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
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Fun, Easy Stock Trading App for Beginners
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Personal Finance-Focused Stock Trading App
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Stock Trading App for Intermediate Investors
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Get a free stock for signing up
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No commissions on stock and ETF trades.
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No commissions on stock and ETF trades.
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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: Free trades
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)
Robinhood is a pioneer of low-cost trading, jumping into the investing public’s consciousness in 2013 when they rolled out commission-free trading. They remain a standout option for cost-minded investors thanks to their continued $0 commissions on stocks, ETFs, and options, as well as for its fractional trading, which allows people to invest with as little as $1.
More importantly, though, Robinhood has evolved from a bare-bones app appealing to mostly beginner investors to a fuller-featured account suitable for a wider range of experience levels. For instance, Robinhood now offers individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and Roth IRAs via Robinhood Retirement.
Sign up for 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 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
- Extensive educational library
- No mutual funds in brokerage or IRAs
- No robo-advisor functionality
Related: 8 Best Stock Picking Services, Sites, Advisors and Subscriptions
2. SoFi Invest®
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: No-commission equity trades, annual 0.25% AUM fee for robo-advisor
- Available: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)
SoFi Invest is an app that allows you to track stocks and trade your money. The well-known brand in the personal finance space also has a presence in the investing world by offering no-commission trades on stocks, ETFs, options and more.
The service provides you the ability to trade actively or stand back and let its robo-investing tools take over. This micro investing app allows you to trade in fractional shares, called “stock bits” by SoFi. Fractional shares are tiny portions of a share of stock worth less than the full value of one share. This means you don’t need to save up a lot of money before buying some of your favorite tech companies like Alphabet (Google), Amazon or Facebook.
The app is a great choice for investing your spare change or adding more to the market at once by tapping into savings accounts to make larger deposits on a regular basis.
Therefore, this app might make a good place to hold your investment accounts because you’ll have options of how to invest money.
The company wants to serve all customers who have an interest in improving their financial situation alongside participating in their other personal finance products like refinanced student loans, money management, credit cards and more.
Start by making a $5 deposit today and maintaining this low account minimum.
- 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 $1 with fractional shares.
- Robo-advisory services, including goal planning and auto-rebalancing, available for annual 0.25% AUM fee.
- Special offer: Fund a new account with at least $10 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: Free 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.
- Earn a 5.3% yield with Public.com's Treasury Account, which allows you to earn state- and local-tax-exempt income from T-bills.
- 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: Transfer investments from another broker to Public.com and earn between $150 and $10,000.*
- 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: Personal: $3/mo. Personal Plus: $6/mo. Premium: $12/mo.
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple IOS, Android)
Acorns is a micro investing app for minors and young adults who wish to start with a small amount of money in their investments. You can choose to invest your spare change through a linked debit card and make regular deposits to contribute to your investment portfolio.
With more time, these recurring contributions and rounded up deposits from your purchases could grow into a large portfolio over time. Hence the company’s name, Acorns: start small like an acorn but grow strong into a mighty oak tree. The service doesn’t charge money to make trades on your behalf, but it does charge an account fee depending on the services you select for your account.
When you set up an account, you answer questions related to your risk tolerance, financial goals and how much money you have to invest in stocks and bonds in your Acorns brokerage account. Consider these questions akin to what a financial advisor might ask when setting up an account to manage. Based on your answers, it makes recommendations for investment vehicles like stocks, bonds and real estate to create a diversified investment portfolio.
The service charges a monthly fee for users. Though, it doesn’t charge trading commissions when your money gets invested on your behalf in fractional shares of ETFs. Instead, it charges an account fee depending on the subscription plan you select for your account. These subscriptions provide various services that help young adults reach their goals, making it one of the best money apps for kids.
Their plans are as follows:
- Acorns Personal ($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 Personal Plus ($6 per month): Everything in Acorns Personal (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 Premium ($12 per month): Everything in Personal Plus, 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.
Learn more in our Acorns review.
- 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.
- 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.
