Interested in investing or want to learn more? With the Acorns App, there’s no more excuses to start investing especially now that they are offering a $5 Bonus with referral code A3M4EU. You’ll also earn $5 for each friend you refer, and when you refer 3 friends for April 2020, you will get $150 bonus when your 3 friends start investing this month.
This app simplifies the overly complicated and intimidating process of investing into a neat, easy, mobile app. This app provides a platform that allows you to invest your spare change, with the goal of either building wealth or reaching short-term savings goals.
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About Acorns
Acorns is a smartphone app that “rounds up” your spending to the nearest dollar and invests that difference. You link a credit card and checking account, then Acorns does the rest. This microsavings service makes investing almost painless because you are literally investing pennies at a time.
Obviously, the Acorns app is targeted at a much younger, more tech-savvy generation (Millennials), as the entire investment experience is created and managed from a smartphone. Acorns recently unveiled a web-based version for desktop and portable users, as well. Essentially, this app is a great starting point for anyone who hasn’t invested yet or needs a bit of guidance in the beginning.
Acorns Referral Program
Acorns offers a customer referral program to earn extra cash rewards for referring your friends to Acorns. Once you Create Your Acorns Account, you will gain access to the referral program and your unique Acorns referral code.
You simply share your Acorns referral code with your friends to give them a $5 sign-up bonus. For each referral that you provide who opens an Acorns account, you will receive a $5 referral bonus.
The person you refer must use your personal invitation code or referral link when they sign up for you both to receive the $5 reward. Rewards will be credited when the person you refer is fully approved for their new Acorns account and successfully completes their first investment.
Acorns reserves the right to restrict or revoke this offer at any time.
Acorns Pros & Cons
- Free Management: College students, specifically those who don’t have earned income and can’t contribute to a tax-advantaged retirement account like a Roth IRA, are ripe for this kind of service and could wind up with a nice little pot of money after four years of rounding up.
- Automated Approach: Although these roundups are the bread and butter of Acorns’ platform, you can also invest lump sums manually or set up recurring deposits on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Lump-sum transfers may be as small as $5.
- Minimum Investment: There’s no minimum to open an account, but the service requires a $5 balance to start investing in one of Acorn’s five pre-built portfolios.
- Found Money: The only thing better than building an investment portfolio out of a bunch of spare change is building an investment portfolio out of someone else’s money. Acorns’ Found Money program essentially lets you do that, it’s cash back for your investment account.
- Educational Content: We found the website well-suited to new investors, as it defines key terms and uses clear language. Acorns also publishes Grow Magazine, an online personal finance site geared toward millennials with advice about side gigs, credit card debt, student loans and other financial topics. Grow content is also integrated in the Acorns app. Acorns also offers a five-step financial literacy course for free to Acorns customers, on Udemy.com, an online learning marketplace.
- Account Options: One of Acorns’ biggest shortcomings is that it offers only individual taxable accounts. Acorns says it plans to offer individual retirement accounts (traditional, Roth and SEP IRAs) in early 2018, but as of publication time, the only accounts offered are taxable accounts.
- Management Fee: Those who don’t qualify for the free management promotion for college students pay $1 a month on balances of less than $5,000 and 0.25% of their account balance per year on balances of $5,000 or more.
- Small Portfolio: The portfolios themselves, though, are smaller than the average robo-advisor portfolio, made up of low-cost iShares and Vanguard exchange-traded funds that cover just five to seven asset classes, depending on the portfolio: real estate, large-cap stocks (domestic and international), small-cap stocks, emerging markets, and corporate and government bonds.
Acorns Available Portfolios
After the signup process is complete and you’ve created your investment account with Acorns, the app will process your portfolio. Simply view your portfolio to see a list of advice, tips, and ideas.
To see a change in projected value over time, you simply drag the graph (either right or left and up or down) to change the amount invested each month. You don’t have to stick with the recommended portfolio. Just click on the different types of portfolios to find one that’s a better fit. There are five portfolios to choose from:
| Portfolio | Stock % | Bond % | Real Estate % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 35% | 60% | 5% |
| Moderately Conservative | 45% | 45% | 10% |
| Moderate | 60% | 30% | 10% |
| Moderately Aggressive | 75% | 15% | 10% |
| Aggressive | 90% | 0% | 10% |
Next, you can explore the ETFs and select an asset class you want to invest in. When you’re ready, simply click “Confirm Portfolio.”
Acorns Round-Ups
Once your account is approved, they will withdraw the initial deposit and your account will be ready for investing. The Round-Up transfers come from monitoring your linked account and rounding up the purchases to the nearest dollar.
You can choose which transactions you want to include in your Round-Up amount or set it to automatic and it will calculate all of your transactions that are eligible. Additionally, you can deposit cash reward bonuses from your bank or other rewards programs you participate in. Or choose to invest lump sum amounts in addition to your Round-Up deposits. If you prefer, you can set up recurring deposits on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule.
