Acorns- An App That Invests Your Spare Change

Discussion in 'Wealth Creation & Management' started by House, Jun 27, 2015.

  1. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    Can't answer your specific question, but if you do go with Acorns, you won't be investing just $1000/month but also all of the "round-ups" associated with your spending/banking habits. Not that I think you'd notice if you can save $1000/month comfortably - it's more noticeable for those who say they can afford to put aside $50/month as a direct deposit into their Acorns account, but then they end up investing an extra $30 - $40 that they hadn't budgeted for.
     
  2. ego2spare

    ego2spare Well-Known Member

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    My only concern with the app is that its just an app. Apps come and go. This could be a very long term thing for some people. Its pretty new so whos to know if it will last. Then getting your potentially thousands of dollar out before that happens.. or trying to get it back after it folds
     
  3. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    Behind the App is a registered business though, don't know if that helps. :/
     
  4. ego2spare

    ego2spare Well-Known Member

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    Im gona say...that is somewhat helps lol

    Has anyone tried to withdraw back to their bank account yet? Just as a test or something? Are their fees to do that?
     
  5. col0016

    col0016 Active Member

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    I pay 95% of stuff in cash, so that aspect of it doesn't appeal to me. The low entry costs are what do.

    I just am not sure if I'd get higher returns on what they pick or something that just follows the market. Especially since most funds don't beat the market.
     
  6. ego2spare

    ego2spare Well-Known Member

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    You could put away $1000 a month with out feeling it and all of your transactions are always cash??.....u dont need this little acorns thing col0016. Your doing just fine. just stick with the hustle. Keep doing what your doin ;)
     
  7. col0016

    col0016 Active Member

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    But I want to start investing...
    This is my first year working a "real" job. I'm too busy to use my money for fun, so I want to start putting it to work for me. I think I'd probably be getting like 2% in the bank?
     
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  8. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    After some advice, how does the fees charged by Acorns compare to other managed fund operators?

     
  9. aleks

    aleks Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Shiney, at face value it appears to be cheap compared to a vanguard retail fund which is 0.9%pa but as to what you will be effectively be charged everything considered, who knows?

    If I understand correctly:
    0.27% acorns fee + ETF fees 0.07% to 0.6% + netting fee? =?


    col0016 the best investment you can make now is in answering your own question.
     
  10. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    Just letting everyone know that the referrals bonus for opening a new acorns account is a permanent feature now, so if anyone is considering opening an account, bonus payments are available for new and existing users. I'm an acorns user, and ego2spare has publicly stated he is, so if you're keen to open an account you should contact either one of us to get a bonus.

    Any others that also want to let us know if you are an acorns member in order to take advantage of the bonus?
     
  11. House

    House Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Why don't you make your own?
     
  12. Killface

    Killface Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Bump: Acorns is offering shares (in Acorns) to Australian residents. More accurately, shares in a shelf company that will invest in Acorns to the tune of $1M-$6M. Acorns is not a listed company.

    Not for me, I think I'll stick to the spare change thing.
     
  13. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    Acorns has a March promotion, offering $5 to everyone who refers a friend, and $5 for that friend as well.

    It's a good product, current returns are about 7.7%, easy way to get access to the share market with only a few $.

    So if you're interested here's my invest code: app.acornsau.com.au/invite/E47XCN
     
  14. House

    House Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Totally forgot I had this which has been a nice hidden benefit of this app given the returns. $500 that would have been spent if it wasn't being siphoned off into here $1 at a time. Think it's a moderate risk profile but still very unimpressed with the ~1% return when they advertise around the 7.7% mark.

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Killface

    Killface Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Hmm, don't know what's up with yours, mine shows a much healthier return:

    [​IMG]

    I'm using the 'Moderately Aggressive' profile. To my surprise, these figures are after the account fee has been deducted.

    Your deposits aren't mostly recent are they?
     
  16. House

    House Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Well then... changing the profile to the same! Good result though, wouldn't have expected that kind of return for an app.

    Had a look and had set up weekly deposit of $50 from 3rd March so not really much time to assess the performance.
     
  17. Killface

    Killface Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    YMMV :cool:

    Edit: my account has been active for a year, so obviously slow deposits.. It has gone down at times but not significantly... so far...
     
  18. Killface

    Killface Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Just an update, Acorns just emailed me claiming an average 10.5% return across all members. Before the account keeping fee that is. My annualised returns would probably be higher, but the account fee takes a chunk out of my profits.. only $1.25/month but my account is still under$300.

    I won't link to their blog article 'explaining' it because it's pretty much gibberish.
     
  19. House

    House Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    So what's your return so far?

    $550 odd has returned an incredible $13.06 in 7 weeks for me

    I love usually waited until it rounds up to a decent amount and then dump it into VAS on the ASX. Although the last time the lump sum was used to buy a NAS with 40TB of storage :D
     
  20. Killface

    Killface Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    With a little help from WolframAlpha, I have estimated thusly:

    My actual return, being $15 on $287 invested, assuming 14 uniform monthly deposits, is 8.1% annualised.

    My return before fees, being $32.50, works out at 17% annualised.

    I have accelerated my deposits so these figures would be low.

    Considering the fee is fixed at $1.25/mo for balances up to $5000 (and thereafter only 0.275%/pa), the return on $5000 invested a year ago would have been around $835 after fees. Assuming I got the sums right.

    Edit to add: your stated return works out to 17%pa too :) I'm gonna chuck some more in mine then!

    <More than the usual disclaimers apply!>
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2017

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