- Earn even more with Later Match: Acorns will match up to 1% (Silver) or 3% (Gold) of all new IRA contributions.
- Special offer: Get $20 to start*.
- 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: Free trades
- Platforms: Desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux), web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)
Webull came into the stock trading world in 2018 when it started challenging Robinhood for market share. This stock trading app offers free stock trading (no trading fees) as well as free trades on ETFs, options and cryptocurrencies.
The company also recently added the ability to trade fractional shares, making this a great app for micro investing.
Like most investment apps available, the company provides access to trade on your smartphone, tablet or desktop.
Further, it charges no commissions for the trades because Webull makes money on other actions you take, like Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), margin loans, interest on cash and service fees for their Nasdaq TotalView Level 2 Advances quotes subscription.
Webull also provides you access to several powerful tools you can use for in-depth trading analysis.
If these account features sound attractive, the best part might also come with knowing setting up a Webull account is free and comes with no account minimums you must meet or maintain.
Finally, to de-risk your sign up, Webull also runs frequent promotions that give free stocks.
Read more in our Webull review.
- Webull is a low-cost trading and investing app that allows you to invest in stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto, and participate in initial public offerings (IPOs). Webull has also expanded its U.S. offerings to include futures and commodities trading.
- Commission-free trades on stocks, ETFs, and options.
- Trading features include 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.
- New users also get one free month of Nasdaq TotalView's Level 2 Quotes service. (That subscription costs $2.99/mo. thereafter.)
- Sign up for Webull Cash Management to earn a 5.0% APY without fees or minimums.
- Special offer: Open an account and deposit at least $500 to receive 20 free fractional shares, collectively worth between $60-$90,000.*
- 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: No-commissions 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, 4.25% 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.
How Much Money Do You Need to Access a Micro-Investing App?
Micro investing apps benefit people who don’t have much money to start investing.
Acorns, one of the most popular micro investing apps on the market, requires as little as $5 to open a new account.
The app then invests your money in a diversified portfolio across exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks and bonds.
By doing so you can start small but build a bigger balance in your investments quickly over time as long as you can commit to a consistent investment schedule.
Many micro investing apps require a minimum initial deposit, but they’re typically very affordable amounts.
Anyone can find that easy enough to save up without breaking your budget.
Why Do People Like Micro Investing?
Without a doubt, micro-investing works to build small sums of money over time in the hopes of building this into a larger one.
More toward the direct value for micro-investing: it’s a set-it-and-forget-it approach that works for you automatically while you live your life as you normally would.
What’s best about it is the ability not to think with a specific focus toward saving—instead you invest the spare change you otherwise would have left in your bank account, car cup holder or in your coin basket at home.
This simplified, automated approach to investing makes it incredibly low effort, granting significant power to these micro investing apps.
And since micro investing allows you to invest your spare change regularly, that also means the barriers to getting started are quite low. In other words, the money you have to open an account and invest doesn’t need to be a small fortune.
Instead, you might only get by with a $1 or less when opening most of these accounts. In fact, no account minimums at all.
As with every millennial trope, you can begin micro investing just by putting the change leftover after your Starbucks latte into the stock market.
That’s hitting the easy button—by taking the linked debit or credit card with the account and placing it automatically into your retirement account or brokerage account.
Is Micro Investing a Good Idea?
Plenty of people deride micro investing because they only see it as rounding up your Starbucks purchases by $0.50 for the rest of your life. They reason this will only get you a small amount of money over long periods of time.
While not entirely untrue, especially after accounting for the fees of some investing platforms, micro investing doesn’t need to stop at Round Ups, Stock Backs or whatever the branded term is for topping up purchases on a linked debit or credit card.
Instead, as you age, you should try to aim for making recurring deposits into your account as your compensation rises.
This can be from side hustles, investing in real estate, investing in the best passive income ideas, or simply building up your career.
No one expects you to invest half your paycheck each pay period when you start working. It takes time to build financial security and an investment portfolio.
What micro investing apps help is to establish the habit of knowing your purchases also result in something more important: saving for your future.
