It’s not uncommon for us to see headlines of people “getting rich” by trading hot stocks. What’s less noticed are the millions who do it quietly and deliberately. Take note of this second group, because their actions often start small and the effects compound with time.
In fact, many achieve their retirement goals by making the simple decision to invest small amounts of money early in life and continue doing so on a regular basis through retirement, Gen Z and Millennials included. The odds of reaching a financially secure retirement increase dramatically when you take a few easy steps as early as possible.
This article discusses the best micro-investing apps available to Millennials, Gen-Zers and any generation interested in learning how to invest small amounts of money steadily and consistently over time.
Best Micro-Investing Apps—Our Top Picks
|
Fun, Easy Stock Trading App for Beginners
|
Personal Finance-Focused Stock Trading App
|
Stock Trading App for Intermediate Investors
|
|
Primary Rating:
4.5
|
Primary Rating:
4.4
|
Primary Rating:
4.9
|
|
Get a free stock for signing up
|
No commissions on stock and ETF trades.
|
No commissions on stock and ETF trades.
|
Best Micro-Investing Apps
| App | Best For | Fees | Promotions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Robinhood | ☆ 4.4 / 5 Basic stock, crypto and ETF investing | No-commission stock and ETF trades | Bonus stock with sign up worth $5-$200 |
 SoFi Invest® | ☆ 4.8 / 5 Active trading and robo-investing | No-commission stock and ETF trades | Bonus stock worth between $5-$1,000 |
 Betterment | ☆ 4.8 / 5 Investors looking to build a globally-diversified portfolio and leverage tax-loss harvesting | $4/mo., but changes to 0.25% annual AUM fee if you set up recurring monthly deposits totaling $250, or reach a balance of at least $20,000 across all Betterment accounts. Premium: 0.65% annual AUM fee | None |
 Public.com | ☆ 4.7 / 5 Free investment app with access to alternatives | No-commission stock and ETF trades | None |
 Acorns | ☆ 4.8 / 5 Automated investing in the background into diversified investments | $3/mo.-$12/mo. | $20 bonus when you set up recurring investments and make your first successful recurring investment |
 Webull | ☆ 4.7 / 5 Self-directed investors and intermediate traders | No-commission stock and ETF trades | 20 bonus stocks valued between $60-$60,000 |
 M1 Finance | ☆ 4.3 / 5 Fee-free active trading and automated investing | No-commission stock and ETF trades, $3/mo. fee if account balance <$10,000 | None |
 Greenlight Max | ☆ 4.7 / 5 Teaching investing fundamentals with guidance from parents; allows individual and index fund investing | Max: $9.98/mo. Infinity: $14.98/mo. | None |
1. Robinhood (Best Simple Stock Trading App for Beginners)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Zero-commission stock, ETF, and option trades. Robinhood Gold: Free 30-day trial, then $5/mo.
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)
Robinhood, one of the pioneers of low-cost trading, remains one of the best places to invest if you don’t have much money to work with.
It’s not just that Robinhood is fee-friendly fee-friendliest places to invest today—though it is, offering no-commission trading on stocks, ETFs, and options. Robinhood also keeps the nominal cost of investing low, with its fractional trading feature letting investors put as little as $1 to work.
And while Robinhood has remained light on fees, it has bulked up in offerings. Today, it provides not just brokerage accounts, but IRAs and Roth IRAs (with matching funds, no less) via Robinhood Retirement, as well as features such as advanced charts, options strategy builders, 24/7 commission-free cryptocurrency trading, extended-hours trading, and stock lending.
Want more out of your Robinhood account? The Robinhood Gold subscription tier opens up a whole suite of benefits, including a high APY on uninvested brokerage cash, a 3% match on eligible IRA contributions to your Robinhood IRA, free professional research from Morningstar, lower index options trading fees, lower commissions on futures trades, reduced fees on any accounts managed by Robinhood Strategies (fees only charged on the first $100,000 of assets under management), and more.
