5 Super-Simple Financial Apps Perfect For New Investors

Sep 24, 2020

Credit: Sergeitokmakov / Pixabay

Life’s complicated enough, so throwing TD Ameritrade’s industry-leading tools and super-professional jargon on top doesn’t help matters. Instead, we prefer our trading chops gnaw on super-simple financial apps that don’t turn a one-hour stock-romp into 10-hours of mind-bending information overload.

See what we mean?

That first paragraph is stuffed with words, when we could have said: “we prefer our financial apps lite.”

And now it’s time for the list.

Robinhood steals from the rich and gives to the poor. And using this app makes that process simple.
Zero trading commissions. Yummy.
The app makes trading stocks, ETFs, Options, and Crypto so simple, no instructions are needed.
What puts this financial app #1 is its no-fuss interface. It has all the features and info you need, but it keeps trade screens focused.
Within minutes you can be trading. This is a double-edged sword. Convenience is great, but before investing always do your due diligence.

Download Invstr and take a virtual $1-million and play at being a stock market mogul.
What’s most amazing is that you can reach out to other Invstr players and news feeds for stock insights.
Plus, you can help manage a $200-billion virtual portfolio.
Invstr might be a game, but it is one of the best ways to gain insight before committing one dime.
It does include some real-life investment opportunities. Yet, spending a month in Invstr might just help you decide what kind of investments are for you.

For many, Acorns is #1 because it lets you invest as you spend.
What most people like is the fact once it is set up, you can literally ignore it until you want to see how much you’ve invested.
The way it works is simple, you hook up your bank cards and as you use them to buy items, what you spend is rounded up. For example, if you spent £27.95 at the store, Acorns will round it up to $30 and put the difference into an investment type you agree to when setting up the financial app.
The base investment account costs $1-monthly, and you can upgrade to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) for $1-more monthly. For another $1-more monthly you can even get a checking account and debit card specifically from Acorns.
If you’re specifically investing for retirement, the $2-monthly fee and the Acorns Later IRA is hard to beat.

Does the thought of a cheap professionally managed portfolio appeal to you? Then Betterment might be for you.
Yet, if you’re terrified of AI then look away now. Betterment is a financial app where your investment is in the hands of a robo-adviser.
What this robo-adviser does is take your investment goals and your risk tolerance, and then puts your capital to use in professionally managed portfolios.
The best part of Betterment is that you can literally set it up and watch it go. Just adding whatever money you can, when you can.
There are some fees, however. The first is a management fee of 0.25-percent. Which means for every $1,000 you invest, you’re paying $2.50 in fees. Plus, there are specific fees based on the ETF’s Betterment invests in.

If like me, you can’t always afford those huge behemoth stocks but want a slice of the pie? Then Stockpile offers an intriguing option.
In this financial app, you can buy fractional shares.
What this means is that if the stock costs $1,000, but you only have $100 – you can still get a piece of the action.
What’s even better is that there is no monthly fee for this (yet they do charge $0.99 per trade).
Another great feature about Stockpile is that you can send gift cards that can be spent on a stock you have approved. This is the perfect way to get youngsters into the market.

Let us know what financial apps you use and why on social media now.