As your financial resources grow, you can contribute more and more to your account, building your wealth.
Enough derision about micro investing only producing micro results.
Instead, consider micro investing as part of your investment strategy that ties into other long haul decisions you make about saving for retirement.
Investing for the long term requires dedication, persistence and work over time considerable amounts of time.
You might start small with a micro investment app while simultaneously starting to save through your employer’s retirement plan, your own individual retirement account (IRA), building an emergency fund, saving for a house down payment and paying off any costly debt you have.
Combined, all of these small steps add up to something big. As is often said, “the sum is more than the whole of its parts.” In totality, all these small efforts add up and move the needle in the right direction.
Micro investing as its own shouldn’t be the sole factor driving your retirement savings or for any other goal you have. It should be a tool you add to your arsenal to accelerate your wealth building.
As a side note: if you have kids who earn income, consider helping them out now by opening a Roth IRA for kids.
This will let them lock in low tax rates while they’re young and allow compounding to grow their wealth more than any major contributions later in life ever could.
But, if you want a retirement strategy which will get you to your intended destination (a safe and secure retirement), where should you start?
Step 1: Mind the Needs of Today
First, you shouldn’t save anything for the long-term if you’ve got needs that must be addressed today. Behind on bills? Need to eliminate costly credit card debt? Have to fund an emergency savings fund to guard against backsliding into debt even further?
Don’t let these expenses get out of hand. Instead, you need to build a solid financial rock upon which you can grow.
- Establish an emergency fund: This entails saving a minimum of 3-6 months (or even 12) of your on-going monthly expenses. While this might sound like a lot if you’ve got nothing currently, start small with $100, then $1,000 and eventually $5,000. Make sure you’re realistic with your budget and fully fund this personal finance priority before contributing anything meaningful toward retirement.
- Pay off credit card debt: You’re not alone if you’ve got credit card debt that’s been piling up. Paying off your credit card debt is a must before saving for retirement because it will save you money in the long-term. The interest rates paid on credit card debt almost always outweigh what you could receive by investing for retirement in stocks and bonds. Credit cards usually charge in excess of 15% APYs, sometimes north of 20%. While stocks and bonds can have years where they return this amount, over very long periods of time, you’re more likely to encounter returns between 7-10% per year on average with a well-diversified portfolio of equities and fixed income. If you have any amount of credit card debt, make sure to pay it off as soon as possible so you can start saving for retirement without worrying about this emergency expense.
- Get current on bills: You might be thinking that you should save for retirement before paying off your bills, but this is a mistake. If you’re behind on your monthly bills then you need to take care of these past due expenses before saving for retirement. Getting current on all of your financial obligations is important because it will make sure that if anything were to happen in the future where you couldn’t work or had emergency expenses come up, then there would be no debt hanging over your head.
You can lower your credit card debt quicker by signing up for an app like Tally, which extends a lower cost line of credit to cover your existing credit card debt and putting an end to late payment fees.
For student loans, you may have received a reprieve from governmental orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, but payments resumed in October 2023.
Now, you’ll need to resume payments but can lower the interest rate you pay by using a student loan refinancing marketplace. These services pull real-time quotes from several refinancing lenders in the market to give you a sense of the best refinancing option available to you.
My wife used a loan refinancing marketplace when her first round of student loans required payments to start and she dropped her rate from 8.00% to 2.85%, reducing her average rate by 515 basis points and saving us thousands in interest!
If you’re in a similar situation with high-cost student loans, consider using a student loan refinancing service to find your best rate and lowering your cost of repayment. Depending on the savings you can receive, this guaranteed savings often makes for a wise financial decision.
Once you can get a handle on your high cost debt and student loans responsibly, you should look to invest money in your retirement accounts and taxable brokerage accounts to grow for the long-term.
Step 2: Invest Early, Invest Often (and Diversify)
I’m a huge believer in working toward financial independence, or having the financial resources to make decisions not guided by money.