Acorns Investing
Logging into the Acorns app allows you to view your portfolio, check the performance of your index funds, see what the market is doing, and much more. Within your preset investment portfolio, the Acorns app gives six options for basic index funds offered through iShares and Vanguard.
| Asset Class | ETF | Ticker |
|---|---|---|
| Large Company Stocks | Vanguard S&P 500 | VOO |
| Small Company Stocks | Vanguard Small-Cap | VB |
| Emerging Markets | Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock | VWO |
| Real Estate | Vanguard REIT | VNQ |
| Corporate Bonds | iShares iBoxx$ Investment Grade Corporate Bond | LQD |
| Government Bonds | iShares 1–3 Year Treasury Bond | SHY |
There are no deposit or account minimums to maintain, no commission fees, and no penalties when withdrawing funds. Acorns’ fees are currently $1 per month for your first $5,000, or 0.25% annually for accounts greater than $5,000. These fees are basically in line with what Betterment charges.
According to Vanguard the average mutual fund management fee is 1.02%, so Acorns’ fees are relatively low by comparison. However, since you’re investing such small amounts, which do add up of course, the monthly $1 fee adds up to taking a large piece of your investment pie. And this fee gets even larger as your balance increases over $5,000.
It is important to note returns are not guaranteed, and it is possible to lose principal. Acorns invests in the stock and bond markets and is not FDIC insured, though investments are SIPC insured. At the time of this article update, they have $482 million in assets under management.
Acorns Found Money
One of Acorns’ most unique features is Found Money. With this feature, every time you use an Acorns-linked credit or debit card at a retailer from the list below, that retailer will contribute an extra amount into your Acorns account.
Here’s a list of the current Found Money participants and the amount they’ll contribute (as of January 2018):
- Airbnb – 1.8% of your service fee
- Apple – 1.2% of your purchase
- Beats by Dre – 1.2% of your purchase
- Bespoke Post – $10 with a new subscription
- Billshark – $10 when you sign up
- Birchbox – $10 with purchase of a 3-month subscription
- Blooom – $10 when you sign up
- Blue Apron – $30 when you sign up
- Boxed – 4% of your purchase
- Casper – $75 with purchases over $500
- CheapOair – $5 with a booking
- DirecTV – $25 when you sign up
- Dollar Shave Club – 10% of your purchase
- Earnest – $100 when you refinance your student loan
- Expedia- 4% of your purchase
- Gamefly – $15 with a new subscription
- Groupon – 2% of your purchase
- HotelTonight – $10 when you spend $100 or more
- Jet – 2% of your purchase
- Liberty Mutual – $5 when you sign up
- LifeLock – $25 with a new purchase
- Macy’s – 5% of your purchase
- MeUndies – 20% with a new subscription
- MVMT – 10% of your purchase
- New Balance – 5% of your purchase
- Nike – 5% of your purchase
- Nordstrom – 1% of your purchase
- Quip – $20 with a purchase
- Rover – $25 when you sign up
- Sam’s Club – $10 when you sign up, plus $1 with every $75 purchase
- Scribd – $10 with a new subscription
- SeatGeek – 3% of your purchase
- Skillshare – $5 when you sign up for Premium
- SoFi – $100 when you refinace your student loan
- Stance – 10% of your purchase
- Stich Fix – $10 with a new purchase
- Talkspace – $25 when you sign up
- The Farmer’s Dog – $25 with a new subscription
- Thrive Market – $10 when you sign up for a full-paid membership
- T-Mobile – $40 with a new subscription
- Upside Business Travel – $100 with a new purchase
- The Wall Street Journal – $5 with a new subscription
- Walmart – 1% of your purchase
- Warby Parker – 5% of your purchase
- Zipcar – $10 when you register
Acorns App Summary
- Sign Up Offer
- Promotion: $5 Bonus + $100,000 bonus for referring 3 friends in April
- Expiration: Friends must sign up on or after 4/31/2020
- Availability: Compatible with iOS/iPhone/iPad, Android, or online web-based application.
- Price: Acorns costs $1 a month for accounts under $5,000 or 0.25% of assets per year if your balance is above $5,000
- Minimum Deposit Requirement: None
- Additional Advice: If you are a student, you can use Acorns for free by signing up with your student email.
Get Started With Acorns App
You can sign up for the acorns app through either the Apple App Store or on Google Play, and once again, it’s free to install. Sign up will involve providing the following information:
- A valid email address
- Your online banking login information to link your accounts to Round-Up spare change and to fund your investments.
- If you don’t bank with Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, PNC Bank, USAA, US Bank, US Navy Federal Credit Union, or Wells Fargo you’ll also need your checking account and routing numbers.
- Your physical address–this should be your most permanent address since they can’t accept PO Boxes or business addresses.
- Your Social Security Number.
- General Profile Information like your financial goals, occupation, and earnings. This will help in recommending the right portfolio for you.
- Upload a photo of your government-issued ID or other documentation that helps them verify your identity.
After you’ve gathered all of the information above, you can begin signing up!
- Download the app
- Create an account using the promo code A3M4EU.
- Link up a funding account
- Answer some questions about yourself so they can help recommend a pre-made portfolio
- Sit back and Acorns will do the investing!
Bottom Line
The Acorns App provides a unique way to invest your money for the future. Simply download the app, sign up, link an account, and answer some questions to set up a portfolio. Acorns is a good start if you have little to invest or need a nudge to start investing without affecting your lifestyle, though the monthly deposits are way too small to be considered a serious method for saving towards retirement.
If you want to make the most of your spare change and get the occasional retailer kickback, there’s really no better place to do that. The automatic roundups at Acorns make saving and investing easy, and most investors will be surprised by how quickly those pennies accumulate.
Definitely check it out so you can start investing for your future and reach your financial goals! Find more Investment Bonuses from our exclusive list!
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