Acorns- An App That Invests Your Spare Change

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Interesting concept with 700,000 users. Launches in Aus next year.

Acorns works by letting you connect your credit or debit cards (with a simple sign-up using your online bank credentials), and automatically rounds up the change from every purchase to add to your investment portfolio. You can choose between five different risk options, from aggressive to conservative, and watch how your investments are performing over time.

The slick smartphone app automatically invests its users money based on a funky formula is gaining momentum with young and first-time investors.

Opening and managing an investment account can be intimidating for a lot of people, but what if a simple smartphone app could take care of it all for you?

Acorns, a eight-month old smartphone app built for exactly that purpose, said Wednesday that it had raised $23 million in additional funding.

Acorns' app was designed to help people, especially first-time investors, get started in investing with small automated investments into a portfolio of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, that the company selects and balances. Users link their bank accounts to the app, which then automatically rounds up the cost of all transactions to the nearest dollar, withdraws that spare change and invests it. For example, if you buy a coffee for $2.40, Acorns will take an extra 60 cents and invest it in an exchange-traded fund.

Acorns' two-pronged approach to making investing approachable by automating the process and incorporating a smartphone app is paying off with younger users. Of Acorns' 650,000 registered customers, 75% are under the age of 35, Cruttenden said.

Acorns' six portfolio options are designed with different risk levels, and are regularly and automatically balanced based on their performance. In recent years, other automated investment tools such as Wealthfront and Betterment have surfaced to offer investment management with little to no contact with human investment advisors. And an Acorns clone, Lawnmower, which invests in Bitcoin, the popular digital currency, launched last week.

The alternative is traditional brokerage firms, which can be intimidating and have high fees and minimum investment amounts Acorns' minimum is $5. Currently, Acorns charges a $1 monthly fee for accounts with a balance under $5,000, and 0.25% per year for accounts larger than that.
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Fortune

https://www.acorns.com



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYZlnkRzhCQ[/youtube]
 
I don't get it

Why not just set up a daily automated transfer if you want to save a bit of money each day



How much is the transaction fee you would be paying for each of their "round up" ?
 
its not for savings, it's for investing. It's mainly for people who can't be bothered or don't have the discipline to do it and then go researching where to invest it. Convenience is key these days, especially for the under 35 crowd.

Fees were in the last sentence- "Currently, Acorns charges a $1 monthly fee for accounts with a balance under $5,000, and 0.25% per year for accounts larger than that." Fees FAQ.

Reddit thread discussing fee structure, micro-investing and cheaper alternatives such as Betterment
 
I do the same with spare change: all the coins go into a bucket at the end of the day and I empty it and bank the at the money end of the month.

Neat idea to do it with an app.
 
I installed this a while ago - it's basically an electronic replacement for your spare change jar. Haven't actually given it access to my accounts yet though, but hearing loss of good things about it.

Interesting that apps like Robinhood and Acorn see Auatralia as a natural second market to launch in. I'm not even sure they are available in Canada.
 
johncan said:
Does anyone know of something like this you can use in Aus?
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Nothing yet, Acorns will be the first.

I'll probably set up a separate account for the withdrawals and autodebit $100 or so every week so it'll "invest" the rounded up change and whatever is left over will be used for rainy days or whatever.
 
Current update- Beta testing is nearly ready

Acorns Beta testing is around the corner!
As we get our heads down over the next few weeks to prepare for Beta testing, the team at Acorns would like to give you an update and say thanks for all your support.

15,000 We are really excited to tell you that with your support we recently passed 15,000 sign-ups for our early access list; we are so encouraged by this level of support.

Regulatory Approval We have passed all regulatory & legal requirements necessary (from ASIC and other relevant regulatory bodies) for Acorns to operate here in Australia. This is an important step for a company like Acorns, and we will be continuing to make sure we are always on top of these matters. This means Acorns is another step closer to being live.

