Are You Looking for Ready-Made Portfolio Investment or Stock Trading Opportunities? Look for platforms with low or no commission fees as well as affordable account minimums and limited extra fees like transfer, withdrawal and inactivity charges.
The top investment apps offer solutions tailored to investors of all experience levels. Beginning investors can leverage Betterment’s robo-advisor for wealth accumulation while more hands-on novices may prefer Stash to buy fractional shares or ETFs.
Betterment
Betterment is a top-rated robo-advisor that helps investors set and achieve financial goals. The platform features many useful functions, including rebalancing and tax impact analysis; you can even consolidate external accounts into one place for easier management. Betterment also has an affordable annual fee with no minimum account balance requirement – making it an excellent starting point for new investors.
Betterment will start by asking you a series of short questionnaires about your personal situation and financial goals, such as buying a car next year or retiring in 30 years. Based on that information, Betterment will then suggest an investment portfolio suitable to reach those goals.
Betterment’s user-friendly platform makes investing simple, with helpful tools such as automatic tax loss harvesting and tax impact preview. Furthermore, four portfolio strategies for advanced investors are offered as well as the Betterment Cash Reserve savings vehicle that earns high interest and is FDIC insured up to $1 million.
Acorns
Acorns is an investment app created specifically to assist those without enough money or the time to save independently, as it invests your spare change from each purchase into exchange-traded funds (ETFs). When linked with bank accounts and debit cards, it invests your spare change. For instance, when buying coffee for $3.75 with Acorns they will save and invest the additional 25 cents into exchange traded funds (ETFs).
Acorns provides other features, including spending reminders and a rewards program, similar to robo-advisors in that it builds low-cost, diversified portfolios tailored to your risk tolerance and investment goals. But unlike these services, Acorns does not offer tax loss harvesting or individual stock trading – its focus instead being new investors such as minors and young adults just starting to handle, save, and invest their money – just like an acorn needs water regularly in order to grow into a powerful oak.
Ally
Ally’s app is user-friendly and boasts outstanding ratings in both iTunes and Google Play stores, enabling users to easily access their holdings, the trading platform, and research tools such as stock watchlist, ETF screener and options calculator. In addition, Ally offers outstanding online customer service 24/7 via phone call, email or chat support.
Ally offers competitive costs relative to top brokerages, offering $0 commissions on U.S. equity trades and low options fees. Its no account minimum, free tools like customizable charting and real-time data feeds make Ally an excellent choice for beginning investors; its extensive selection of tradable securities (though no futures or cryptocurrency trading is currently offered), margin calculator and profit-and-loss calculator, research from Morningstar CFRA TipRanks etc provides customers with additional insights. Adding further convenience Ally allows customers to transfer funds between savings accounts to brokerage accounts while earning interest rates many times higher than what most brokerages provide as their default sweep rate – something most brokerages usually do as a default setting!
Ellevest
Ellevest is an online robo-advisor designed to meet women’s financial needs. Recognizing that female investors face additional hurdles than men when investing, such as wage gaps and career breaks, Ellevest also acknowledges women tend to save less than men on average.
Once you register with Ellevest, they’ll ask questions to assess your investment goals and needs before offering three membership plans with various costs and features.
Ellevest offers an easy, tier-based pricing system to make investing accessible for people of all income levels, while providing discounted financial coaching and educational content.
Ellevest offers goal-based portfolios built using exchange-traded funds (ETFs). There are 21 asset classes covered and socially responsible investments such as companies with high ESG scores are also provided for. Ellevest also provides cash-back rewards debit cards to help save even more; unlike many robo-advisors, Ellevest does not charge monthly fees.