Small Business Personal Finance: App Review: Acorns Makes it Easy to Save and Invest

Acorns app review Confession: I have had Acorns installed on my device for over a year but only recently bothered to actually set up my account. Now that I’ve started using the app properly it makes me wonder what took me so long to get on board. As it turns out Acorns is a helpful and very easy to use solution for not only saving your “loose change” but investing it as well.

How it works

Acorn’s main functionality is depositing what they call “round ups” into various investment portfolios. Round ups are calculated by linking debit or credit cards and either automatically or manually selecting which transactions should be rounded up to the nearest dollar. For example, if you spent $2.74 on a cup of coffee, Acorns would add $.26 to your account which would then be invested once you reach at least $5. You can also have different settings for different cards or even deselect round ups before they actually get deposited (like transactions that end in .00 that add $1 to your investment account).

While you can’t choose exactly what stocks you’re investing in you can choose between five different settings ranging from conservative to aggressive. This comes complete with projections based on a basic monthly contribution and target dates. You can also see the breakdown of the six categories your money will be invested in: large company stocks, small company stocks, emerging market stocks, real estate stocks, government bonds, and corporate bonds. As you’d expect, selecting a conservative portfolio has a much higher percentage of things like government bonds (40%) whereas emerging market stocks make up a greater chunk of your portfolio as you select more aggressive options (topping at 20%).

In addition to round ups Acorns also allows you to add extra funds whenever you want or even schedule additional deposits consistently. The app is also has a new feature currently in beta called Found Money that offers you cash back for making purchases on various partner sites. However this is the one section of the app I have yet to experiment with.

My experience

Since finally setting up my investment account I have effortlessly deposited just over $600. That might not seem like a whole lot but I’ve only linked two of my cards and only one of is set for automatic round ups. With my account still set on the most conservative option my gains have been modest (about $2.30 right now) but fairly consistent. In fact, for those just looking to automatically save money, this might actually be a decent option — although keep in mind that there is still risk involved.

One of the things I like most about Acorns is the amount of data available to you at any given moment including an actual breakdown of how much of your money has gone towards each one of their six investment categories and how many shares your own in each. I’ve found myself waking up each morning and seeing how my account is doing even though the differences are mere cents. Beyond seeing how much I’m accruing in savings it’s also another chance for me to monitor how much I’m spending.

Although I haven’t done so yet I also appreciate how easy Acorns makes it to withdraw funds or even cash out your account. It will even show you exactly how much you have in your account at the moment so you can grab it all if you wanted to. Once again this type of functionality is what might make it a good option for those who may want to reach a certain savings threshold before moving their funds to a traditional savings account or maybe even an IRA.

The bottom line

While I’ve been impressed with the premise of Acorns for some time I can now say that I am impressed with the platform as well. Like many FinTech companies Acorns helps break down some of barriers that prevent average consumers from doing smart things with their money, such as investing. By making it easy for anyone to start saving and investing their spare change, Acorns makes something big out of something so small.