We all want more cash in our pockets. Whether we are eyeing up a shiny new purchase, a glossy sports car, or the house of our dreams, building up our finances through investment is always a smart decision. But investing can be complicated, right? Dealing with stocks and shares and buying through stockbrokers can be time-consuming, especially for beginners. Beginners are often put off by the apparent learning curve with investing, but luckily there are ways to make investing incredibly easy, and you can access it through a device you already own.
Smartphones are an absolute godsend for investing. With the ability to distribute our wealth at our fingertips, investing has never been easier. But where to start? There are tonnes of apps out there claiming to be the best place to take your money, with some ranging from easy to incredibly complex. Here we have compiled a list of the absolute best apps to use for beginners to help start your investment journey.
1. Acorns
If you want a completely hands-off investment, Acorns is probably the best app for you. Often, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to achieve everything we want, but with Acorns, the need to allocate time to invest is gone.
Acorns is completely automated and will take care of everything. After linking your debit or credit card, the app will do the rest for you. The app work rounds up any purchases you make to the next dollar. So, if you bought a sandwich for lunch at $4.50, Acorns would invest $0.50.
The brilliance of Acorns is the simplicity; the downside is there are costs to the app. The base version costs $1 a month, which is fairly modest depending on your financial situation. There are a number of different tariffs though, so you have a choice to get exactly what you want from the app. For $3, you can set up an individual retirement account (IRA) and have Acorns deposit savings for your future.
If you want to make small but consistent gains with no hassle at all, Acorns is likely the ideal app for you.
2. Robinhood
The stock market can be an excellent place to make money. Stocks are remarkably flexible, and you can buy and sell them on a whim to earn some serious profit. Robinhood gives you the ability to do all this at the press of your fingertips, and it has the added benefit of absolutely zero trading commissions.
So, if you want to trade in cryptocurrency or stocks, Robinhood is for you. The interface is remarkably smooth, and simple to navigate, with an excellent search bar at the top of the screen so you can find a certain stocks page.
The app is free to use, but there are some tasty benefits hidden behind a $5 paywall. You can get a 30-day free trial for Robinhood Gold, which will give you access to neat research data and margin trading to make sure you are informed before investing.
Keeping up with the stock market can be hard, but this app also has the added benefit of providing a news feed of all the top stories, so you can understand exactly what’s going on in the stock world. However, there has been a debate on whether Robinhood is a good app. In fact, Warren Buffett has expressed dislike towards the investing platform as he believes it encourages casino-like practices in the stock market.
3. Stash
This next app is essentially a mixture of the last two. Stash allows you to invest in shares of an individual stock, or bond, just like Robinhood, but it comes with price tariffs.
The base model costs $1 a month, with additional tariffs allowing you to invest in IRAs or investment accounts for your children. It can get pricey, with potential monthly costs of $9, but with a number of added benefits like market research, personalized guidance, and podcasts, the app can help train you to become a knowledgeable investor.
Interestingly, Stash can recommend investments to you based on a profile you build, meaning it’s more accessible for beginners compared to Robinhood.
It also has a feature exactly like Acorns, where you can round up purchases and invest the spare change.
If you are looking to get in the stock market, but want to learn more and receive extra guidance, this is the app for you.
There are plenty of apps out there to help you start your investment journey. If you want to move away from stocks, which can be volatile, and get involved in property investment instead, check out RWinvest for some useful tips and guides.