Use our exclusive links to sign up for either a Robinhood brokerage account or Robinhood Retirement account today.
- Robinhood is a pioneer in the investing app world, offering commission-free trades on stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrency, as well as one of the deepest libraries of investing educational content.
- Investing for retirement? Robinhood will match 1% of any IRA transfers or 401(k) rollovers, as well as any annual contributions*, made to your Robinhood Retirement account—and you can get a 3% match on any new contributions if you subscribe to Robinhood Gold.
- Want more advanced trading tools? Download Robinhoold Legend—a desktop trading platform with real-time data, customizable layouts, deeper asset analysis, and more—for free.
- Robinhood's robo-advisory service, Robinhood Strategies, will build you a custom portfolio of stock and bond ETFs (and individual stocks for accounts with at least $500), for a low 0.25% in AUM, which is capped at $250 annually for Robinhood Gold members.
- Robinhood Gold also includes Level II market data provided by Nasdaq, higher interest rates on uninvested brokerage cash, lower margin trading rates, bigger Instant Deposits, and access to the Robinhood Gold Card (a 3% cash-back Visa credit card).
- Special offer: Sign up for Robinhood, link a bank account, and fund your account with at least $10, and receive a randomly selected cash amount between $5 and $200 to put toward certain fractional shares.
- Very good selection of available investments in brokerage accounts
- 1% match on rollovers, IRA transfers, and new contributions to IRAs and Roth IRAs (3% new-contribution match with Robinhood Gold)
- Automated recommended portfolios
- Intuitive interface
- Robo-advisory service (Robinhood Strategies)
- Extensive educational library
- No mutual funds in brokerage or IRAs
- Match doesn't apply to Robinhood Strategies accounts
Related: 8 Best Stock Picking Services, Sites, Advisors and Subscriptions
2. SoFi Invest®
- Available: iOS, Android, Web
- Price: Free; no commissions on equity and ETF trades. SoFi Robo-Investing: 0.25%/yr. AUM advisory fee. SoFi Plus: $10/mo.
- Available: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)
SoFi is a multi-faceted financial company that offers everything from credit cards and insurance to student loans and mortgages … and they also allow you to trade and invest through its SoFi Invest app.
The SoFi Active Invest Brokerage Account has no required minimum balance, charges no commissions on stock, ETF, and options trades, and its options trading is free of contract fees, too. Want to put your portfolio on autopilot? SoFi’s robo-advisory services will create a portfolio for you for an annual 0.25% assets under management fee (that can be designed to address one or several goals) and auto-rebalance it for you as necessary over time.
SoFi ranks among the best micro-investing apps because it too allows fractional trading on more than 4,000 stocks and ETFs, though it’s a bit higher than other programs at a $5 minimum.
Unlike many brokerage companies that might have more limited offerings, SoFi’s app allows you to manage a much wider range of financial services and products, such as banking, student loans, insurance, and mortgages. And while SoFi Invest is free to use, you can also subscribe to SoFi Plus—a $10-per-month subscription tier that can unlock more than $1,000 per year in extra value with perks such as a match on recurring investment deposits, preferred access to initial public offerings, higher cash-back rewards on certain SoFi credit cards, and more.
SoFi also occasionally has sign-up bonuses attached to its brokerage accounts, which you can read more about below. You can use our exclusive links to sign up with SoFi Invest, whether that’s on the web, the iOS app, or the Android app.
- SoFi Invest allows you to trade or invest in stocks, ETFs, and options with no commissions and no account minimums. You can also participate in some initial public offerings (IPOs).
- Invest for as little as $5 with fractional shares.
- Robo-advisory services, including goal planning and auto-rebalancing, available for annual 0.25% AUM fee.
- Subscribe to SoFi Plus to unlock more than $1,000 per year in extra value, including a 1% match on recurring investment deposits, preferred IPO access, higher cash-back rewards on certain SoFi credit cards, a six-month APY boost, and more.
