Make Investing Simple Whether you’re putting away your first $1,000 or have been saving for the future for years, you’re going to want to consider investing your funds at some point. Doing so will allow you to maximize returns and exponentially grow your savings. Unfortunately, the investment process can be pretty intimidating, especially if you are starting out on your own. It’s hard to know how to begin, where to invest, how to balance your portfolio and even what sort of fees you should expect to pay along the way. That’s where the convenience and ease of today’s best investment apps can come into play. [youmaylike] What are Investment Apps? Once upon a time, your only choice for investing was to pick up the phone and call your stock broker to initiate a trade. You were charged for the service, either based on commission or as a flat fee per transaction. While stock brokers are still an option, you can take investing into your own hands these days, without ever needing to talk to another human. And it’s all thanks to investment apps and platforms. Today’s apps offer a range of services and features. With them, users can: Research funds and individual stocks. View fees and expenses related to investment choices. Invest funds on the go, and even automate regular contributions. Automatically reinvest earnings on current investments. Adjust portfolio for personal risk tolerance. View performance projections. Choose funds or individual stocks that align with personal beliefs, through portfolios based on socially-responsible missions. The best part? Investing through trusted apps is usually cheaper and faster and you’ll have instant access to your portfolio/reports at any time of day. Not only that, but you’ll also be able to set your investment risk tolerance, rebalance your portfolio and even reinvest earnings automatically. Who are Investment Apps Designed For? Whether you’ve been playing the market for ages or are ready to invest your first $100, the right investment app is worth considering. For those new to the stock market, apps will simplify the process and put the power of investing at your fingertips… literally. From your phone or computer, you can easily see portfolio recommendations based on your own goals, savings plans and even risk tolerances. The right app will tell you upfront how much you can expect to spend in fees throughout the year, and can even allow you to automate many of the more confusing aspects, such as picking well-performing stocks or even rebalancing. While investment apps are ideal for beginners, newbies aren’t the only ones who will see the benefits. Even seasoned investors will find the process easy to use, and may even learn that these platforms can maximize returns (and save them money in fees) along the way. Not to mention, many investment apps offer additional insight into specific funds, so you can choose to invest in companies that align with your own passions and beliefs. Now that you know why you should consider using an investment app for your own savings, let’s take a look at some of the best ones available today. Best Investment Apps Great for Beginners: Acorns Fees and expenses: For investors with less than $1 million invested, fees are between $1-3 per month depending on the account option you choose. Acorns is also free for college students. Beginning investment requirement: At least $5 to start Types of investments available: ETFs (exchange-traded funds) Portfolio options: Conservative, Moderately Conservative, Moderate, Moderately Aggressive, Aggressive Automatic investing?: Yes Automatic reinvesting?: Yes Automatic rebalancing?: Yes If you want an easy, hands-off approach to investing that won’t leave your head spinning, Acorns is a great first choice. This app not only simplifies investing for beginners but allows investors to completely automate the process from start to finish. After connecting the app to your debit card, the app will “round up” each of your daily purchases, putting the savings into an investment holding account. Once you reach the minimum required, Acorns will invest this money on your behalf, based on your account preferences. The app will also reinvest your earnings, as well as rebalance your portfolio when necessary. Great for Truly Free Investing: Robinhood Fees and expenses: Robinhood is a free investment platform in every sense of the word, pledging to never charge company fees or commissions to customers. Beginning investment requirement: You’ll need $2,000 to get started. Types of investments available: ETFs, stocks, cryptocurrency and options. Portfolio options: Interest-based options such as Fashion ETF, Tech ETF and Energy ETF, as well as a standard S&P 500 ETF, all with personal risk tolerance settings. You’ll also find “collections,” which are individual stocks grouped according to specific interests — such as companies with female CEOs or that are in the social media sector. Automatic investing: No. Automatic reinvesting: No. Automatic rebalancing: Yes. A great option for beginners and experienced investors alike, Robinhood makes the process both easy and affordable. How affordable? Well, it’s entirely free. By offering a truly free experience, Robinhood saves investors some serious cash over time. Additionally, the platform makes it easy to choose individual stocks or ETFs based on personal interests. