Investors with the lowest subscription tier can’t hand-pick assets. Fund your first taxable investment account with at least $500 in the first 30 days of account opening and earn a $50 bonus. While a great option for beginners, Acorn’s investment options, personalization, and strategies are limited compared to other apps. Those seeking greater flexibility and trading features should look elsewhere.

Our editors independently research and recommend the best products and services. You can learn more about ourindependent review processand partners in ouradvertiser disclosure. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links. Personal Capital customers will xcritical website get an experience that more closely resembles that of a traditional financial advisor than a robo-advisor, but you’ll need at least $100,000 to get started. You’ll also get a comprehensive tax strategy to help minimize what you owe to Uncle Sam.

Give your money the chance to work as hard as you do

• Its easy-to-use platform offers security and efficiency for beginners and passive investors.
• As of December 19, 2024, Mighty Oak Checking Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is 3.00% and Emergency Fund APY is 4.05%.
• If you opened an Acorns Bronze account, the one-year cost for that $100 investment would be $36.
• Acorns’ Round-Ups feature is simply the ability for an investor to round up everyday purchases and invest the “spare change” amount.

Robinhood may be more appealing to investors interested in active trading and a wide variety of investment options, including stocks, cryptocurrencies, and options. Acorns offers five different portfolios based on five levels of risk, and each one is composed of exchange traded funds, or ETFs. In addition to the five core portfolios, Acorns also offers four ESG portfolios, which stands for “environment, social, and governance” issues. If these are causes you care about, you can elect to invest in an ESG portfolio instead, however, the expense ratios of the funds within these portfolios may be slightly higher. It automatically rounds up users’ everyday purchase amounts to the nearest dollar and invests the spare change into diversified, computer-managed portfolios. Acorns has amassed over 10 million users and claims $15 billion in assets under management.

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Any account level is also able to personalize investments with a Bitcoin-linked ETF; further customization can take place by selecting individual stocks at the Gold account level. Rather than actively managing a portfolio of stocks or manually investing amounts into self-selected funds, Acorns automated and simplified the investment process. Acorns has maintained its mission to encourage passive investing to the broader public while building new features like custodial accounts for kids and methods to earn bonus investment opportunities with everyday spending. Acorns Early Invest, an UTMA/UGMA investment account managed by an adult custodian until the minor beneficiary comes of age, at which point they assume control of the account. Customers in the Gold Subscription Plan are automatically eligible for a 1% “Early Match” promotion on deposits by the Customer of up to $7,000 a year per Early Account. All funds must be held in the applicable Acorns Early Account for at least four years of the Early Match deposit date or until the beneficiary reaches the applicable Age of Transfer, whichever is earlier.

Tools & Features

Compensation from our partners may impact what products we cover and where they appear on the site, but does not have any impact on the objectivity of our reviews or advice. The above material and content should not be considered to be a recommendation. Investing in digital assets is highly speculative and volatile, and only suitable for investors who are able to bear the risk of potential loss and experience sharp drawdowns. Digital assets are not legal tender and are not backed by the U.S. government. Digital assets are not subject to FDIC insurance or SIPC protections.

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Acorn’s relatively high fees are reason enough for some investors to look elsewhere. If you have $10,000 or less to invest, these options may be more suitable for you. 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. Acorns is a financial technology and investment app — launched in August 2014 — geared towards making investing more accessible to the general public.

Silver and Gold members also get live Q&A sessions with financial experts, and Gold members have the additional option of taking educational courses. SoFi Robo Investing makes a good pick for new investors, those with existing SoFi accounts and those on the hunt for access to human advisors. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios is a great pick for your next robo-advisor, with low costs and tons https://dreamlinetrading.com/ of features, including unlimited access to advisors. Ellevest is a capable, flat-fee robo-advsior that offers impact portfolios and considers factors that uniquely affect women. Fidelity Go is a solid add-on for existing Fidelity customers looking to have their money managed and get planning help from an advisor. Vanguard Digital Advisor continues the company’s tradition of low costs and brings that to a managed portfolio with some premium features and strong Vanguard educational content.

A fee of only $3, $6 or $12 a month might sound cheap, but it can be a high percentage of assets for investors with small balances. If you only contribute by rounding up your spare change, one of Acorns’ signature features, your fee relative to your account balance will be fairly high. The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments. With help from renowned economist Dr. Harry Markowitz, Acorns combines new technology and old guard financial knowledge to bring you an innovative investment strategy. 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.

