Why I love using Acorns to Save Money

Acorns is a financial wellness system with three different products, Invest, Later, and Spend. Invest is built by experts, to invest spare change automatically. Later is a retirement account, and Spend is the only checking account that helps you save and invest every day.

The path to financial wellness should be accessible to everyone, so Acorns make it easy to invest. With Acorns, you can start early and invest often, without making big changes to your everyday life. I love Acorns because everything is automatic.

No matter what type of account you have, you can make automatic daily, weekly & monthly investments. Every purchase you make can become an investment with Round-Ups. When your portfolio moves with the market, they will rebalance it to stay on track.

I also love Acorns because there are no minimums. no trade fees. Only $1 or $3 per month until you have $1 million invested.

Acorns also offers Cash Back! When you shop with one of our 350+ Found Money partners, they give bonuses that go into your Acorns Invest account.  Any of the cards you have linked in your Acorns account will be used to find cashback, and they also have a chrome browser extension to help notify you when you are at a site that offers cashback!

They also have easy-to-understand articles and videos from financial experts to help you feel more confident about your finances.

I currently use Acorns Invest and Acorns Later.

Acorns Invest

Invest is a regular investment account. You use post-tax dollars to invest in a diversified mix of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). You will owe taxes on any gains, but there’s no limit to how much you can invest and you can cash out your investments anytime.  Last year I cashed my investments and used it to buy Christmas gifts.

Acorns Invest lets you round up your spare change.  On the left, you can see the amount I paid to the vendor, and on the right is how much I rounded up and added to my Acorns Invest account.

If you really want to build up your investment, you can turn on round-up Multipliers and Whole Dollar Round-Ups.  The Multiplier will take whatever round up you have and multiply it by whatever option you choose, and then invest that amount.  For example, if your round up was $0.25  and you had the 3x multiplier selected, it would put $0.75 into your investment account.

I have Whole Dollar Round-ups set for $1 so anytime I pay an even dollar amount for something, it will add $1 to my investment account.

Acorns Later

Later is a special type of investment account called an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). You’ll still invest in a diversified mix of ETFs. But because IRAs are intended to help people sock away money for their post-work lives, the government grants them certain tax benefits.  They offer a variety of IRAs – Traditional, Roth, and SEP. I chose a  Roth IRA so when the money is withdrawn, it will be tax-free.

My portfolio is selected based on my age and timeline for retirement.  Right now I am only investing $5 a week until I get some debt paid off.

One thing I really like is they let you see your hypothetical projections at certain ages. Obviously, since we are dealing with the stock market, anything can happen – good or bad, but it is nice to see a visual representation of what my money could be just by contributing $5 a week.

Their app is very easy to use, as is their website. They have useful information to help you understand what each type of account does, and what is happening to your money.

 

Start investing with Acorns today! Get $5 when you use my invite link!