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency or options, you can also do so through Robinhood. One of the biggest limitations of the platform, though, is its automation. While you can set up automatic deposits into your account, you will need to manually invest those funds and then reinvest (or withdraw) your dividends. Stash Fees and expenses: $1 per month fee for those with less than $5,000 invested, or $2 per month for retirement accounts with less than $5,000. For users under 25, fees on retirement accounts are waived. If you have more than $5,000 invested, your fee will be 0.25% annually. Beginning investment requirement: You’ll need at least $5 to begin investing (fractional shares are available) Types of investments available: ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and fractional stock shares Portfolio options: Too many to name, ranging from things you Want (portfolios that are conservative to aggressive mixes), things you Believe (such as groups of companies that believe in clean energy, LGBT rights, etc.), and things you Like (tech, retail and social media companies). Automatic investing: Yes. Automatic reinvesting: No. Automatic rebalancing: No. The closest competitor to Acorns, Stash seeks to make investing easy for everyone, regardless of your goals and passions. They have three account options to choose from, allowing you to manage your investment and retirement accounts, or even a child’s education savings through custodial accounts. With Auto-Stash, you can set any number of automatic investment options and transfers. However, Stash will not rebalance your portfolio for you, nor will they reinvest dividends on your behalf. Wealthfront Fees and expenses: 0.25% annually. Beginning investment requirement: $500 minimum initial investment. Types of investments available: ETFs (exchange-traded funds), individual stocks, retirement accounts (401k, IRA), 529 savings plans and trusts. Portfolio options: 11 asset classes to choose from, including natural resources and real estate. Automatic investing: Yes. Automatic reinvesting: Yes. Automatic rebalancing: Yes. Wealthfront’s investment platform is designed to be friendly for users of all experience levels. If you’re a seasoned investor, you’ll enjoy all of the options available to you, including the ability to manage your retirement accounts, education savings and even non-profits or trusts. If you’re a newbie, their free financial expertise center is the perfect place to learn all about investing and your future. TD Ameritrade Fees and expenses: The managed, automatic portfolio investment option (called Essential Portfolios) is available with a 0.30% advisory fee. Beginning investment requirement: $5,000 minimum for managed portfolios (no minimum requirement for traditional trading). Types of investments available: Stocks, ETFs, options, mutual funds, futures, bonds/CDs, Forex and cryptocurrency. Portfolio options: Essential Portfolios (EP) offer investors a range of options from Conservative to Aggressive, based on your passions, preferences and tolerances. Automatic investing: Yes, with EP. Automatic reinvesting: Yes. Automatic rebalancing: Yes. A more traditional brokerage app, TD Ameritrade is one of the most recognizable names in the industry. You can easily educate yourself on all things financial, thanks to their free videos and posts. If you want a traditional experience, you can choose your trades and pay per transaction. Prefer a more streamlined, automated approach? Opt for their Essential Portfolios, a hands-off investment option (robo-advisor) that charges a flat monthly fee and requires little-to-no oversight from you. Plus, their app makes the investing process easier than ever with a user-friendly interface, price alerts and no minimum to get started. If you prefer a desktop experience, this is also available to you through TD Ameritrade. Bottom Line Getting started with investing can be intimidating. With all of the terminology and account options out there, it’s easy to want to run and hide. Thanks to some of today’s best investment apps, though, you can not only get started with your first portfolio but also watch your money quickly grow… no matter how much of a beginner you may be! It’s important to choose an app that offers you the portfolio options and features you want most, with fees and deposit minimums that match your financial needs. The five apps above are our favorites for beginners, making that first foray into investing easier than ever before. The hardest part will be choosing the one you love most!
Tight Budget? Save Where You Can on Food
Saving money is often a difficult thing to do. When it comes to budgeting, it’s critically important to have a step-by-step process. This is especially true when it comes to groceries. If you want to know how to save money on groceries, keep reading, as we’ll be going over some helpful tips and tricks.
Budgeting
Incorporating groceries into your personal budget can be more daunting than incorporating expenses like transportation and utilities. This is perfectly normal, because who really wants to pinch pennies when it comes to the food you put into your stomach?
Unfortunately, groceries are becoming more expensive. According to USA Today, the price of food in the United States has risen 26.8% during the last decade. These increasing food costs have even managed to outpace the rate of inflation during the same period (21.9%). This trend does create a need to budget, as rent isn’t getting any cheaper either.
