Acorns Review: My Honest Thoughts on the Investment App, Pros and Cons, 2020
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- Here are my thoughts on the Acorns App and my full review of the investment platform. I discuss the features, investment mix, and fee structure of the app and if you should use it or not. Add me on Instagram: humphreytalks (new IG as of July 2020)
This review is updated as of July 2020.
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Features:
Automatic Round Up Feature: This is the core identifying feature of Acorns and where it gets it name from. Basically every time you make a transaction with a linked card, the app rounds UP your transaction to the nearest dollar and invests the change. It’s basically the digital equivalent of paying with cash, and taking that change and investing it automatically for you. So if you buy something that costs $19.50 cents, Acorns will round it up to the nearest dollar, and automatically invest that difference, which in this case is 50 cents.
They also have a multiplier function, so if your difference in your purchase and your round up was say, 50 cents, if you choose the 2x multiplier it will automatically invest $1, 3x will be $1.50, and 10x will be $5.
Now its important to note that the automatic round up feature is basically just taking the money straight from your bank account. My Opinion on the Round Up Feature is that it's a good feature because it prioritizes automatic saving - which I’m all about. Too many people are not good at saving, and this does it for you, AUTOMATICALLY. If you are going to use this feature and can afford it, I would suggest using the 2x or 3x multiplier. The 10x multiplier seems excessive to me.
They have other features in their $3 and $5 program which I speak about in the video - including the "Later" investment program allowing you to invest in an IRA/Roth IRA, and the "Early" investment program which allows you to open accounts for your kids.
Investment Mix:
Within the app, you can choose from a selection of 5 Portfolios: Conservative, Moderately Conservative, Moderate, Moderately Aggressive, and Aggressive. I go over the exact YTD returns and 3 year returns of all their portfolios in the app and I give you a breakdown of what funds each portfolio selection actually purchases.
Fees:
Lets talk about the $1 a month option since that’s the cheapest option:
$1 a month is $12 a year. If you only invest $100/year, that $12 is about a 12% fee per year which is pretty insane. That means if you invest $1200 a year, the fee is 1%, and $2400 is 0.5%, so to make this actually worth it your account should be above $2400, higher the better.
The $3 a month option gets you the Later account, which is a retirement account. I don’t love this as you can just open a free retirement account at other brokerages like Vanguard or Fidelity. But, it could be a good idea if you just want to have all your accounts in one place. You also happen to get the Spend checking account which gives you reimbursed ATM fees.
The $5 a month option gives you investment accounts for kids, which is nice if you have family. I can’t comment too much on this as I don’t have a family, but I could see it being a decent value if you’re actually using the features to teach your kids investing principles.
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You make some really amazing and easy to understand videos. I appreciate that a lot!
Glad you like them! And I am super happy to hear that, thanks for watching me
This gave me some insight on the Acorns app that a friend recommended to me. Thank you again!
Thank you Humphrey us old gals got together and started our Acorn journey with our limited resources this may really help us.
Great review! I appreciate the rate of return analysis. Thanks and keep it up!!
Thanks, will do!
I knew nothing about investment but decided to start my acorn account 5 years ago as my piggy bank. It was free for college students for 4 years, not quite sure if they still have this offer. I started with just $20 in my account. Beside the round up I also set the recurring investment at $15 every Friday. I basically just leave the app there and check it maybe once a month. Now I have $6500 in the account, all time performance has up 40%. Pretty happy about it!
I totally agree with you. Acorns is perfect for the "set it and forget it" strategy.
Thanks for that break down of each pie. I've always wanted to know what acorns was investing into and couldn't figure it out.
I'm on the $3 dollar a month plan and it works for me. The spend (2$ option) works really well because you can get some cash back on certain places and it's like a mini bank account that I can save. I like acorns because its automated and it does everything for you. I have other brokerages but this ones perfect for growth. Referrals and the spend cash back feature help cut down the monthly fees.
Great vid as always!