- Special offer: Fund a new account with at least $50 within 30 days of opening an account, and get up to $1,000 in stock.*
- Good selection of available investments
- No options contract fees
- DIY and robo-investing options
- Fractional shares
- Doesn't support mutual funds
- Limited trading tools
- No tax-loss harvesting
- No socially responsible robo-advisor functionality
Related: 8 Best Fractional Share Brokerages to Buy Partial Stocks & ETFs
3. Betterment (Best for Automation and Tax-Loss Harvesting)
- Available: Click the “Get Started” button below
- Price: Betterment: $4/mo. or 0.25%/yr. AUM fee*; Betterment Premium: 0.65%/yr. AUM fee**
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)
Betterment is a robo-advisor platform that allows you to invest in pre-built portfolios—with different themes and goals—in taxable accounts as well as individual retirement plans.
Betterment’s primary offering is ETF-only portfolios that provide varying types of exposure depending on your risks and interest. For instance, Core is a stock-and-bond portfolio that keeps you invested in most domestic and international securities, in the ratio of stocks to bonds that’s most appropriate for you. Social Impact buys stocks and bonds of companies with “a demonstrated focus on supporting social equity and minority empowerment.”
There are no self-directed options, however. The portfolios buy fractional shares of ETF index funds tracking benchmarks like the S&P 500 to keep you invested in stocks and bonds. But the service does not allow you to invest in individual stocks or bonds. The app has added crypto portfolios holding digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, but again, you can’t buy them individually—only through pre-built portfolios held in separate crypto accounts.
One interesting perk that stands out: Betterment’s tax-loss harvesting feature.
If you invest in a taxable account, and you sell an investment for a gain, you’ll owe taxes on those gains. (What you owe differs depending on whether you’ve held that investment for more than a year.) However, if you sell an investment for a loss, you can use that to offset your capital gains, and thus the taxes you’d pay on them, or if your loss is more than your gains (or you don’t have any gains at all), you can even reduce taxes owed on your personal income, subject to a $3,000 annual cap.
It can be a complicated strategy, but Betterment’s Tax Loss Harvesting+ automates the process for you. It will regularly check your portfolio for tax-loss harvesting opportunities, then take the proceeds from selling those investments and reinvest them where it makes sense for you.
Just note that Betterment is different from many traditional brokers in that it’s a subscription-based product. Betterment charges $4 per month to start; however, if you set up recurring monthly deposits totaling $250, or reach a balance of at least $20,000 across all Betterment accounts, the fee changes to 0.25% of all assets under management. Betterment Premium provides unlimited financial guidance from a Certified Financial Planner™. Premium costs 0.65% annually, and upgrading requires having at least $100,000 in assets with Betterment.
- The Betterment app gives you the tools, inspiration, and support you need to become a better investor.
- Start with as little as $10 and use the top-rated mobile app to set up automatic investing into diversified ETF portfolios.
- You can also invest in diversified preset cryptocurrency portfolios.
- Customize your risk tolerance and investment goals with guidance available at any time.
- By upgrading to Premium, you can unlock unlimited financial guidance from a Certified Financial Planner™.
- Hands-off investment management
- Diversified portfolio that automatically rebalances
- Low-cost investment selection
- Limited investment selections
- Limited crypto diversification in cryptocurrency portfolios
4. Public.com (Best Investment App for Beginners With Alternative Investments)
- Price: Zero-commission equity trades
Public.com is a commission-free micro investing app that targets Millennials and Gen-Zers who have attuned their senses to social media. While the company previously followed the lead of apps like Robinhood with monetizing Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), or receiving kickbacks from clearinghouses for routing trades to them, they’ve recently abandoned this practice.
Instead, they now rely on other revenue streams as well as a “tipping” system. This places this beginner investment app firmly on the side of retail investors and not pledging allegiance to Wall Street clearinghouses.
Why is Public.com a Good Investment App for Beginners?
What Public.com is really about is making investing like an investing social network, where members can own fractional shares of stocks and ETFs, follow popular creators, and share ideas within a community of investors.
