Acorns Review
Name: Acorns
Website: acorns.com
Price: Starting at $1/month
Founders: Walter and Jeff Cruttenden
Overall Rank: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
Does the Acorns App Really Work?
Sure it does. The real question is, is it really worth it? Investing works. Win money, lose money. Everyone pretty much has a good idea of how investing works.
Getting to know where you are investing your money, will take some more work. However, a company like Acorns automates the process for you.
Personally, my opinion about Acorns is that, it’s okay. First, I think the amount of money that you can earn by using it is not worth it. I watched this video right here, which talks about her individual success with it. It came up to $200 in the first two months. That is with only investing $150 on her part.
She did not use the round up feature. She simply just invested her contribution. Using her example, that would come up to $1,200/year. Then say $24,000 after 20 years. Personally, that may help me with maybe one year of retirement. Not worth it to me.
Let’s talk about the real problem with America
Statistics show over 50% of Americans have less than $1,000 in the bank. I used to work at a bank, I can attest to this. This number saddens me, because let’s face it, if something happens to you, where you cannot work to earn money, it is going to make for some very difficult times.
I believe you should have at least six months of expenses stored in savings. I wrote about some ideas to accomplish this in a blog post that I wrote years ago. I will provide a link to it at the bottom of this page. Not to mention, Acorns does a great job at providing content on their website/app to help folk like us manage their money/expenses wisely.
Sorry that was my rant, in under two minutes. 🙂
I struggle with keeping six months in savings at times. Plus I am not disciplined enough to put away 15-20 percent of my income into savings or investing. In this respect, if you are like me, then Acorns can be a good option for you.
However, I have learned, if you can be disciplined about saving, fidelity offers investing for free. The downside is I believe they require $1,000 minimum. This cool cat named Stephen Graham on YouTube offers some insight on this:
The other thing is, I don’t know if you know Dave Ramsey, but I sort of follow him when it comes to savings, and investing. I believe you should be debt free before investing. Then, when we do begin to invest, go large like 15-20% of your income put towards your stocks on a ROTH or IRA.
I don’t feel like using programs like Round Up, or Keep the Change, is going to make a big difference.
Pros and Cons
The Pros:
PRO #1 – Start investing using their app for $1/month.
PRO #2 – Help you save/invest if you are not disciplined enough to do so
PRO #3 – Learn a lot about investing through the information on website/app
The Cons:
CON #1 – Only get so far using the round up investing method
CON #2 – Fees to use their app, $1-$5
My Final Thoughts About Acorns
I am just a little guy. I would say go ahead, try it out, and see if it works for you. I struggle with saving a percentage of my income. This may be able to help in that department. For as little as $1 a month, and using the Round Up program, hey it could work.
I would not take advantage of the $3 membership, because I already bank with Capital One, which offers fee free checking. Even no overdraft fees, which can be very helpful to some people.
If you can figure out another way, like a keep the change program, or something like that to help you save without thinking about it, I would go that route.
Were You Looking Into Acorns to Earn Extra Money?
I guess there would be a few types of people looking into Acorns.
- People who want to invest in stocks
- People who want to learn about investing in stocks
- Those who are wanting to earn extra money
If you are someone who is wanting to explore new ways to earn extra money, I would encourage you to look into starting an online business, or creating a blog. As you know, over 4 billion people are using the internet these days, and that number is only growing.
An online business can create passive income for you. That is where you earn money for months, or years going forward for the efforts you put in up front. You can probably do this for two hours a day, while you are first starting out. Then probably full time, once you begin to generate a full time income.
There is a place you can go to to learn how to do it, with no risk to you. It is where I learned how to create an online business, and make money online. It is called Wealthy Affiliate. Check out my full review about it here.
I’ve toyed around with Acorns a while back and I have to say I’m not a fan.
Yes, it is a legit way to invest and save money. But you can do that (easier) with Coinbase or other applications. I understand other platforms don’t have a “round up” feature and that not all of them offer ways to invest money when you’re spending money.
For people that are just trying to save money and not necessarily make money off of their savings, do this. This is what my cousin did his entire life…. when you get paid, leave in there what you NEED (bills or whatever else), and take out what you want to hang onto and put it in a safe. Do this every week (or every other week) and at the end of the year you will have a good chunk of change saved for a rainy day.
There are many ways to invest and save money, Acorns just isn’t for me.
I have a few friends that are doing well with it… to each their own..
Thanks for the article, Jonathan.
Oh that’s pretty cool Caleb. I am glad some people are making good use of Acorns. I am kind of like you, in that I prefer not too.
I do find it pretty interesting how your cousin managed too save. I don’t think that is a bad idea. Taking the money out and putting it into a safe. I guess I would feel a little insecure with it in the house, as far as security wise, and keeping it insured. In case of a fire or something.
Although, a good safe would probably keep your belonging safe inside of it through a fire. Lol I like the idea though. I might need to look into. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing a good article to read to learn more about what is Acorns Investing and how it does work, I agree with you, we all should need to learn how to save some money, I learned how to do it at home, as my parents took their time to teach their children, it wasnt any fun for us, but oh well, they did it, I know many people have some problems on this, and it’s good to know there are a way to do it, I didn’t know about Acorns Investing, but after reading your article I know this is a legit way to start saving some money, it might not worth to work on it, but at least is a way to start for many.
Thanks for the information you provide on your website, this will be a great help for many, they will learn to start saving some money and they will learn how to make a better lifestyle for themselves, it’s a lot of work and it takes time, but it always better to do it.
Hey Alejandra, I could not agree with you more. Acorns is definitely a way that people can save to invest their money. My website is all about reviewing products that help people make money, and offering my highest recommendation. Which is building an online business.
In over a couple of decades of working, I have not been able to find another way that offers a way to generate income, and provide the flexibility and freedom that an online business can offer.
Some people think you need to have your own product, or get involved with shipping products. I reveal a less risky business, which is affiliate marketing, and blogging. Wealthy affiliate is where I learned to do these things.