Great Revlis, thanks for the feedback. Yeah I didn't give the $3 dollar a month plan a try, but it's good to hear positive feedback about it.
i guess Im asking the wrong place but does anyone know a trick to get back into an instagram account??
I was stupid lost my password. I would appreciate any tips you can give me!
Good explanation. I started an account a year ago and it's way better than any savings account ever could be.
Just started using acorns a year ago and I’m up over 20%!
Awesome bro
@ToryPlayz stick to playing your dolls kid.
Can you explain being up 20% on an investment that shows at most 2% ytd returns? Sounds like cap to me
@@bobjohnson7695 Honestly last year was a great time to be investing if you bought anytime after the covid dip. It wouldn't surprise me to see an average of 20% ytd on acorns. I have an average of 30% roughly from buying mostly Finstocks and the S&P 500 last year on a different platform. If I bought the finstocks alone id be up 60+% on average. The total market recovered a lot following the big dip last year so 20% is attainable. I wouldn't expect that most years though.
@@alia7750 the kids hustling harder at 11 than you are at your age lol stay mad
You’re the best!!!!! Appreciate your content
You're the best! Thank you for watching.
Well done review, i appreciate it.
You are welcome
Found you thru tiktok and really dig your content bro! Super useful! Aside from all the dances all these people are doing, i like following people who talk about financial management, ways to make money, and business strategies. Dont immediately disregard tiktok you guys! Lots of good information and funnels to find content like what humphrey talks about.
Thank you MATTure, i really appreciate your comment. Still trying to grow and get better at UA-cam videos, thanks for your support my man
Humphrey Yang Your videos are pretty professional! Wouldnt be surprised if you hit 100k-200k by the end of the year. Super underrated!
Really good content. Love your videos, good tiktok finding
Thank you Diego. I appreciate you being here
I think Acorns is good as it is just a set it and forget it option, however if you are just using it for the roundup feature, it does not make a whole lot of financial sense. Like Humphrey mentions, the fees will outweigh the potential benefit. If you're not starting with a some start up cash + round up + recurring there are better options.
I actually enjoy Acorns for the reason you stated. I use it as a set it, and forget it savings option that has potential to earn. I have it on the Moderately Aggressive option as well.
awesome Philip, definitely agreed.
Humphrey Yang Thanks for the reply! Love your content
Its a horrible app that never pays its promotional referral bonuses
I made acorns couple months ago. Currently using e aggressive portfolio with $50/week. It’s at $877 with a 5% return so far.
That's awesome.!
First things first
I understand your concern about the IRS but it’s highly improbable that the IRS will come for you
unless you’re an independent contractor making large sums of untaxed money and that’s only if they catch wind of you.
Anyways
in order for you to get substantial amount of dividends paid out to you
You would need a large sum of money already invested here’s an example
In order to get $1000 in dividends
Per month
You’re gonna need at least $300,000-$400,000 invested in High earning dividend stocks.
Which would net you $12,000 a year in dividend pay and tax on $12,000 a year it’s no more than
$2500 assuming you make less than 100k
2500 is a lot of money but to the IRS that’s that’s chump change They got bigger fish to fry but that’s assuming you I have 400 K invested
And if you make more than 100k or have 400 K invested you shouldn’t be doing your own taxes anyways
If you don’t have 400,000 and you make less than 100,000k
or you should be using a affordable and easy website like TurboTax
One last thing at the end of the year acorns will send you a document which has all the necessary tax information like dividend pay ,buying and selling stocks
It will be some sort of variation of a 1099 form.
You’ll take that form and your 1040 /w2 or 1099 misc
And use it when filing taxes.
Then you’ll know if you owe or if you don’t
@@jojo7253 and they would only send a form if you made a certain amount, right? I started an account last year and I think might amount gained/earned was so minimal they said I didn’t have to claim it. Does that sound right?
