Acorns Invest: An App to Start Growing Wealth

No matter how much and how we earn, we all want our money to grow, beat inflation, secure our future and take us towards financial freedom. However, given that a lot of us barely manage to plan our finances for the next month, making efficient long-term investing often seems like a difficult dream to realize.

Luckily, apps like Acorns Invest promise to make this seemingly complex process of investing easier for everyone. We took a closer look at the app to help you dive into its features, pros and cons. 

Acorns offers a range of services—from micro-investing to savings to retirement planning and beyond. In this Acorns app review, we’ll break down the platform’s offerings, features and shortcomings to help you decide if it’s the right investing app for you.

What Is Acorns Investment?

Acorns is among the most popular micro-investing and savings platforms in the market, with over 13 million users and $25 billion in investments. Its services span automated investing, kids’ investment accounts, retirement accounts and even shopping cashbacks.

Source: Acorns

Acorns investing offerings and features range across six core segments:

• Invest: Acorns offers an investing account powered by a robo-advisor, which analyzes your age, income and goals to assign a risk profile and suggest a few pre-prepared ETF-based portfolios. You can go with one of the suggestions to start investing.

• Banking: The platform has a checking account with zero overdraft fees, free ATM services and other benefits, along with real-time micro-investing.

• Later: Use Acorns’ individual retirement accounts (IRAs) with tax benefits based on your current situation and goals.

• Early: Acorns also provides UTMA/UGMA accounts for kids (under 18), with investing options and tax benefits.

• Earn: You can earn bonus investments for shopping with over 15,000 brands. 

• Learn: Find articles, videos and live Q&As with financial experts on a range of financial topics.

One of the highlights that makes Acorns stand out is its Round-Ups feature, which rounds up every expense to the next dollar and transfers the extra change to your Acorns Invest account. 

Source

For example, if you make a purchase of $3.20 with an Acorns-linked debit or credit card, Acorns rounds up that amount to $4 and transfers the spare $0.80 to your investing account. The amount is invested once your spare amount hits $5.

This feature completely automates investing and makes Acorns one of the most popular investing and financial management tools for beginners (and those who struggle with regular investing). However, Acorns offers many other services, too.

Acorns Investment: Pros and Cons to Consider 

Before we get into the app’s diverse offerings, here’s a little roundup of the good and could-be-better aspects. Use this Acorns investing review to get a fair idea of what to expect before we dive deeper into its features.

The Pros 

There are a variety of features that make Acorns popular. These include: 

• Ability to invest as little as $5

• Fully automated, hands-off investing with the Round-Ups feature

• Beginner-friendly user interface and features 

• Checking account with zero hidden fees 

• No fees on withdrawals and deposits

• Articles, videos, courses and other resources for learning

The Cons

Like every app, there are some downsides or things that could be improved with this wealth-management tool. These include: 

• High subscription fees that can go up to $12/month

• Custom investments are not available to all users

• No personalized investment advice

Whether the pros outweigh the cons depends on your individual situation, which might include your investing frequency, amount and goals.

What Does the Acorns App Offer?

Acorns differs from many other robo-advisors in the way it charges fees. Instead of taking a percentage cut from your investments, Acorns charges a flat monthly fee, which varies across its three subscription plans: Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Source: Acorns Pricing Page

Let’s have a brief look at Acorns’ three subscription plans and their investment options and offerings:

Now let’s look at the three subscription plans in detail. 

Acorns Bronze

Acorns costs $3/month with its Bronze subscription plan, which is the least expensive tier and offers all of Acorns’ base services, including:

• An Acorns Invest account with access to several portfolios of highly-rated ETFs curated for your risk profile, including ESG portfolios and a Bitcoin-linked ETF

• The Round-Ups feature, which automates investing by rounding up your spending to the next dollar and transferring the extra change to your Acorns Invest account. The spare change is invested once it reaches a $5 threshold.

• A checking account with zero minimum balance fees, zero overdraft fees and access to over 55,000 fee-free ATMs, along with real-time Round-Ups when you use your Acorns VISA debit card for payments.

• An Acorns Later retirement account—Roth IRA, Traditional IRA or SEP IRA—recommended for your situation, with an automatic recurring contribution feature and tax benefits. You can invest as little as $5, and your portfolio adjusts with your age.

• The Acorns Earn feature, which lets you earn cashbacks when you shop online or when you invite a friend to Acorns; the cashbacks are invested in your Acorns Invest account.

Overall, the Bronze plan offers all the basic Acorns services at an affordable price. This plan could be a good option if you are mainly focused on passive investing and are just looking for an app that will simplify the process for you.

Acorns Silver

Priced at $6/month, the Acorns Silver plan offers everything in the Bronze plan, plus some additional benefits, such as:

• A 1% IRA match on your retirement account contributions if you keep them for 4 years. So, if you put $5000 as an annual contribution to your IRA and keep it for four years, Acorns will contribute an additional $50/year on your behalf.

• An emergency fund and a tungsten metal Mighty Oak Visa debit card with your checking account

• 2.57% APY on your checking account and 4.05% APY on the emergency fund (Note: According to Acorns, the APY is subject to change.)

• A 25% match on your bonus cashback investments via Acorns Earn

• Live Q&As with investing experts

The plan costs around $72 annually, which might be a dealbreaker for some people, as many other apps offer much lower fees. However, the 1% IRA matching and high interest rates can compensate for the subscription costs, so it can be beneficial if you plan to use these benefits.

Acorns Gold

Acorns’ most premium subscription plan costs $12/month (that’s $144 annually) and has everything in the Silver plan. But it stands out because of its additional premium services:

• Acorns Early Invest account for kids with a 1% match

• A 3% IRA match on your contributions to your retirement account if you keep them for 4 years. For an annual contribution of $5000, that’s a $150 match, which overcompensates for the annual subscription fee of $144.

• Free access to the Acorns Early app for kids’ savings, with parental controls, spending notifications and a kids debit card with 35+ customizable designs, among other features

• Ability to customize your portfolio with individual stocks and ETFs of your choice

• A 50% match on your bonus investments via Acorns Earn

• A $10,000 life insurance policy and will 

The Gold subscription offers the most you can get from Acorns. But given its higher monthly fees, it’s a better option for those who are serious about investing for themselves and their kids.

Acorns Is a Powerful Investing Platform With a Wide Range of Options

Acorns stands out as a promising investing platform, with benefits of savings, retirement planning, kids’ investing and much more. The Round-Ups feature gives the platform a real edge among its competitors. Add to that features like IRA matching benefits, a high-interest checking account and a smooth and beginner-friendly UI, and Acorns has plenty of benefits worth appreciating.

However, Acorns’ biggest catch is its pricing structure. There is no free plan, and you must pay at least $3/month to use the app’s services. That said, the platform’s benefits have the potential to overcompensate for these charges. If you plan to avail yourself of these benefits, Acorns is a great option for growing your wealth.

Photo from fizkes/Shutterstock.com