That means you need to have enough saved and invested. To get there faster, you’ll need to save more now.
I suggest saving more than the standard 10-15% of your income per year if you can afford. This will give you either A) a more comfortable and secure retirement at the traditional age (65-68) or B) a chance to retire earlier.
How much earlier depends on when you start saving, how much you contribute, the portfolio you choose and the investment returns you receive.
To get started, consider the following investing strategy:
- Pay off debt, save an emergency fund. This again? Yes. These short-term needs aren’t something you can avoid. Prioritize the now in this instance as the costs of being behind on bills, credit card debt or student loans is far greater than the upside you’d see long-term for investing from retirement. Those costs you see in your mail are certain. You can always save more if you get started a bit later on your retirement with a chance to catch up.
- Work your way up the retirement savings account ladder. This means starting with an order of investment accounts to capture the greatest return for yourself. It starts with an emergency fund but then quickly goes into investment accounts. If you work for an employer who offers a retirement match, or money they agree to contribute alongside yourself into a 401k, 403b or 457 plan, you should start here. Make sure the investment options provided make sense and are lower cost. If they have index funds in the employer-sponsored plan menu, you’ve found a good set of investments to hold for decades to come. If you get a match, take full advantage of it! That’s free money you can call yours risk-free. Invest up to the match at a minimum. That means if your company offers a 4% match on your contributions, invest at least 4% of your annual pay.
- Contribute to an IRA. Next up are individual retirement accounts, or IRAs. These accounts come in two types: traditional and Roth. Traditional IRAs allow you to deduct your contributions in the year you make them (subject to certain income limitations) and pay taxes when you withdraw money in retirement on a tax-deferred basis while Roth IRAs work the opposite: pay taxes upfront and see your investments grow tax-free. If you’d like to open an IRA, consider whether you think you’re paying higher taxes now or whether that’ll happen in retirement. If you think taxes are higher now, contribute to a traditional account. If you think they’ll be higher for you in retirement, contribute to a Roth IRA with M1 Finance or other investing companies that don’t charge commissions.
- Standard brokerage accounts. If you have all these bases covered and you’re hitting the maximum for all of them, consider investing in a taxable brokerage account deemed as one of the best investing apps for beginners. This after-tax money isn’t tax-efficient, but it does provide you with liquidity if you need money before retirement.
Step 3: Rinse and Repeat (and Repeat)
Micro investing is an easy way to start investing because of the low capital commitment and minimal (if any) investment minimums. Though, for it to really make a difference for your financial needs, it can’t be the only way you save for retirement.
In fact, you’ll need to supercharge these contributions in short order to take advantage of compounding returns over time on increasingly larger sums of money.
Said differently, you want to contribute as much as you can as early as you can to allow compounding returns in diversified investments to do the heavy lifting if you want to actually live out your retirement dreams.
The great news is that the earlier you get started, the more time you have to put your money to work. That’s the power of compound growth! Here’s what that could look like for you:
Let’s say you’re 30 years old, making the average household income of around $66,000. You decide to invest $600 per month in your retirement accounts, all inclusive of any employer match you’d receive.
That amounts to just over 10% of your income every year. If you retire at age 67, you could have over $2.1 million in your retirement savings.
This assumes an average 9% annual return, which is a bit under the inflation-adjusted average annual return of the S&P 500 of the last 50 years.
In short, a realistic growth rate if you leave your funds investing in a S&P 500 index fund over multiple decades.
That sounds pretty great, right? But it gets even better. Of that total $2.1 million, your contributions only make up around $266,500.
That means 90% of that total is money provided by the market—not your wallet!
But, if you made the same decision to start investing $300 per month at age 22, you’d have $2.2 million. $600 a month? $4.4 million!
And if you really want to save and retire early, say at age 55, consider investing $1,000 per month starting at age 22. Certainly a steep contribution to start, but if you can manage it, that decision will pay off significantly: $2.4 million.
If you can manage $2,000 per month, you could retire at 50 with $3.0 million. The lesson here: start early and invest as much as you can as early as you can.
