6 Best Investment Apps for Beginners in 2020

6 Best Investment Apps for Beginners in 2020 (updated)

The Internet age has opened the floodgates for new startups hoping to create the next innovative investing platform. And lucky for us, many such investing apps have come into fruition. With these apps, investing from anywhere — even on-the-go — is a new trend that allows people from all walks of life to enter into the world of investing. 

Whether you’re a new investor or a veteran, there are tons of reasons why checking out these apps is worth your time. Many of them are available straight from your smartphone. Read on to learn about five of the best investment apps.

Cash app

In November 2019 Square, Inc announced that Cash App users will be able to invest in stocks straight from the app. Many of us are already using and loving this app for money transfers between app users. It’s free to use most of the time except when you want to do an instant withdrawal. The same goes for stock investments, it’s FREE and you can start investing from $1. 

That makes Cash App one of the best investment apps on the market today. Its closest competitor is Robinhood, but as we mentioned, in Cash app you can start investing from $1 and buy a fraction of a share. You can’t do that in Robinhood. This feature is especially useful for beginner investors as some companies’ shares cost north of $1000 a share. Another advantage that this app has is that you can invest in cryptocurrency. For now its Bitcoin only, but most likely they will add a few more in the future.

Cost: Cash app is free to use and charges zero commission fees. You can start investing through the cash app at as low as $1 and buy a fraction of a share.   

Acorns

Acorns offers a very unique approach to investing. Tailored towards beginners, Acorns links to your bank account and rounds your purchases up to the nearest dollar. That remainder is automatically transferred and invested straight into Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) offered within the app itself. You also have the option of investing a recurring $5 into your account on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. 

These micro-investments are a good way to get your feet wet with investing in lower-risk portfolios. Acorns lets you invest in different portfolio types ranging from Conservative to Aggressive categories. Each contains any combination of asset classes like government bonds or real estate stocks. Much more than just a beginner investing app, Acorns also offers IRA savings accounts and debit cards that seek to maximize your overall savings. If you’re looking to start investing but don’t really have time for research, this is the best investment app to start with.

Cost: Using Acorns costs $1 a month for accounts with under $5000 deposited. Getting started costs you nothing, however. It’s available on both the iOS and Android apps stores for free.

Stash

Next in our list of best investment apps is Stash. With Stash, you can start with as little as $5 to invest in several ETFs listed in the app. Stash invests your money into fractional shares which allow investors to buy into stocks at a low price. Money transfers into the Stash app can be set up for recurrence.

ETFs in Stash are categorized based on industry and portfolio type. You can choose an aggressive portfolio with high-risk stocks, or you can invest in specific sectors such as “Corporate Cannabis”, “Clean & Green”, or “Big Business Bonds.” Additionally, you can choose to invest in individual stocks with the same method of using fractional shares to buy them for cheap. 

Cost: Stash offers three different subscription tiers to use. Beginner accounts cost $1 per month, Growth accounts are $3 per month, and Stash+ accounts are $9 per month. Stash offers more features — like retirement benefits and insight reports — the higher your subscription tier.

Diversyfund

For those interested in investing specifically in real estate, Diversyfund is your ticket into that world. Diversyfund enables users to invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). This means that they act as a middleman that uses investor capital to purchase high-quality real estate properties with a great chance of yielding a return on investment. By joining Diversyfund’s REIT, you are buying into a portfolio of real estate assets.

Top-tier, multi-million dollar real estate assets usually require immense wealth from the investor, but Diversyfund greatly lowers this barrier to entry by operating as a REIT. Through the power of the internet and REITs, average investors are now able to benefit from top-tier real estate assets at a lower risk. Once you’ve given Diversyfund a relatively small capital, they will be in charge of shopping, managing, and improving upon high-quality properties. These are long-term investments, however, so liquidation won’t be available until you’ve invested for about six months to a few years.

Diversyfund provides investors with timely updates on any notable activity going on with the properties they’ve invested in. These include pictures, financial reports, and other general updates. A support team is also available to answer any other questions or concerns. This would be the best investment app for these looking to focus on real estate investing.   

Cost: Signing up for Diversyfund costs nothing, other than your initial investment. The minimum initial deposit is $500. During your time with Diversyfund, you will be charged with no other investment fees.

Robinhood

One of the hottest millennial investment tools out there right now is Robinhood. Robinhood is a stockbroker that gives investors easy access to the stock market. While available as an app on both iOS and Android, Robinhood recently rolled out a new desktop client as well. Their app is extremely user-friendly and is great for beginner investors.

What makes Robinhood unique among other traditional stockbrokers is their lack of trade fees. Trade fees are a commission that a stockbroker earns for every trade made on its platform. Some platforms charge up to $7 for every transaction made. This limits the possible gains an individual stock investor can make. Instead, Robinhood makes most of its money on its premium service.

In addition to giving investors access to the stock market, Robinhood gives investors access to cryptocurrency markets for qualifying states. Crypto trading is done right on the main platform, and your crypto assets are displayed alongside your stocks. 

Free Options trading is also a great feature that Robinhood offers. Options are a more lucrative way to speculate on the future prices of stocks. Robinhood’s referral program also gives users the chance to earn free stocks available to trade immediately.

Cost: Robinhood is free to use and charges zero commission fees. Their premium service, Robinhood Gold, costs $5 a month and provides increased buying power, as well as access to advanced trading tools and reports.

Stockpile

Stockpile is another app offering a low barrier to entry into the stock market with the use of fractional shares. Getting started is just a matter of signing up, linking a bank account, transferring money and purchasing stocks. Setting up recurring deposits is an option too. There are over a thousand different stocks and ETFs to choose from within dozens of sectors. 

What separates Stockpile from similar apps are some of their innovative features allowing stock investments to become an act of sharing. The app allows stock buyers to gift their fractional shares to friends or family. You just need to purchase a gift card, which in this case is a placeholder for a specific stock, and then transfer it to someone via email, print out, or standard mail. An account with Stockpile isn’t even required to purchase or receive these stock-based gift cards.

Being able to transfer stocks to others is a great way to surprise someone with the gift of investment. If you have kids, you can set them up with a custodial account and transfer stocks to their own accounts. Custodial accounts will allow someone under the age of 18 to pick and hold stocks, but they’ll need the approval of the adult individual account holder to do so. This is a great way to educate your kids on investment fundamentals and get them started with compounding money early. They’ll have fun choosing their favorite companies to invest in too.

Cost: Stockpile is free to sign up. There is a $0.99 trade fee per purchase, which is much lower than competing stockbrokers which require upwards of $7 per trade. Furthermore, there are no monthly or annual fees to use Stockpile. 

It’s insane how everything evolves lately. I remember talking to older investors and they told me that they had to make calls to place buy and sell orders, ask for current prices and chart formations. That time is long behind and now everything is at our fingertips and a click away.

Let me know if you tried any application from our best investment apps list. If you’re using something else, would you recommend it?

2 thoughts on “6 Best Investment Apps for Beginners in 2020 (updated)”

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