Most importantly, our reviews and ratings are objective and are never impacted by our partnerships. If you want to make the most of your spare change and get the occasional retailer kickback, there’s really no better place to do that than Acorns. The xcritical reviews automatic roundups at Acorns make saving and investing easy, and most investors will be surprised by how quickly those pennies accumulate. You’ll also find a wealth of financial education resources with Grow from Acorns.

You can add a Bitcoin-linked ETF to your current Acorns Invest portfolio to further diversify your allocation. Acorns will only invest up to 5% of your money into the Bitcoin-linked ETF, but the amount varies based on your risk level. For example, a conservative portfolio will only invest 1% of funds. SoFi Automated Investing supports individual investment accounts, joint accounts, traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, and 401(k) rollovers. Acorns checking accounts are insured by the FDIC for up to $250,000. Although it has no access to real-life financial advisors, Acorns is a legitimate investment platform that allows users to invest piecemeal.

Investment options

When it comes to round-up investing apps, Acorns is among the best in the business, but it might not be right for everyone. It’s easy to use, has an excellent education platform for new investors, and simple, straightforward fees. So when it comes to investing apps, I prefer apps with fewer bells and whistles. I don’t need – or even want – all the fancy charts and second-by-second data. I just need something that will help me stay consistent and let me accumulate assets in low-cost index funds. With 15 years of investing experience under my belt, I’ve come to realize that I get the best results when I do the least amount of work.

With the Personal plan’s Earning feature, you gain access to more than 450 bonus investment opportunities through shopping partners. A benefit of using Acorns is the lack of overdraft fees and the ability to use more than 55,000 fee-free ATMs. Depending on the subscription plan, Acorns offers educational resources through videos, tips, live Q&As with investing experts, and educational courses.

Acorns invests your money in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) made up of stock or bonds. Acorns also offers a useful feature called Earn with bonus investments from over 15,000 brands by shopping or with the Chrome or Safari extension. This earns you money back from brands and companies when you link a card attached to your Acorns Invest or Spend account. Because of this effortless and easy investing feature, Acorns earned the Investopedia award for the Best for Those Who Struggle to Save category. J.P. Morgan Automated Investing provides portfolio management services with automatic rebalancing and may be a good fit for existing J.P.

Reasonable fund expenses

Lastly, Acorns users can also earn bonuses by inviting their friends to sign up and join. Plus, account members can also earn up to a 25% bonus investment match from Acorns, and Gold members can earn up to a 50% match on bonus investments. Banking services and Mighty Oak Visa™ debit cards issued by nbkc bank, Member FDIC. As of December 19, 2024, Mighty Oak Checking Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is 3.00% and Emergency Fund APY is 4.05%. E-Trade Core Portfolios offers a capable robo-advisor, one that may work best for customers looking to keep their accounts with the broker while having someone do the investing for them.

Custom Portfolios are non-discretionary investment advisory accounts, managed by the customer. Custom Portfolios are not available as a stand alone account and clients must have an Acorns Invest account. Clients wanting more control over order placement and execution may need to consider alternative investment platforms before adding a Custom portfolio account. With a fun, easy-to-use app and integrated accounts, Acorns is your digital financial control panel that uses smart auto-saving and investing technology to help you stack cash using your spare change. Now, obviously, interest begins to snowball further on down the road as your balance compounds.

That’s all to say, Acorns is perhaps best utilized by folks most in need of a nudge to save a bit more, not beginners with low balances looking for the cheapest option. Neither Atomic Invest nor Atomic Brokerage, nor any of their affiliates is a bank. Investments in securities are Not FDIC insured, Not Bank Guaranteed, and May Lose Value. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Before investing, consider your investment objectives and the fees and expenses charged.

The main perk of the Gold plan is that it allows you to set up custodial plans for your children. This feature is largely unavailable at other brand-name robo-advisors. And after acquiring GoHenry, a U.K.-based saving and investing app for kids, Acorns launched its own Acorns Early app to help parents and children manage money together. The offering includes access to bank accounts and a debit card for kids, along with parental controls and real-time spending notifications. The Gold tier also allows you to purchase individual stocks, not simply the investment funds, as with the lower levels.

Acorns Premium, priced at $12 a month, offers Acorns Personal and Personal Plus’ core offerings as well as additional features specifically for parents. Acorns differs from other investment apps by offering an investment and financial experience that seamlessly inter-operates specifically for newer investors or investors seeking a less-complicated investing experience. For example, unlike Robinhood, Acorns limits the ability of non-premium plan users to directly invest in stocks. Acorns also offers unique features like “Earning” to get bonus investments and “Round Ups” to invest the difference of purchases up to the nearest dollar.