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!
Liability Insurance for Small Business
Are you a small business owner? You’re probably well aware of the risks of property damage, but what about the liability of the goods and services you provide? This could end up proving even more costly, especially if you’re a small business.
In this article, we’ll look at liability insurance for small businesses. We’ll discuss the importance of having liability insurance, how it fits into a small business’ overall finances and risk management, other considerations, and the best policy options for small businesses in the U.S.
The Importance of Having Liability Insurance
Before we look at the importance of having liability insurance, it helps to first understand what liability and liability insurance are.
Liability means that your small business is held legally responsible to a third party, such as your customers and suppliers. Liability insurance is any type of insurance that protects a small business against lawsuits. Even if a small business isn’t directly responsible for an incident, it could still be sued for damages, injuries or losses.
For example, if a customer slips and falls on the floor and gets hurt, your small business could be on the hook for the customer’s medical bills. Other instances where liability insurance could protect your business includes advertising that does harm to a competitor, professional mistakes that hurt clients and inadvertent damage to a client’s property. Even serving up drinks at your small business’s holiday party could leave you open to lawsuits if someone were to get hurt or hurt someone on the drive home.
Finances and Risk Management
When someone, a third party, believes that they were harmed by your small business in any way, they can file a lawsuit against you. This poses a major financial risk for you and your business.
Even if you don’t come up on the losing end of a lawsuit, it could spell trouble for a business. (If you come up on the losing end, it could be even worse.) A lawsuit can create many difficulties for small businesses, which don’t typically have as deep pockets as big businesses to defend themselves.
Getting liability insurance for your small business all comes down to risk. If you don’t believe there’s much of a risk of your small business being sued, you might decide to go without liability insurance. However, most small businesses would benefit from having at least a bare minimum of general liability insurance, no matter the industry they’re in.
As its name suggests, general liability insurance protects your small business from a number of broad risks; mainly, customer injuries, property damage and related lawsuits. You may not have a choice about it; often you’ll be required to have general liability insurance before you can get a commercial lease.
Other Considerations
Liability insurance isn’t just a matter of signing up for any old policy and forgetting about it. Liability insurance policies come in all different shapes and sizes. You’ll want to shop around before deciding on the liability insurance policy that’s right for you. There are several things to consider when signing up.
The first consideration is cost. While it can be tempting to go with the liability insurance policy that costs the least, that may not be the best liability insurance policy for your small business. You’ll likely want to choose the policy that offers the best value and most protection that your small business can afford.
There are several things that can influence the insurance premiums of liability insurance: how many employees you have, your business’s location, limitations of the coverage and risk of the industry. All these factors together may explain why your small business’s insurance premiums are higher than your cousin, who is also a small business owner.
Another factor to consider is the level of protection the liability insurance policy offers to your small business. Ask yourself this question: in a worst case scenario, would it be enough to cover your losses? If the answer is yes, then you’re likely buying sufficient coverage. If the answer is no, it’s highly recommended that you consider buying more coverage.
You’ll also want to consider the financial stability of the liability insurance provider. The whole point of liability insurance is so that your insurance provider will pay out any claims you make. However, if your insurance provider files for bankruptcy when you need to file a claim, you might not end up with any payout in the end, or it could be tied up in the courts for months or years.
The Best Policy Options for Small Businesses in the U.S.
All liability insurance policies aren’t created equal. Some policies protect you against some risks, while others protect you against other risks. Here are some of the best policy options to look into for small businesses in the U.S.
For starters, you’ll want a policy that offers general liability insurance coverage. General liability insurance protects you from two main risks: bodily injuries and property damage.
Some of the most common injuries that small business owners have to deal with are slips and falls. Although it may not seem like a big deal, these injuries can be severe and costly for your business. A customer could end up in the hospital and sue your small business to cover their medical bills.
Property damage can prove even more costly for small business owners. For example, if you’re in a truck rental business and a customer crashes one of your rental trucks into someone’s property, not only could you be dealing with bodily injuries, but you could face property damage too.
Thankfully, the most basic liability insurance provides protection options in these instances, although you’ll want to ensure the coverage is sufficient for your business.
If your company manufactures and sells products, you’ll also want to look into an option for product liability. If one of your goods injures someone or does damage to their property, your small business could be held responsible.