What Public.com aims to do above all else is make the stock market an inclusive and educational place, with social features that make it easy to collaborate as you build your confidence as an investor—for free.
For younger investors who want to align their investing with their social preferences, as well as keep good company to socialize and learn from others, Public.com might be the app for you.
For those interested in starting to trade on Public.com, the online broker platform for beginners offers a free signup bonus if you make an initial deposit.
Further, you can share your special link with others and gift them free stocks (fractional shares) as well.
If this sounds like an interesting investment app, open an account and make an initial deposit to see if the app meets your social and investing needs.
Read more in our Public.com investing app review.
- Public.com offers zero-commission trading on thousands of stocks and ETFs, available as fractional shares. The app also allows you to invest in cryptocurrency, and it's one of the rare brokerages that allows its users to buy alternative assets.
- Lock in a 6% yield with Public.com's Bond Account, which allows you to invest in a diversified portfolio of investment-grade and high-yield bonds.
- Use a social feed where members can share why they believe in certain companies (or don't) and can post comments on others' trades.
- Invest in curated lists of stocks and ETFs for people to aggregate investments by interest area or values.
- Subscribe to Public Premium for features such as advanced company-level data, Morningstar insights, and exclusive audio content from Public.com's expert analysts.
- Special offer 1: Receive between $150 and $10,000 when you transfer your investment portfolio to Public.**
- Special offer 2: Receive an uncapped 1% match on transfers into a Public IRA.
- Fractional shares
- Allows you to trade alternative assets
- No payment for order flow (PFOF)
- Creative social investing features
- Doesn't support mutual funds
- Limited investment research and other tools
Related: Best Free Investing Apps
5. Acorns (Best Micro-Investing App to Learn About Investing)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Bronze: $3/mo. Silver: $6/mo. Gold: $12/mo.
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple IOS, Android)
Acorns is a micro-investing app geared toward minors, young adults, and millennials that’s perhaps best-known for its “Round-Ups” program.
With Acorns Round-Ups, the app rounds up purchases made on linked debit and credit cards to the nearest dollar, investing the difference on your behalf. For example, if you purchase a coffee for $2.60 on a linked credit card, Acorns automatically rounds this charge up to $3.00 and puts the 40-cent difference aside. Once those Round-Ups reach at least $5, they can be transferred to your Acorns account to be invested.
The Acorns investment offering itself is a simple, automated platform that uses pre-built portfolios of ETFs to keep investors exposed to stocks and bonds. While it doesn’t have much to offer intermediate investors who want variety in their portfolios, Acorns’ basic approach makes it one of the best investment apps for beginners.
Here’s more about what you can expect from Acorns’ varying subscription options:
- Acorns Bronze ($3 per month): Includes an Acorns Invest investment account, as well as Acorns Later for tax-advantaged investment options such as Roth IRAs. Also includes Acorns Checking, a bank account that has no account fees, lets you withdraw fee-free from more than 55,000 ATMs nationwide, and Smart Deposit, which allows you to automatically invest a bit of each paycheck into your Acorns accounts.
- Acorns Silver ($6 per month): Everything in Bronze (Acorns Invest, Later, and Checking), plus Premium Education, which are live onboarding sessions covering account setup, Round-Ups, setting up recurring investments, and more; Emergency Fund; and a 25% bonus on Acorns Earn rewards (up to $200 per month).
- Acorns Gold ($12 per month): Everything in Silver plus Acorns Early, which allows you to open a custodial investment account for your child so you can begin investing for them while they’re a minor; custom portfolios that allow you to hold individual stocks; live Q&As with financial experts; a 50% match on Acorns Earn rewards (up to $200 per month); $10,000 in life insurance; even the ability to set up a will for free.
Silver and Gold subscribers also get access to a powerful way to accelerate their savings: Later Match. While most people are aware that employers will sometimes match funds you contribute to your 401(k), “matches” are rare in retirement accounts like IRAs, where there’s no employer to kick in extra cash. However, Acorns itself will match 1% or 3% on new contributions to IRAs for Personal Plus and Premium subscribers, respectively.
