Over the last few years, I have been an advocate and subscriber to many investment services and "roboadvisors". However, I have had mixed results and many that I used have changed their focus, closed, or been acquired. As a result, I have consolidated a significant portion of my investments to one set of accounts with one advisor. This has also helped reduce the complexity (and expense) of tax preparation.
However, there are a couple of services that I have maintained and find quite useful, unobtrusive, and that enable effortless investment of even small amounts, These are Acorns Investing and Stash Financial. (I may get a small referral fee if you sign up, but trust me … it's worth it and costs you nothing.)
Acorns uses a concept called Round-Ups where you specify how much to “round up” purchases to. Whenever you use your debit or credit cards, these round-up amounts are collected and invested for you automatically. This allows small amounts that you hardly even notice to grow substantially over time with the power of compounding. Every time you spend, you also invest! You can select from five different portfolio types with varying degrees of risk depending on how conservatively or aggressively you wish to invest. I have gained over 28% in my account as of this post.
Stash allows you to specify investment amounts and pick from several portfolios that you can direct your cash to. You can invest directly in companies or themed ETFs with a good array of interesting choices that allow you to tailor and target your $$$s where you wish. Some of my chosen investments are “Berkshire Hathaway”, "Clean & Green”, “Aggressive Mix” and others. I have gained >40% overall with my investments as of this post and the highest returning investment across my selected funds is up >133%. You can schedule one-time, weekly, or monthly contributions with very small minimums and an allocation across multiple investments that most suits your needs.
With the round-ups in Acorns and regular scheduled investments with Stash, I have accumulated a reasonably sized emergency fund without really considering the contributions or missing them in any way. Small amounts really do end up being significant when multiplied by time and compounding. Both Acorns and Stash have begun offering more than just investments and have other services for folks that want or need more. You can also earn money and/or free stock with promotions for products that you are likely to already be buying from >350 companies.
There is no reason to delay. Start saving painlessly today!
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