@@johannadollerhide yes that sounds about right
I found some information on it so you can double check. It’s always better to be safe than sorry
⬇️
www.acorns.com/support/taxes/will-i-be-provided-with-the-proper-tax-forms/
I just started with 20$ just to see what it's about. I have round ups and weekly reoccurring of ten bucks and I chose aggressive as well.
I'm just curious and playing around now but this is good to see.
Any other Millennials in their early 30's feel like fools for not learning about about investing sooner? Thanks for the free education Humphrey Yang *subscribed*
Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Haven’t used Acorns but definitely agree that it helps the average person even consider the power of investing in the market!!
Aye! Yeah perfect for new people or people that just want an automatic solution
Such a good video thank you so much.
Great Video !! Can you make a video about how you became so knowledgeable on Finance etc. as well as experience you have ? Thank !!
I have a video coming out Friday with a little bit of my background and how i built my ecommerce business, but I didn't go into as much my personal finance interest haha, let me know what you think of that on Friday and if you're still missing some parts, I can make another video in the future
great review thank you sm
Fantastic breakdown my man. Thank you 🙏
You are welcome Derick. Thanks for watching!!! Sub if you haven’t already lol! Gotta shoot my shot and ask, ya know?
Great info. Thanks!!!
I have acorns and they also pay dividend on the stocks. If you have dividends getting reinvested it makes $1 not a big deal.
Straight forward that's what's up 👍
What are your thoughts on viewing this as an alternative to a high yield savings account? You would have the high dollar amount to justify the fees, but also be yielding a much higher return on your money on average than a high yield savings account?
Great info Thank You
Very good. Thank you.
Hey Humphrey! Can you make a review on Stash as well? And a new update on the Tesla video on whether it's worth it to invest in the stock now?
Thanks for the video! I downloaded acorns almost a year ago not knowing what it was and only put in $50 but would you recommend setting up the recurring investment?
Yes do it and start compounding your money. Also open up a Roth IRA!
Been using ten x for six months now, it is kind of like a way to force my impulse buys to work for me. so I purposely use linked cards for impulse and I round to even 00 to save $10. It makes my second guess that coffee etc purchase.
thats smart, Troy... I didn't even think about it, but that's a genius way to use the app.
Most successful people started from nothing. They didn’t wait for the opportunity to knock but created the opportunity on their own by working hard. Mr carlos kingston is a legendary forex trader I have been trading with for about 7 mounths now I earn up to $15,000 from forex trade with him. this is why I will always recommend him for your trades. i guess this is the epic start to a new chapter in my life. I just feel like more people should be made aware of this opportunity, feel free to contact him @carlos_1uptrades on IG.
“Okay, explain this to me like I’m 5.” - Michael Scott
Good review of Acorns. Can you do a review on betterment or wealthfront or other robo investment ?
I will take a look at those topics and see if it's possible with me! thanks for the comment
I heard it’s free for college students so if that’s the case is this one of the best apps to choose for a beginner?
This kills me, I've watched a few of these now. Everytime I hear "you have to put a lot of money into this for it to work." And THEN "It is great for setting and forgetting." Like. I can't tell if I'm just dumb or if that is very contradictory? I will say this is the best review so far, showing inside the app.
I know :/ no problem hopefully you got something from it
@@humphrey Thank you for the review though! Decided I'd just have to check it out for myself
I got the impression that Acorn was better to invest in than Stockpile. I am very new to this whole scene. I wanted to mainly do this for my son who showed interest in opening up a stock acct, but for Stockpile. My son is 14 yrs old & understands a little more than I, but I am willing to educate myself more on these matters to help him as well as myself. I wanted to personally ask your thoughts and opinions on Stockpile versus Acorn. Stockpile charges a fee of .99 cents per trade or sale, but no monthly fee.... which gave me the impression that this was alot more expensive than Acorn. Please let me know your thoughts and any other suggestions if possible. Tysm for posting this video 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Awesome I love your video next can you review Robin Hood
I will take a look at that topic and see if it's possible with me! Thanks for you awesome comment I appreciate it.