The good news is that even though budgeting groceries may take plenty of forethought, it isn’t the hardest thing to do when it comes to personal finances.
Where Do I Start?
Like any great financial endeavor, you’ll need to start by crunching some numbers. You’ll need to know exactly how much you spend on groceries, and how much goes towards specific products. If you haven’t already, you should start making note of all your grocery expenses. Start making simple yet detailed notes when you spend money on groceries. Are you buying staple items every month? Purchasing specific brand names? All of this will be important. Once you know exactly where your money is going, it’ll be much easier to take action and start saving.
Once you’ve painted a picture of your grocery-related expenses, it’s time to start being both more frugal and more resourceful. Being frugal involves cutting out some of the less useful expenses. This means cutting out food items that are pricey and don’t justify their prices through their nutritional value, and/or their cost-to-calorie ratio.
This may sound intimidating, but you don’t need to crunch the numbers on the number of calories you’re getting for each dollar. Instead, you’ll just want to cut the unnecessary costs. These costs include expensive junk food or food items that cost too much when a cheaper alternative is available. Resourcefulness, on the other hand, involves eliminating waste and getting your money’s worth when you buy groceries.
Let’s break these two down a bit more.
Resourcefulness: Getting the Biggest Bang for Your Buck
Resourcefulness is a broad idea, but with groceries, you can just try a few new habits to save money. There are plenty of ways to save money with new habits that can become second nature with a little practice.
One of the best ways to be resourceful with groceries is by cooking in bulk. Try cooking large meals and freezing them separately. For example, if you cook some chicken, rice, and potatoes, store and freeze them separately to have them ready to be heated up later. When it’s meal time, just take out the ingredients you need and heat them up. By getting into the habit of cooking in bulk and storing meals to be prepared for a quick cook-up, you can save both time and money. This way you can take fewer trips to the grocery store while also having your food organized so you don’t waste any.
A large part of being resourceful with your groceries involves having a consistent meal plan. If you know what you need to eat, what’s inexpensive, and what’s easy to prepare, you can put it into a meal plan that you can repeat. This way, you can also take advantage of sales by buying an item in bulk, cooking and freezing it, and making it last for a few days.
The last and most obvious component of resourcefulness is the hardest part. Regardless of how you feel at any given moment, you must insist on not buying what you don’t need. This means not giving into cravings that will drive you over your budget. If you can create new meal plans that are agreeable with your budget, then take full advantage of the opportunity.
Being Frugal: Including Groceries in Your Budget
Once you’ve gotten into the habit of being resourceful with what you have, it’s easier to be frugal. Base your grocery purchases on a healthy mix of what your body needs and what your wallet allows for. Find a way to put all the food groups you need into your meal plan at the most reasonable cost possible. The specifics will depend on your location and what’s in season.
While certain produce can cost more in some places than others, meats are generally more expensive wherever you go. Unless you have a personal health reason or an undying love of meat, it would be a great idea to cut out some meat in favor of other foods that are more critical to your health (and are cheaper, too).
While taking advantage of what’s in season and what’s generally cheap in your area is great, taking advantage of specific promotions can save you plenty. Plus, buying frozen produce is always less expensive than fresh, and allows you to stock up when there are sales.
Taking Advantage of Promotions and Deals
This is where you can truly get creative and have fun when it comes to budgeting your groceries. Sales are common in the grocery business and allow you to save upwards of half of the cost of products. One great rule of thumb is to only buy meat when it’s on sale. If you buy it in bulk, you can also freeze it for future use.
You can often find news about deals in flyers or by looking around in your local grocery store. Knowing both what’s in season and what’s on sale can save your wallet and satisfy your stomach at the same time.
Saving on Groceries Matters
Saving money on groceries is critical if you find yourself in a financial rough spot. You can cut many costs out of your life, but you’ll always need food. Knowing this, why not get into the habit of making your money go further in the areas that you know you’ll need to keep spending on?
By cutting back your grocery expenses, you can set money aside for other important things. You can start paying off debts or put more money into savings accounts. Saving money on groceries is important simply because it empowers you to improve your financial situation on a constant basis.