Learn more in our Acorns review, or use our exclusive link to sign up with Acorns today.
- Acorns allows you to sign up for investment, retirement, and checking accounts for you and your family, learn how to earn more money, and grow your investing knowledge.
- Famous for investing spare change automatically through Round-Ups, this all-in-one financial app helps younger generations start investing earlier.
- Invest in expert-built portfolios made up of diversified ETFs.
- Silver tier includes perks such as a 25% match on Acorns Earn rewards (up to $200/mo.), generous APYs on Checking and Emergency Fund, and live Q&As with investing experts.
- Gold tier includes perks such as a 50% match on Acorns Earn rewards (up to $200/mo.), $10,000 in life insurance, picking individual stocks for your portfolio, a free Acorns Early account, and Acorns Early Invest custodial accounts for children with 1% contribution matches.
- Earn even more with Later Match: Acorns will match up to 1% (Silver) or 3% (Gold) of all new IRA contributions in your first year.*
- Special offer: Get a free $20 bonus investment when you sign up with our link and start making recurring investments.**
- Robo-advisor with affordable fees (on larger portfolios)
- Fixed fee model
- Round-ups
- FDIC/SIPC insurance
- IRA match (Silver and Gold)
- High fixed fees for small balances
- Limited investment selections
- Must subscribe to Gold for any self-directed investing options
Related: Best Online Stock Brokers for Beginners
6. Webull (Best Stock Trading App for Beginners)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Standard: No monthly fees, zero-commission stock, ETF, and option trades. Webull Premium: $3.99/mo. or $40/yr.
- Platforms: Desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux), web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)
Webull is a wallet-friendly brokerage account that offers no-commission stocks, ETFs, and options, $0 contract fees on many options, and requires no deposit minimums.
It also offers fractional-share investing, which allows investors to start buying for as little as $1. In other words: Beginners working with small dollar amounts can still easily diversify their portfolio across numerous investments. Newer investors can also learn trading skills through the courses in Webull’s education center, and even practice their skills via Webull’s paper trading service.
Webull is available across just about every platform, allowing you to research, trade, and track your stocks on your smartphone, tablet, or desktop. Other features include charting tools, customizable screeners, free real-time stock quotes and stock alerts, preset lists, voice commands, and more. It also offers extended trading hours (pre- and after-market trading) and 24/7 online help.
You can also subscribe to the paid Webull Premium tier, which provides a higher APY on uninvested cash, IRA rollover and transfer matches, higher IRA contribution matches, better margin rates, and more.
Use our exclusive link to sign up with Webull to get a special promotion. Currently, if you sign up and deposit at least $2,000, you’ll receive a $100 cash bonus and a 2% match (capped at $20,000, which would be awarded if you made a $1 million deposit).
- Webull is a low-cost trading and investing app that allows you to invest in stocks, ETFs, options, futures, commodities, and crypto, and even participate in initial public offerings (IPOs).
- No-commission stock, ETF, and option trades (and many options have $0 contract fees).
- Trading features such as charting tools, technical indicators, customizable screeners, real-time stock alerts, and group orders.
- Let Webull manage your money for you with Webull Smart Advisor, which combines Webull's in-house investment expertise and artificial intelligence to build, manage, and rebalance an ETF portfolio for you.
- Sign up for Webull Cash Management to earn up to a 4.1% APY on uninvested cash.
- New users get one free month of Nasdaq TotalView's Level 2 Quotes service. (That subscription costs $2.99/mo. thereafter.)
- Subscribe to Webull Premium and receive a premium APY on uninvested cash in individual and joint cash accounts, premium margin rates, a 3% match when you transfer or roll over your IRA, and an extra 3.5% match on qualifying IRA contributions.