Humphrey Yang thanks and your welcome
Thank you
Does it exist an european version of this app? I live in France and i would like to learn a little bit how to invest/ save money
If you order by postmates it’s very easy to save the 3$ fees per month which I do it a lot .
Isn't the Postmates bonus just a one-time $5?
@@LoganAllec each time I order I get 0.25 $ on each time .
@@michaelsaab8966 interesting, thanks
on the round up feature is it putting it aside in real time? what I mean by this is in my checking account when I make a purchase of say .50cents will my available balance in my checking account go down by a whole dollar? or is it just keeping track of what I spend and I'm surprised later when they take $5 out?
the latter, it keeps track of what you spend and surprised later.
I already have a Roth IRA that I max out for every year and put 50 a month into my Robinhood account. I’m wondering should I even invited in acorn also
I’m thinking of just doing the round up on acorn lol 😂
Definitely try it and see it if you like it!
so would you say for a beginner investor i should open the acorns account with about 2.4k and go for around 25-50$/week afterwards?
I just want to round up my money, then I want all my spare change too be auto transferred to my credit card debt
Will it do that for me?
It wont do that, you have to do that yourself haha.
I just invested $1000 like a few minutes ago now i am just waiting for it to actually settle into my acorns app. I'm at the moderate aggressive one. I'm 18 with 1200 in my bank, and 2900 in my savings acc minus the 1000 that i just invested. lets see how this goes.
How has it been?
Yeah how'd it go?
Did you factor dividends. The percentage isn't the only thing.
Sooooo should I use it or not?
Installed acorn. Little sketched out about it all and not sure out to change my plan..charging me more than a dollar a month...
I have a question about taxes. I’m 18 years old and still dependent of my parents. I don’t work at all but recently started using acorns. Does that mean I have to do my own taxes next year during tax season or do I give it to my parents so their accountant to handle it? And about the dividends. So each year I have to pay taxes on it even if I don’t touch the money (withdraw)? For example I don’t plan on touching my account for another 15-20 years or even more. And if I do, after each tax form for the year, the dividends I payed for isn’t accumulated to following years taxes right?
Did you pay taxes?
So which portfolio would you go with than? The moderate one?
If Acorns... aggressive.
would you say its good to start an acorns account now? considering the pandemic.. Ive been on the fence for a few months because of the markets going down, yet again I don't understand much in investing.
hey Ellie, if you're investing for a LONG-term timeframe, it's better to always start as soon as you can. If you're short term, you can wait a bit longer to wait out any volatility in the market.
@@humphrey yeah but if you're investing for a long-term like you say isn't it better to just put it in Roth ira
My daughter is 11 and understands investments. I wonder what would happen if we put $6k into acorns and set the account to aggressive
Acorns' Aggressive isnt even that aggressive, but I think you would be well served.
@@humphrey I feel the same way. It’s a small step. I recently got into investing through Robinhood. Purchasing small shares of multiple stocks so I can keep a diversified portfolio. One thing I don’t particularly care for about Acorn is, I can’t control my contribution to my investments they chose, more directly. It’s really good faith investing. Even more so than it already is with stocks.
I’ve had mine on aggressive for a few years and have done quite well! I also opened custodial accounts for my kids through Acorns which is something I highly recommend!
Maybe stupid question, but I am brand new to this game. Are you able to access these accounts from different avenues such as online, or only through the acorn app? Also, are you able to pull money out, or is there a fee? Thank you !
I don’t know about online access besides mobile app, but I do know you can pull money out as you wish without a fee
@@humphrey I am an Arab, can I invest or not?
@@yaserDoom I don’t think the app is racist u can be any race
10x is pretty dope. It even rounds up to $1x10= $10 every time I transfer to my fidelity account. Lol
I’m 20. I find this very interesting but know little about the stock market because I’m dumb. But would you recommend me just opening the lite and leaving it there
Yeah that would be fine if you know very little... I would encourage you to try to learn more about the market if you can!
