Best Investment Apps for Beginners: Top 3 Mobile Investing Apps

Chad DavisTech1 Comment

best investment apps for beginners

Grow your money on your own terms with mobile investing apps. In the past few years, a surge of micro-investing app developers have emerged offering simple investment solutions. While the apps generally target millennials, more and more American adults are discovering an entirely new way to save money. This article compares three of the best investment apps for beginners and experts alike, including Acorns, Robinhood and Stash.

Skip to the top 3 mobile investing apps

Affordable, Engaging and Simple Ways to Save Your Money

Micro-Investing App Makes Stock Market Trading Affordable

By installing a micro-investing app on your mobile device, you’re unlocking an affordable way to invest in the stock market. Traditionally, investors pay a stock broker a commission in addition to other costs, such as per-trade fees. Most mobile investing apps trade in what’s known as Exchange-Traded Funds (or ETFs). An ETF is similar to an index fund but usually offers less expensive, commission-free trades. According to Forbes,

[ETFs] provide investors with a benchmark return at minimal cost

Millennials Engage Heavily with Mobile Investing Apps

Mobile investing apps are easy-to-use, offer engaging interfaces and provide higher interest rates than most savings accounts. As millennials are far less financially stable than previous generations, saving money is often a struggle. When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, a micro-investing app offers a few easy ways to invest money in small amounts.  While each app is different, they all offer visual analytics about the performance and potential returns of your investments. According to the FDIC,

National savings account interest rates offer 0.6% on average

Passive Funding Provides Simple Investment Options

To many, even a consistent $100 monthly investment is difficult to achieve. Many mobile investing apps offer a variety of flexible funding options to make it easy to save on a budget. From spare change investments throughout the month to manual $5 investments each week, a micro-investing app can be a valuable tool for saving money when finances are tight. Flexible funding is one of the main factors considered in list, below, of the best investment apps for beginners. According to Acorns,

You can start investing with just $5

Best Investment Apps for Beginners

#1 – Acorns

Acorns is an easy investing app available to anyone with a U.S. bank. For $1 / month you can start investing any amount (over $5) at any time on your own terms. Adjust your portfolio risk factors to select short or long-term invest periods and watch your money grow. As one of the first big players to the market, Acorns has evolved to become one of the best investment apps for beginners.

Signup at Acorns.com

micro investing app

#2 – Robinhood

Robinhood is an innovative micro-investing app that lets you choose which stocks to purchase. Rather than purchasing a single stock at full price, you can choose to invest only a small amount (e.g.; purchasing a fraction of the stock). While you can’t invest in every stock out there, you’ll find plenty of big names to choose from, such as Apple, Ford and Sprint. Free, zero-commission trading makes Robinhood one of the best investment apps for beginners and experts.

Signup at Robinhood.com (one free stock via referral)

mobile investing apps

#3 – Stash

Stash is a mobile investing app that really focuses on making things simple for new users. Similar to Acorns, Stash lets you start investing with as little as $5. As soon as you’ve confirmed your identify it asks you to select a weekly investment amount and confirm your bank account. The streamlined interface makes Stash third on this list of the best investment apps for beginners.

Signup at StashInvest.com ($5 free via referral)

Investing in the Future

You DO Have Enough Money to Invest

Try a micro-investing app to start saving today! These mobile investing apps make it easy for anyone to build up a small nest egg for emergencies, car repairs or a summer vacation.  Follow my blog for updates as I discover other developers that should be included in this list of the best investment apps for beginners.

Protect Your Privacy

Are you on a public Wi-Fi hotspot or insecure network? Be sure to protect your identify — especially when managing your financial accounts — using a virtual private network (see my article, “Is OpenVPN Safe?,” for more info on VPNs.)

Questions

If you have questions for me about a micro-investing app, or are interested in my IT consulting rates, please don’t hesitate contact me!

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