- Special offer: Make an initial deposit of at least $2,000 and receive 1.) a $100 cash bonus, 2.) a 2% match of your deposit (up to a maximum bonus of $20,000), 3.) a 30-day voucher for Webull Premium, 4.) a 30-day 4.0% APY booster on uninvested cash (for a total of 8.1%).**
- Good selection of available investments
- Fractional shares
- Powerful technical analysis tools
- Offers robo-advisory services
- Accessible to beginning and intermediate users
- Voice commands
- Offers highly competitive APY through Webull Cash Management
- Does not support mutual funds
Related: Best Stock Trading Apps to Use as a Beginner
7. M1 (Best Complete Financial Solution Micro Investing Stock App)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Zero-commission on equity trades, accounts <$10k pay $3/mo.
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)
M1 offers free stock trading but also provides automated investing according to your predetermined investment decisions as this site’s top robo-advisor pick.
What we like most about this app compared to other investment platforms is the ability to make recurring deposits that automatically get invested into your portfolio.
You can use fractional shares on M1 to break down your favorite investments into bite-sized additions to your brokerage account.
M1 acts as a single personal finance app to assist with building wealth through automating your investments into diversified portfolios, having a bank account and linked debit card that provide market-beating interest rates and have access to valuable personal finance literature.
Most importantly, investing with M1 can be as simple as depositing money, setting your stock and index fund selections and having the platform automate your investments on your behalf. I’ve said it before, but this truly automates your investments if you set up recurring deposits, allowing your wealth to build.
From there, M1 automatically rebalances your portfolio in line with your stated asset allocation targets. Doing this at regular intervals has been shown to improve overall portfolio performance. It does so by moving outperforming funds into underperforming ones, capturing a value effect over time as returns revert to the mean.
Consider opening an investment account with M1.
Read more in our M1 review.
- M1's Smart Money Management gives you choice and control of how you want to invest automatically, borrow, and spend your money—with available high-yield checking and low borrowing rates.
- Includes an FDIC-insured checking account and an M1 Visa debit card that delivers 1% cash back.
- Unlock perks including higher cash-back rewards on the M1 Owner's Rewards Credit Card, 4.00% APY from high-yield savings, ATM reimbursements, and 0% international fees.
- Invest in stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies.
- Robo-advisor with self-directed investing capability
- Attractive cash-back and APY opportunities
- Doesn't support mutual funds
- Doesn't allow trading throughout the trading day
- Monthly fees for account balances <$10,000
Related: Best Debit Cards for Kids
8. Greenlight (Micro-Investing App for Minors)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Greenlight Max: $9.98/mo. Greenlight Infinity: $14.98/mo.
- Platforms: Mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)
Greenlight, through its Max and Infinity tiers, is an investment account for kids that comes paired with a debit card and bank account.
It’s easy to use and can double as a savings account and banking apps for teens. The app will teach the basics of investing, how to invest in stocks and ETFs, etc. Parents and guardians will need to approve trades made in the investment account.
The all-in-one plan teaches them important financial skills like money management and investing fundamentals — with real money, real stocks and real-life lessons.
You can use the investing feature to:
- Start investing with as little as $1 in your account
- Buy fractional shares of companies your kids admire
- No trading commissions beyond the monthly subscription fee
- Teens can only invest in stocks and ETFs with a market capitalization over $1 billion.
- Parents must approve every trade directly in the app.
An app like Greenlight is one of the best investments for kids. Consider opening a Greenlight Max or Infinity account to start investing in a brokerage account for your kids today, or read more in our Greenlight Card review.
- Greenlight is a financial solution for kids that allows them to spend with a debit card, earn money on savings, and even invest their money.
- Parents can use this app to teach kids how to invest with a brokerage account through Greenlight Max and Greenlight Infinity plans.
- Greenlight offers flexible parental controls for each child and real-time notifications of each transaction. And it's the only debit card that lets you choose the exact stores where kids can spend on the card.
- Families can earn 2% (Core), 3% (Max) or 5% (Infinity) per annum on their average daily savings balance of up to $5,000 per family. Also, Max and Infinity families can earn 1% cash back on their monthly expenditures.
