’ve made my day! I’m happy to help people to get more out of their hard-earned money.
Best wishes,
Mary
Dear Mary, your review is quite Okay and apt. This is the first time I am hearing about Acorns. I think it is very wonderful and promising. I have registered to see how the platform works. From your review and from what I saw Acorns is a useful tool to save money without much ago.
Hi Paschal,
Thank you for reading and trying the Acorns app yourself. It would be great to hear back from you after several months of using it. Please share your experience with Acorns with me.
Happy investing!
Mary
Good afternoon Mary,
I started reading your post on the Acorns Investment App with interest but it did not take too long where I realized it was above me. I am passing on your post to my better half. He emigrated from the U.S. to Spain in Aug. 2016. He holds credit cards from the U.S so I suppose he could do something with your information. Thank you very much.
Regards, Taetske
Hi,
I totally understand it might be complicated. Actually, Acorns does a great job in simplifying the process of investing for you.
I understand that you live in Spain, so unfortunately you won’t be able to benefit from this cool investment app. Maybe your partner can make use of it, rounding up his credit card transactions. He will need the US checking account as well to set it up.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing this post!
Mary
I have found the my savings and investment portion of my salary is taken off my main account like a standard Debit Order. I like that they have the option of “billing” you weekly, fortnightly or monthly. This way it tricks you into thinking the money is inaccessible and therefor less likely to spend it.
I find that making it difficult or long to withdraw is a benefit and not a negative point. When something is easy to withdraw, then it is a temptation to spend. So in this case it is possible that Acorns designed it to help you protect your investment. Im really glad that there are people coming up with creative ways to help people save and invest in a spend now environment.
RIch
Hi Rich,
The main idea of this app is to help you bypass the procrastination and other psychological obstacles that prevent you from starting investment account. People don’t want to make many financial decisions every day, it’s intimidating.
The other aspect is that there is so much pressure to buy, buy, buy things. All the ads, the social pressure etc. While the right thing is to tell people Save, save,save and invest!
Acorns makes the investment effortless, set it and forget it. You don’t even have to download the app but just use your computer to check the balance from time to time. Found Money is also worth checking.
Thank you for your inputs,
Mary
This looks like a nifty little app to have, especially if you are not good at saving.
I like the idea they have of saving the round-ups from your purchases. This will hardly go noticed if it goes off of your account in small increments, and over time this could build to quite a substantial amount.
The trick with any type of investing is to be consistent and do it long term. That way you are sure to reap the rewards, as the more you grow your money, the more it will start to grow on its own.
Hi Michel,
You got it right! The consistency really is the key to financial growth.
Personally. I don’t care how the money is called – is it a “round-up” money or the amount I’ve deliberately set as recurring investment. The point is to set something aside every week and see what happens after a couple of years.
Happy investing!
Mary
I think Acorns is a great investing app for anyone who wants to start investing or even save some money. Very often, after we get monthly paycheck, the first thing that we do is to pay our bills. But little do we realize the importance of setting aside some fund for investment or saving before we even start to spend. I strongly recommend anyone to start with this app. I hope one day my country will also have such app so I can teach my son to do the same. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Florence,
Currently Acorns is available only in the US and Australia. Maybe at some time in the future, they will expand to more countries. Everyone should at least try saving and investing, even if only to learn about financial markets from the first hand experience. You can start teaching your son about it by setting any saving account for him at this point.
Mary
I am really glad that I stumbled upon this article as this app is really interesting to use. It’s sad that you need to be a US resident as I am not but I have a family there and I am sure they didn’t know about Acorns investment. It is a really worth app as we are spending money like crazy and this can save us a lot of money.
Hi Daniel,
Please share this review with your friends and family in the US. You even can buy an Acorns gift card for one of your relatives. It will be a gift that keeps giving!
Mary
It’s so amazing to see more and more opportunities to make money online everyday. With the hardship in most parts of the world, people have little or no money for investments or savings, it’s good to see a company that is dedicated to helping people no matter their income level to get a little extra money through investments. So, even if I do not have the experience or do not know much about investment, I have professionals that would put in the work for a little fee. And all the packages are very good too.
