Acorns- An App That Invests Your Spare Change

[mmm....shiney!]

Question for you all:

I have $1000 per month I could invest without feeling it. Would this or a general market tracking thing be better?

If I'm expecting a GFC2 would it be better to hold off and by at a discount?

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.

 

[ego2spare]

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

 

[mmm....shiney!]

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

 

[ego2spare]

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?

 

[col0016]

Question for you all:

I have $1000 per month I could invest without feeling it. Would this or a general market tracking thing be better?

If I'm expecting a GFC2 would it be better to hold off and by at a discount?

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.

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.

 

[ego2spare]

Question for you all:

I have $1000 per month I could invest without feeling it. Would this or a general market tracking thing be better?

If I'm expecting a GFC2 would it be better to hold off and by at a discount?

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.

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.

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

 

[col0016]

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.

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.

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

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?

 

[mmm....shiney!]

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

Acorns is completely free to download. Once an account is opened, there are no fees on $0 balances and after that we only charge $1.25 per month for accounts with a balance under $5,000 and 0.275% per year (charged monthly, computed daily), for accounts with a balance of $5,000 and over. For more information on our fees, including our Fee Estimator, please visit the PDS on our website.

 

[aleks]

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? =?

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)

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.

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.

Underlying Issuer Fees
The Issuer of ETF Units held in an Acorns Investment Account may charge fees in relation to those ETF Units. Those fees will reduce the value of your Acorns Investment Account. For information on the fees charged by each Issuer, you should refer to the PDS for each ETF included within your Selected Portfolio. As at the date of this PDS the range of the Underlying Issuer Fees were 0.07% to 0.60% per annum on the amount invested with them.

col0016 the best investment you can make now is in answering your own question.

 

[mmm....shiney!]

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?

 

[House]

Perhaps....

....but, how many people really use electronic payment for a $2.40 coffee (serious question)
.

I could save $365+ pa if I could find a $2.40 coffee.

Why don't you make your own?

 

[Killface]

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.

Since launching in Australia 9 months ago, we have enjoyed an overwhelming amount of support from you and thousands of others. Many of you have asked for the opportunity to be able to invest in the Acorns business, so we decided to make that a reality.

If you are interested in investing in the Acorns business, please read the prospectus found here in its entirety before deciding whether or not to invest in new shares. Within the prospectus you will find instructions on how to apply for shares. The minimum application amount for new shares is $5,000.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on 1300 954 678 or at [email protected].

Not for me, I think I'll stick to the spare change thing.

 

[mmm....shiney!]

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

 

[House]

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.

 

[Killface]

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

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?

 

[House]

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.

 

[Killface]

YMMV

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

 

[Killface]

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.

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.

 

[House]

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

 

[Killface]

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

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!

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