- Unlike many apps that simply provide features and controls, Greenlight is also designed to spark discussions with children about spending, investing, and more, fostering a better educational experience.
- Best-in-class parental controls (can prohibit specific stores)
- Can add brokerage account to invest in stocks
- Intuitive Parent and Kid apps
- Competitive cash back and interest rates
- High price points
- No cash reload options
- No parent / child lending
Related: Best Prepaid Debit Cards for Teens & Family [Reloadable]
What is Micro-Investing?
It’s hard to fight the math behind investing in small amounts consistently over time. If you can start investing as little as $100 per week (or 10% of your paycheck) by your early 30s and grow these contributions over time, you’re very likely to hit the millionaire mark by retirement. Yet, not enough people do.
Over 100 million adults in the United States don’t have an investment account, leading them toward an uncertain financial future. Many choose to deposit money into a savings account instead.
The interest earned in these accounts will not make a significant dent in your retirement preparation like investing can. Investing is more powerful than leaving cash in a savings account.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be in that number. With a simple approach you can easily get started by following these investing principles:
- keep it simple
- keep investing
- keep portfolios diversified
- commit to your financial health
What Are Micro-Investing Apps?
Investing scares many when it really shouldn’t. While it might be hard to get started investing, it is tougher to retire without any money.
In the last decade, many services work to make investing easy and affordable.
These micro investing sites simplify your investing experience and can put you in a great position for a secure retirement.
The right time to invest is now and it all starts with a simple download of a micro investing, robo-advisor app like Acorns. But don’t let that investing term scare you.
A robo-investing app takes your deposits and automatically invests them in a diversified portfolio.
This personalized solution simplifies investing and earns you far more than you would by leaving cash in a savings account.
By investing $100 per week over 40 years, you can grow your investments to $1.5 million by retirement.
Doing so requires consistent contributions into your micro stock trading robo-investor app and allowing compounding returns to do the heavy lifting.
For example, the average diversified portfolio earns 8% on average. That means the 8% you might earn this year will then have 8% earned on it the next year and the next, and so on.
While your actual returns will vary year to year, this should show why getting started as early as possible makes the biggest difference.
If you want to take the first step towards a secure retirement, that means taking action today.
Start by downloading a micro investing app, opening an account and setting up your recurring deposits.
What Are the Best Micro Investing Apps?
In truth, no one app serves every individual person’s needs the same. Some investors choose to follow a more active approach while others would rather a set-it-and-forget style.
While I espouse the latter more so on this site, I don’t necessarily think investing in individual stocks is a bad approach when using stock analysis and research to guide your decision-making.
In fact, stock picking services like the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor and Epic have shown tremendous outperformance over the last two decades and really represent a significant value for investors looking to rely on others for making stock picks.
Some stock newsletters may even want to practice a more active form of trading and get vetted stock alerts sent directly to their phones to take advantage of market movements.
As long as you account for your risk preferences and level of commitment to following the market, your investment choices will depend on you.
No matter your investing style, when you want to get started investing, you want to look for micro investing apps that provide the functionality you want without feeling overwhelmed.
Therefore, the best stock trading app for you depends on your experience, investing goals, and desired level of educational support.
Beginners benefit from micro investing platforms that have the least amount of fees, low-cost investment options, educational resources and the ability to build a diversified portfolio in alignment with your financial goals.
They want all of this without getting lost in distraction if they can’t make sense of the information provided.
The adage of “keep it simple, stupid” usually applies, especially at the start.
Apps that provide a one stop shop for managing your personal finances often act as a great starting point. This means including your banking, spending and investing needs.
As you develop a better understanding of the market, you’ll want to extend your investing reach into new areas and see if other investing styles suit your needs. Your app should accommodate these growing needs.
With that in mind, this list of the best micro investing apps looks to offer simplified investing experiences at the start but ones which can still serve your needs as you grow your investing knowledge.
We try to highlight free apps where possible because investing your money shouldn’t come with charges unless the service provides other value-added products for managing your money.