Hi am 18 I started investing with acorns and it’s worth it also started to try out other ways to invest I invested to Nike at $100 and made 12 out of it if u use yahoo finance it’s a good app for investing
Not sure why they don't include the performance of each portfolio. Strange.
Definitely, not sure why...
So I noticed a withdrawal feature is that you taking money out from your investments or money that accessible to you that’s not taxed?
You can withdraw as you please, any gains you may receive, Acorns will send you a form at the end of the year for your taxes, most brokerages do this (send you a form) so that you can accurately report taxes, they keep track of it for you
Humphrey Yang like always thanks for responding. That’s super helpful to know.
@@humphrey thank you so so much for replying!!!!!
Which is gonna make better investing at acorn, all at once or lump sum?
Do you mean over-time vs lump sum? If so I think its good to average in.
@@humphrey yes
Can someone please help, I had the 3$ a month plan, because it says it automatically takes out the round ups, but if I change to the $1 a month plan, will it not take out the round ups automatically?
It'll still take the roundups I believe.
You have to turn off your round up
Easy sub
Can you do one on robinhood
I’m really confused, how is 12 bucks a year a bad thing?? I’m genuinely confused
Is it worth it if I put in 20 every month ?
How hard is close Acorn account? Do they give beat around the bushes BS?? Thanks
Very easy. One or two clicks. No hassle. That is a plus.
would you characterize this app as a savings account with investment opportunities?
Exactly.
those posters make me melt
Hey where’s the bell?
I’m on aggressive and it’s not that aggressive
So I am assuming this would only work with a debit card. I used a credit card for most of my purchases as it has more benefits.
You can actually link multiple cards to your A Acorns account including credit cards!!
@@jojo7253 gonna have to look into this if you can connect a credit card.
You really should it’s a really good way to start saving regardless if it’s long-term or short-term
I would recommend long-term tho
Do roundups
and put in like 10 to 20 bucks a week reoccurring withdrawals to start.
I’ve had my account for 15 months
Using aggressive portfolio
i am 13.6% up at moment over the last 15 months.
Which is extremely high to be honest
a more realistic number is 6-8 % but anything above 1% is better than chilling in your bank account. So go for it🙌
@@jojo7253 I agree, I think I will just use the change option for a bit and start slowly moving it up as I have more income.
Doesnt work on Capital One, tried bunch of times
WHAT ARE THe alternatives for no fees
just any brokerage account with no fees, Charles Schwab, Fidelity perhaps
Hi, do you have a podcast by any chance?
Not yet, but maybe one day!
Now its a $3 fee
Review Stash please
i might do that in the future, thanks for the suggestion!
can you pick your own etf like arc invest?
Not with acorns you can’t.
I can’t login to my account please help
My nco told me to put in a hundred dollars 💵
So I should open an account, put 3k in it and just let it run? Please advise
You could do that, if you want to be super passive. It won't be super optimized but it's better than not doing anything.
Humphrey Yang thank you. I appreciate the video and your time. I am just trying to invest very passively without losing money on fees.
But how much money would I gain from that $1
If you invested it? Haha Probably not much :D
I had an aggressive portfolio in Acorn. Some clown there thinks that Macy's is an appropriate investment for an aggressive portfolio. I think they get paid by companies to send investments to them or their stock picker has a degree in finger painting.
I just want to know will I get money
Yes in the form of Dividends
I am an Arab, can I invest or not?
You may need to be where Acorns is available.
@@humphrey If I can't, right
Who’s doing 2.50 x 10 10 times a day 🤔
2.50 is not a round up option. It would be 99 cents or less
Don’t waste your time. Use Cash App or Stash.
Why?
"Not aggressive enough in an aggressive portfolio". 🤣🤣🤣.
Not a good app since they underperform and charge fees.
Not sponsored by acorns but is sponsored by fidelity lol
DON'T GET THIS APP
Thank you