Investing Your Spare Change

So I wanted to write this so called "quick and easy" to read article on something I found out just a few days ago!

While watching 'Late Night With Stephen Colbert' he and his guest Ashton Kutcher where talking casually about things like: Oh yeah blah blah blah, I'm a really famous actor, and oh yeah blah blah blah I'm a popular talk show host. You know, the usual talk show banter.

Anyway, Ashton (yeah, I called him Ashton) was talking about other things he does and went on to say that he had invested in is a company that helps people invest their spare change. What I mean is that if your someone like me who doesn't make much with your paycheck or is practically broke most of the time this app is for you!

He went on to mention that Acorns was originally invented for millennials (college kids who don't have much money) but can be used by the rest of us who don't have much either. What is does is when you sign up for a secure account is that you only need $5 to start your own portfolio. And if you're like me, I can't afford to put a few hundred dollars a month aside or even have my employer deduct money automatically for a 401(k), which I'd need most or all of my paycheck to pay rent and bills and to buy food (because my employer doesn't pay enough)... But if your saying, well, why don't you have two jobs FRANK!? Well I did, but that's another story...

Just like the old saying goes: "A penny saved is a penny earned." I say, "A penny invested, is two or three pennies that are compounded interest over time..."

Back to Acorns. Another thing that they do is called round-ups. This is a pretty cool concept. The idea is when you use your debit card (visa or whatever) Acorns will "round-up" the purchase to the nearest dollar. Say (hypothetically) you buy an ice cream drumstick, one of my favs, for $1.95. Round-ups will round the purchase to $2.00 and will take that $0.05 difference and set it aside in your account for future investment. And that's what I mean when I say it invests your spare change and instead of just putting your change in a jar.

This is the coolest part! You can set round-ups automatically every time you purchase with your debit card. For example, it will take $0.05, $0.10, $0.80 difference etc. I spoke of until the total round-ups say for a week adds up to $5.00 before your Acorns account invests it. You can also set recurring investments with $5, $20 and $30 or more monthly. Which is just the right size for poor folk like me!

So that's it! I did my research from multiple pro and con independent articles and created my account. Oh yeah! And one more thing. Besides the convenience and security thing. Acorns uses what's called smart deposit. What they do is watch the balance of your connected checking account balance (totally secure mandated by the Patriot Act) to make sure that there is enough money in it before they take out any money for investment. They will automatically suspend any activity between Acorns and your bank so that you don't get hit with an NSF charge (BTW Wells Fargo charges $35.00 a pop for that).

So if your closest friend, or nosy family member, asks: "Sooo, how did your portfolio do this week?" and you're like: "I gained $2," and they're like: "TWO DOLLARS!?", and you're like: "Yeah! $2. It's 2 more dollars than I had last week..." That's Acorns in a nutshell.