Anyone using this money app?

formerlyGDaisy09 · April 2015

this is an interesting idea, has anyone used acorns?

http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/15/technology/acorns-series-c/index.html?iid=ob_homepage_tech_pool&iid=obnetwork

noffgurl · April 2015

I've never seen it before, but it does look pretty neat.

Wulfgar · April 2015

Sounds good if you use a credit card and/ or debit card on a regular basis.

kmurphy2131 · April 2015

It sounds like a great concept - if you spend 21.25 you look at it as spending $22. I could really see that adding up over time. However despite the good concept behind it, I would not use that app. For starters, if you look at the number of people using it and the dollar amount saved so far it only averages $4(and change) a month per person. Since you have to pay a dollar a month, that's a pretty low percentage that you get to actually invest. That may be because it is a newer app and a lot of people may have joined recently, skewing the numbers a bit.

I don't think I would be comfortable setting up an account to automatically take money from my bank account when it is a newer app. I would want something that had been around longer (looks like there are complaints of it being buggy& there being access issues)

So I guess maybe in a year or two it is something I would try

short+sassy · April 2015

I didn't click on the link above, but from reading @kmurphy2131's comment, I think Bank of America has an account like that. They round up all debit purchases made in a customer's checking account and deposit the difference into their savings account. I don't think there is any fee or charge for that.

I am one of those crazy people who like to have everything even and, if there were BofA's near me, I'd jump on an account like that.

If I pay with a credit card at a restaurant, I'll write the tip to make the total an even number. I try to make my gas come out to an even dollar amount. Yes, I am that person, lol.

formerlyGDaisy09 · April 2015

short+sassy said:
I didn't click on the link above, but from reading @kmurphy2131's comment, I think Bank of America has an account like that. They round up all debit purchases made in a customer's checking account and deposit the difference into their savings account. I don't think there is any fee or charge for that.
I am one of those crazy people who like to have everything even and, if there were BofA's near me, I'd jump on an account like that.
If I pay with a credit card at a restaurant, I'll write the tip to make the total an even number. I try to make my gas come out to an even dollar amount. Yes, I am that person, lol.

It's a CNN money story about the app, you link it to your credit or debit card and it automatically rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar and when you've accumulated $5 it investes it. it does charge $1 a month, or more if you've got more than $5K invested. I just did a quick peruse through our credit card we use for mos things, this month we would have invested about $15 that we probably wouldn't have missed very much.

I'd definitely be more willing to connect the app to my credit card than my debit card (I don't use my debit card anyways). This would definitely warrent some more research, but it might be an interesting, relatively low-risk thing to try.

hoffse · April 2015

I will volunteer to give it a try and report back

I'm intrigued.

formerlyGDaisy09 · April 2015

hoffse said:
I will volunteer to give it a try and report back

I'm intrigued.

I look forward to hearing what you think!

hoffse · April 2015

I like the looks of it and the concept is brilliant to get millenials into the market. Our generation is gun shy to the point of paralysis because we watched the recession. The fees for Acorn are pretty high though, given the amount we would be investing from that spare change.

But heck I'll try it for a few months and see what it's like. If nothing else, it might be a good strategy to get people started in taxable investments on their own - add up the "spare change" and make a point to invest that amount once a month. That's obviously more active than Acorns requires, but it will save you the fees. And I do think their point about investing $20 here and $30 there is a good one. It adds up!

formerlyGDaisy09 · April 2015

hoffse said:
I like the looks of it and the concept is brilliant to get millenials into the market. Our generation is gun shy to the point of paralysis because we watched the recession. The fees for Acorn are pretty high though, given the amount we would be investing from that spare change.

But heck I'll try it for a few months and see what it's like. If nothing else, it might be a good strategy to get people started in taxable investments on their own - add up the "spare change" and make a point to invest that amount once a month. That's obviously more active than Acorns requires, but it will save you the fees. And I do think their point about investing $20 here and $30 there is a good one. It adds up!

I mean, obviously the creators of the app are looking out for their own pockets too, I'm thinking I may sign-up too. I definitely fall in the "gun shy" category when it comes to investing anything, this seems like a small step to get my feet wet.

Anyone using this money app?

Re: Anyone using this money app?

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