Investing online has become simple nowadays — all you need is an investment app. Last year, the number of apps downloaded counted up to a staggering 149.3 billion, and this number is all set to accentuate to 197 billion by the end of 2018 before zooming higher up to 352.9 billion by the year 2020. The latest study reveals that savvy investors in the US access at least nine apps on a daily basis and 30 in a month. If you want to be a savvy investor, here are a few investment apps that have gained wide currency among investors of today. But before you choose any of these available apps on the marketplace, you must go through the minute details since there are high chances that such costs may include commissions of brokers and advisors, too. The following apps are available on both iTunes and Google Play and are completely free to download.
Acorns
The Acorns app can be linked to your debit as well as credit cards, and it also functions with PayPal. This makes your savings simplified by rounding up the total cost you incurred while making a purchase to the nearest dollar and putting the change on investments. This app offers you simple investment tips and along with that, incentives by predicting the real picture of your exact financial situation after 30 years, considering your continuous investing approach. Although Acorns work best with taxable accounts at the present moment, it also works with traditional accounts and retirement accounts, too. The only disadvantage is that there is no tax-harvesting feature present in this app.
Robinhood
Robinhood proffers trading free-of-cost for self-directed cash or margin brokerage accounts. Before you dive in, go through all the associated costs that are listed which may include a fee of $50 every time you trade in securities that are foreign-listed or a broker-assisted trade fee of $10. By incorporating a stock on your watch list, you will receive notifications about ebbs and flows of the share price. Over-the-counter stocks are not available in Robinhood and that makes trading cumbersome.
Swell Investing
This app has all the support from Pacific Life Insurance Co., and this particular investing platform contains innovative themes that are based on clean water, renewable energy, zero waste, green technologies, disease eradication, and healthy living – all of which are sustainable environmental protection objectives of the United Nations. Portfolio assets are reviewed and rebalanced every quarter to make sure that assets are in complete alignment with the goals of the UN. Swell Investing’s major advantage is that it functions with taxable accounts or a retirement account where you would get options for SEP IRA, Roth, or a traditional account as well. Expense ratios are not available since Swell allows investing in stocks only, not ETFs.
Stash
Stash offers you over 30 investment options that investors generally choose based on preference and risk tolerance. Unconventional nomenclature of investment options is one feature that makes this app unique. The app plays an important role in helping users to invest automatically and to keep all their transactions cheaper at the same time. You need to shell out an account fee of $1 every month if you have a balance of less than $5000 and 0.25 every year if your balance is $5000 or above.
SigFig
This app functions as a middleman and connects investors to third-party brokerage accounts, as well as SigFig advisors. It offers investment advice, along with two additional services such as a managed account and a portfolio tracker that come entirely free of cost. You can avail these two services on the live chat, too. The managed account comprises reinvesting, automatic rebalancing, access to a professional financial advisor, and tax-loss harvesting. The yearly fee includes trading costs, but tax-loss harvesting may incur a trade fee that’s separate from the brokerage. Other apps will provide a longer and a detailed history of individual brokerage accounts, but SigFig offers an overview that encompasses three years of trading history.
These apps can be really helpful if you want to get access to the high-priced shares, and these can actually make investing a lot easier than you ever thought. But before taking a step forward, you must go through the finer details of such apps to avoid paying commissions to brokers and advisors and to see which one suits you the most.