Technology We are putting the final touches onto the Acorns technology, and optimising it for Australian use our biggest priority is making sure our product provides the best possible experience to our Australian investors, and we're taking the time to make sure the technology reflects this.
In summary, we're very close to having a product that is ready to go into Beta testing, we'd like to thank you again for all your support and can't wait for you to invest the change!
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Been going for a week. It rounds up every transaction you make in those accounts/cards you have nominated as "rounding accounts". So, be aware that your initial investment of say $50/month may actually be more like $80/month if you do a lot of transactions.
 
My bullshit detector is on alert level, where is the prospectus/pds?

"Automatic portfolio re-balancing" appears to be a euphemism for we are going to fuck you on fees
 
Automatic Rebalancing
Acorns automatically rebalances your Acorns Investment Account when you deposit or withdraw money, or after a market move occurs that causes your Acorns Investment Account allocation to deviate by 5% or more from your Selected Portfolio target allocation. This keeps your Acorns Investment Account in line with the target allocation of your Selected Portfolio. We don't charge any fees for rebalancing and no brokerage fees are payable (see Transaction Costs on page 24 for an explanation of applicable buy/sell spreads)
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Netting Policy
Trading within the Fund is conducted at a pooled level. This means that each day, we assess the net trading requirements of the entire Fund, and trade ETF Units on this basis. For example, if one Investor is withdrawing funds from their Acorns Investment Account such that, for example, three units in the SPDR S&P/ASX 200 ETF are required to be sold, at the same time another Investor is contributing funds to their Acorns Investment Account such that three units in the SPDR S&P/ASX 200 ETF are required to be purchased, Acorns instead will simply transfer those three units from the first Investor to the second Investor, without incurring any brokerage cost. If there is an exact netting of transactions between Acorns Investment Accounts, the netted transactions are priced with reference to the mid-point of the ASX closing bid/offer spread for those same ETFs (see Netting Spread on page 25 for more information). Transactions that occur on-market are priced as traded.
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Netting Spread
Where the acquisition or disposal of ETF Units on behalf of Investors does not require a transaction on-market (due to the netting of transactions), we may apply a buy/sell spread (Netting Spread). The Netting Spread will be determined with reference to the mid-point of the last market bid/offer spread for the same ETF Units, and will be equal to or less than the market bid/offer spread or 0.50% (whichever is smaller). The Netting Spread allows the Issuer not to charge any brokerage fees.
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Interesting use of "spare change".

Looks like you are taking out a line of credit at a very high interest rate to let someone else gamble on the share market.

It would have to perform very well for you to notice.

More likely you will lose it all but as it was only spare change you wouldn't be over concerned, like buying a lottery ticket.

And if you don't pay off your whole credit card then you will be paying 18% interest on all the 'invested' spare change, better hope it performs well.

I am sure the scheme has its merits but I am also sure you are paying for the convenience.
 
Jislizard said:
And if you don't pay off your whole credit card then you will be paying 18% interest on all the 'invested' spare change, better hope it performs well.
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Wondered about that and took a look at the FAQ.

Looks like the credit card transactions are just scanned to calculate how much 'spare change' to extract and then the money is actually taken from a regular bank account, not the credit card.

So you need to make sure your 'funding account' will have enough money in it.
 
goldpelican said:
I installed this a while ago - it's basically an electronic replacement for your spare change jar. Haven't actually given it access to my accounts yet though, but hearing loss of good things about it.

Interesting that apps like Robinhood and Acorn see Auatralia as a natural second market to launch in. I'm not even sure they are available in Canada.
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Hearing loss ? i hope it earns you enough for a hearing aid :p:
 
Yeh, I don't get it.

"I am too stupid and ill-disciplined to save properly so please skim every transaction I make and put it somewhere"

I guess the youth of today needs to get used to being skimmed on every transaction they make so I shouldn't be surprised there are people marketing an app for it to be done out in the open!
 
BuggedOut said:
Yeh, I don't get it.

"I am too stupid and ill-disciplined to save properly so please skim every transaction I make and put it somewhere"

I guess the youth of today needs to get used to being skimmed on every transaction they make so I shouldn't be surprised there are people marketing an app for it to be done out in the open!
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So all the youth from your generation were good little savers?
 
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