Hi Vapz,
I’m glad you are able to see the potential in this cool application. It allows everyone to start investing, even if you are very low on money.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Mary
Hi, thanks for Sharing your review about Acorns investment app, I have always be skeptical about it. In my mindset, without reading anything on it, I thought it will be a scam. Probably because of the free 5$ sign up, although I know it’s based in the USA, the founders of it, but i still always thought its a scam,but your review has done justice to it now. I will take my time to sign up and invest.
Hi,
Thank you for stopping by. I’m happy to provide you with the information about Acorns.
Sign up bonus is a common practice with many websites, it’s not a sign of a scam.
I’ve heard from many people that they are reluctant to try Acorns or other apps because of lack of reliable information. This is the exact reason why my website exists – to help with knnowledge sharing.
I hope you’ll give Acorns a try.
Happy investing!
Mary.
I have made more in dividends with Acorns than I have lost in fees. My account is just above $1300 and I’ve had it about 1.5 years. I might start adding more to it. I don’t necessarily feel financially literate enough to avoid losing or being taken advantage of if I try new services that require more personal attention.
Wonderful write up
Thank you so much for sharing your experience!
It’s not even about financial literacy, it’s more about having time to manage the portfolio, do the research etc.
I’m a financial professional and still prefer robo-advisors, like Acorns. With a full-time job, three kids and a blog – I can’t pay close attention to market moves. And I know that trying to buy low and sell high many times ends up exactly the opposite and you lose money.
Consistent contributions, in any market conditions, will pay in the long term.
Mary
I know I should be investing, but I just never started, and your article gave me a boost to start. Why do I keep procrastinating? It’s silly, really, and I’m super excited that I found your site. You have a lot of great information that I can use to make wiser choices and manage my money, finally!
Hi Babsie,
I’m happy to have you among my readers.
In my opinion, Acorns is a no brainer for procrastinating investors. It’s set it and forget it app.
At least, try it for 5 months, so you don’t have to pay fees and just use your $5 bonus.
Mary
Hi,
Thank you very much for sharing with us such an important blog. If I did not read this blog I can not find the details about Acorns Investment App. This blog will be very helpful who want to grow his business. The most interesting thing I just learn from here is Acorns app simplifies the investment process for us to the absolute minimum of effort. I will definitely share this blog with my friends.
Thank you for sharing with friends. I hope you’ll give Acorns a try
Hi Mary, thanks for sharing this information. I had no idea that an app like this even existed! Seems really straight forward and easy to use. The thing that appeals to me most is you don’t need a lot of money to invest, but looks like that can really add up over time.
Is it easy to withdraw money from this app? And by doing so, do you get hit with any penalties or withdrawal fees? I think this could be a really good way to help me save money. Going to definitely give it a try. Thanks so much for making us aware of this cool investment option!
Hi Bob,
Thank you for the question about withdrawing the money from Acorns.
No, there are no penalties or fees. However, the process may take several business days, especially if it’s around the holidays when the exchange is closed.
Mary
I’ve been looking for a personal investment app and heard about acorn before. The issue is, I don’t really know whether the app can work with any currency or not (since I don’t live in the US). It’s hard to separate several personal finance app in the playstore, between those who work for global investment and who doesn’t. Is there any region or currency restriction for acorn? It seems a nice app according to your review, but I might pass it if it doesn’t available for global transaction 🙁
Hi Alblue,
Acorns is available in the US and Australia. Unfortunately, it’s not a global app as of now.
Mary
Hi, Mary. I enjoyed reading your post about investment and you are totally right. I am one of those who wish that they had started investing at an earlier age, like 45 years ago.
I have heard of similar “round up” types of investment but, to my detriment, I never investigated them. They seem like an easy way to build an investment strategy and I don’t think that the extra “change” would actually be missed.
I could actually see just rounding up into another savings account as a young person and I think even that could be a big surprise in twenty years to see how much has accumulated but for a person that is approaching 70, it might be too little too late especially if you are on a tight budget already. I would like to hear your thoughts on that.
