Acorns Review 2025: Is the Micro-Investing App Worth It?

Of course, you can also use a recurring transfer to get money into your investing account. And you’ll also be able to use the “smart deposit” feature to squirrel away funds from your direct deposits (more below). When you set up round-ups, Acorns can automatically round up any purchase to the next dollar and move that extra amount from your linked bank account into your investing account. When you’ve accumulated at least $5 in round-ups, Acorns invests that amount in your target portfolio. If you don’t want to invest it every time, you can set up a manual transfer process, too.

Acorns brings strategic investment and integrated personal finances to the people — anyone can use its platform and benefit from it. Signing up for Acorns is easy from their website or through the Acorns app. It typically takes less than 3 minutes before you’re set up and ready to go. For Acorns Invest, there are no trade fees and it will only cost you your monthly subscription fee. Acorns features 4 main products that offer several options to help you use your change wisely.

This portfolio will adjust to hold more conservative investments as retirement age approaches. The Acorns Early default portfolio is more aggressive and holds a larger mix of stock ETFs. Read on for details on how Acorns works, the new features that set Acorns apart from competing investment apps and answer the question of whether Acorns is right for xcritical official site your investing journey.

Account Overview

Investors will also pay either a $3, $6, or $12 monthly fee depending on which Acorns plan level they invest in. It’s unusual for an online brokerage to charge a flat monthly fee, but as a result, Acorns doesn’t charge a management fee or commissions on trades. Acorn’s Core Portfolio options were built by financial experts and are managed by firms like BlackRock and Vanguard. Core portfolios include investments such as large company stocks, short-term bonds, and treasury bond ETFs. The robo-advisor then uses these same six funds for every investor but adjusts the asset allocation depending on your goals and risk tolerance.

All Acorn Invest plans include banking features, IRAs, ESG portfolio opportunities, and Round-Ups. Some robo-advisors offer access to a financial advisor, either for free or for an added fee. Unfortunately, Acorns does not offer its clients access to financial advisors. Some robo-advisors provide more comprehensive customer service, such as 24/7 phone support.

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That said, the automated savings component appears to be somewhat attractive, especially if you don’t feel like you would save/invest without it. If that’s the case, it may be worth it to continue on the $3 plan as your balance grows, even if you’re slightly overpaying on fees. Great question — the answer is, as always, it depends (mostly on your account balance).

You’ll also get access to human advisors and benefit from automatic rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting. But the lack of a cash management account and relatively high account minimums may cause some investors to look elsewhere. Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service.

Account minimum

Additionally, Acorns checking accounts are FDIC protected up to $250,000 because Acorns’ banking partners, Lincoln Savings Bank and nbkc bank, are both FDIC members. For those just embarking on their investing journey, entering the stock market can be a daunting process. But a number of fintech investing apps have beginner-friendly features such as no account minimum, educational resources and simplified interfaces which can make the transition xcritical cheating into investing much less intimidating.

Where Does Acorns Invest Your Money?

If Acorns goes out of business, your investments are protected by the SIPC up to $500,000 and you won’t experience a loss due to firm insolvency. In 2024, kids’ financial wellness platform GoHenry merged with Acorns. Exclusive GoHenry features can now be accessed as part of Acorns Early (more on that below). To determine rankings of these robos, Forbes Advisor weighted each of these categories in accordance with their importance to various types of investors.

Easy, automated investing, starting with spare change.

  • (If you just want to invest in the stock market but not for retirement purposes, Acorns Invest will allow you to buys managed ETF portfolios that closely mirror major indexes).
  • It will round up the spare change on your purchases and make automatic investments with backing of its partnerships with long-established investment management companies like Vanguard and BlackRock.
  • For example, increasing my weekly deposits to $25 (plus my monthly Round-Ups average) would get me to $10,000 in principal deposits in about 5 years’ time.
  • Advisory services through Atomic Invest are designed to assist clients in achieving a favorable outcome in their investment portfolio.
  • Investors seeking direct exposure to the price of bitcoin should consider a different investment.

Bankrate follows a stricteditorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers. Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first.

This is a portal into the most up-to-date news, insights, analysis and general know-how for all things money, covering topics like saving, investing, earning, spending and borrowing. Earn also connects you with available jobs and gig work that can add some extra oomph (chutzpah, etc.) to your monthly income. You’ll get $5 towards investments for every friend you refer that signs up for Acorns from your invite. (If you just want to invest in the stock market but not for retirement purposes, Acorns Invest will allow you to buys managed ETF portfolios that closely mirror major indexes).

Even at $10,000, an investor would be paying 0.36 percent annually – still solidly above the standard management fee (0.25 percent) of many robo-advisors. It’s not always easy to find customer support these days, with many financial services companies failing to offer phone options and having robots answer chat questions. But Acorns separates itself by offering live chat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as well as email options. If you prefer to chat on the phone, Acorns is available 7 days a week from 8 a.m. With all these options, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting your questions answered. The ETFs used in Acorns’ portfolio are reasonably priced, with most funds costing in a range of 0.03 percent to 0.25 percent of invested assets annually, or a cost of $3 to $25 for every $10,000 invested.

We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.

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Refer friends and receive a small bonus or receive a deposit when you spend at one of the more than 450 brands partnered up with Acorns. Our banking reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the best banks, latest rates, different types of accounts, money-saving tips and more — so you can feel confident as you’re managing your money. Investment platforms usually offer multiple assets, trading tools, fees, and other resources. Some https://dreamlinetrading.com/ platforms are better for more advanced or active investors, while others may better suit beginners and passive investors. We examined Acorns using Business Insider’s rating methodology for investing platforms to compare and examine account types, pricing, investment options, and overall customer experience when reviewing investing platforms.

Many of the stock funds sit at the low end of that range, too, so if you’re opting for the more aggressive portfolios, you’ll be paying fund expenses that are near the bottom of the industry. Acorns combines a spending, savings and investing app into one, making it easy to round your change into a higher-returning investment. In recent years, Acorns has rolled out new offerings and features like its ESG portfolios to invest according to users’ principles and to directly invest in stocks and ETFs with custom portfolios. For example, if you bought a cup of coffee for $2.25, Acorns would set aside $0.75. Once you’ve reached a $5 threshold in your Acorns Acorns Invest account, it will be automatically invested in your Invest account portfolio. Acorns says that the typical person invests over $30 per month with Round-Ups alone.

This information does not consider the specific investment objectives, tax and financial conditions or particular needs of any specific person. Investors should discuss their specific situation with their financial professional. Acorns doesn’t set account minimums for its checking, savings or investment accounts, so you don’t need to worry about keeping a certain balance no matter which accounts you’re using. These, generally speaking, are all better options than a brokerage account that you’d find through a service like Acorns Invest. If you’ve reached your plan contribution limits (there’s a yearly cap on how much you can add to your retirement accounts), then you can get additional market exposure through the app (or apps like it).

Premium plan users can customize their portfolio adding specific stocks. Acorns offers a Help Center with FAQs on common banking, account management, rewards, and tax forms. While those fees appear manageable, they’re actually pretty expensive on an annual percentage basis, which is how many other investment apps and robo-advisors charge their fees. Younger workers just starting out—the types of investors who Acorns is trying to attract—will end up paying more than they would at other robos. Acorns offers a simple, low-cost passive investing solution that’s well-suited to new investors.

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