Another question I have is, is this something that is available to people outside of the US?
“Acorns” sounds amazing. I like the idea of the cash back being invested as well and the break for students is a good idea as well. They have enough to worry about with high university and college costs. A dollar isn’t much but, for students, it could be the difference in meeting their tight budgets.
Oh, to be young again and know what I know now.
I hope that those who read this post will take a serious look into this app. I think it could be well worth their while.
All the best, Wayne
Hi Wayne,
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. It’s so important to see a perspective from someone like you.
At the age of 70 you need to focus on close financial planning – evaluate what you already have, how much you want to spend each year, how much you can make. Your medical conditions will play an important role as well.
Usually, it’s not recommended to invest a lot in stocks when you are retired, but everyone’s situation may be unique.
To your question, Acorns is available in the US and in Australia.
Mary
Thanks for sharing this review about the Acorns investment app. I sure will give it a full try. The article has genuinely peaks my interest. I’m going to bookmark your web page and maintain checking for new details.
I am looking for some good blog sites for investment tips. I was searching over search engines and found your blog site. Well, I like your high-quality blog site design plus your posting abilities. Keep doing it!
Thank you, Ayudeji!
I’m happy to have you as my reader. I’ll definitely have more interesting investment app reviews in the future.
Mary
Wow, I really enjoyed reading this article. The major problem with investment is to rise above the mental state of the mind that it requires a large sum of capital but through this article I got it clear that it is not suppose to be like that. This Acorn app is fully operative and require little or no effort to operate it and the likes of its founder and co-associates give one the rest of mind that this is true. Thank you Mary for this informative review.
Thank you for reading my post. I’m happy to provide the information about Acorns investing app. The more people know about it, the easier it will be for them to give it a try and get exposure and an appetite for investing.
Mary
Thank you for this great and nice post, I have this feeling also that it is good to invest early in life, this is the first time am hearing about the Acorns investment app. I think I like the fact that one can invest as low as $5 or more. I will check more about it before making my final decision. Because when it comes to investment am a bit skeptical.
Hi Clement,
I understand you being skeptical. I always read a bunch of reviews before I make any decision about my money.
Acorns Investment app reviews usually point out the high fees for small balances and this is correct. However, if you are a student or can use some Found Money or bring referrals, the app will pay for itself and even more.
What I like is the automation. I’m a financial professional, but my life is so busy I can’t find time for markets research and don’t want to make these investment decisions in a rush.
Mary
I was relieved that you mentioned that there is no minimum investment required.
I am curious to know if I only invest 5 dollars and not put in any more money, will it be invested in the markets with other peoples money so that it grows?
I am sure that the more I put in the better obviously.
If you only invest $5, the amount will be divided between 6-7 ETFs and invested. Acorns is able to do it as it has many investors. Acorns can buy a while unite of ETF in the market and divide it between several accounts.
Your money will grow similar to general markets’ direction. The balance can go down for some time but should grow if you are patient, as it can take years.
This is not a get rich quick scheme.
You’ll have to invest more than $5 to grow material savings for your future. Start with rounding up or small weekly deposits and see what happens
Mary
I find this review very helpful, I never knew such app existed, helping you rounds up your purchases on linked credit or debit cards, then sweeps the change into a computer-managed investment portfolio. That approach is certainly a useful tool to save more. Genuinely happy to come across this amazing app, definitely giving it a try.
Hi Seun,
You got right what Acorns does! Hope you’ll like it for your first investment account.
Mary
Thanks for this lovely review on acorns.
I had never heard of Acorns investment app before but after reading your review, I decided to sign up and give it a try. I think this is the type of investment I need right now. Thank you for this awesome and well-written review. I will give it a try!
If i may ask; what is the mode of payment?
Paypal or payoner
Hi, Ola
Not sure what do you mean by the mode of payment. Acorns account needs to be linked to your checking account that serves as a funding source. Another option is to use Acorns Spend account as checking account.
Mary