[Ninetales.]

Has anyone used apps such as Acorns, Wealthfront, or Betterment? Or have an ETF with a major firm such as Vanguard or Schwab?

I am interested in long term investing through my time as a student but I feel that something like an ETF is too long-term, with apps like Acorns you can withdraw your funds pretty easily at a later date with smaller fees, but you do incur fees throughout your use of the service...

Acorns currently offers a student discount, so I'm going to register an account with them to see what a few months of an aggressive portfolio looks like, but it would be nice to know if anyone has any experience with other apps or methods of long-term investing.

[Sigma]

Acorns is a good app to start with. Otherwise, for the long term, you should invest in mutual funds. That will have you openening an account with fidelity or other web apps.

[Ninetales.]

Acorns is a good app to start with. Otherwise, for the long term, you should invest in mutual funds. That will have you openening an account with fidelity or other web apps.

I made a robinhood and stash and threw a bit into some ETFs and stocks just to test the waters. Thanks for your input, tried applying for Fidelity but i didnt want to mail in my app

[Sigma]

Nice! Let me know if you need any advice. I'm always open to someone investing in the ace of spades award for me ;p

[soar-x]

are you willing to bet on the market? ok then buy an index like s&p and hold. simple as that.

[redroyalty]

are you willing to bet on the market? ok then buy an index like s&p and hold. simple as that.

If you bet on the S&P you will basically bet on 5 companies.

Market cap weighted indexes aren't good. It's basically overweight Apple and Amazon.

[Ninetales.]

If you bet on the S&P you will basically bet on 5 companies.

Market cap weighted indexes aren't good. It's basically overweight Apple and Amazon.

where do you pick out information that you find is reliable?

[THE NORTH FACE]

I mostly am trying to learn Forex. However recently I've taken a look at TDAmeritrade. They have an incredibly nice trading platform called ThinkorSwin (TOS).
There are much higher fees per trade than those robinhood or Acorns apps, but for longer term trades or more advanced trading the platform is very easy to navigate.
I don't know what robinhood or Acorns has for an actual trading program since I haven't used or looked at them before but (TOS) is very nice.

[Ninetales.]

I mostly am trying to learn Forex. However recently I've taken a look at TDAmeritrade. They have an incredibly nice trading platform called ThinkorSwin (TOS).
There are much higher fees per trade than those robinhood or Acorns apps, but for longer term trades or more advanced trading the platform is very easy to navigate.
I don't know what robinhood or Acorns has for an actual trading program since I haven't used or looked at them before but (TOS) is very nice.

robinhood is really nice with 0 commission at all, you just cant day trade or anything like that on it.
acorns i wasnt approved so im trying out stash. robinhood gives you no help and marking the end of my first day i am down 1.5%
stash mainly spreads your funds into specifically etfs that you wish to invest in, but the returns are slow and steady just as any other etf investing app

i wish acorns approved me, the 1$/month fees on stash doesnt sound too bad but at an annual growth of 6% id have to have at least like 400-600$ invested into the app just to break even on fees

[soar-x]

If you bet on the S&P you will basically bet on 5 companies.

Market cap weighted indexes aren't good. It's basically overweight Apple and Amazon.

this doesn't make any sense.

[90210]

How much capital do you have?

First I would focus on getting at least $5K to $10K in a savings account. That will help you in case you get into an emergency and need cash. Once you have that for a rainy day, then you can start putting your extra savings into long term instruments. When you're investing for the long term, you don't want to cash it out unless it's a dire circumstance.

I would look into starting an IRA and buying low cast market index funds. That will grow nicely for you over the next few decades.

Good luck!

[redroyalty]

this doesn't make any sense.

Not sure how that does not make sense. Pretty basic knowledge how the S&P is priced.

The S&P is a market cap index... meaning, companies with the highest market cap have the highest weight. Meaning, the gain and losses of 5 companies control the entire index.


Apple 4.45%
Microsoft 3.52%
Amazon 3.21%
Berkshire 1.6%
JP Morgan 1.57%
...
...
...
#15 AT&T 0.98%

At number 15, every single company has less than 1% exposure in the index. By time you get to 100 out of 500, the exposure is already below 0.01%...

This means, all gains and losses primarily come from those 5 companies mentioned above. Pretty much, if the techs take a hit, the S&P will take a massive loss.

You should familiarize yourself how indexes are created and how they are priced.

[reBELLYus]

Acorns and robo investing applications are not worth your time.

Depending on your tax bracket and general income level, you want to fund a Roth IRA through Vanguard. You can contribute up to $5500/year (more if you are at least 59 1/2 years of age). Set your dividends to reinvest as opposed to going to your market funds.

If your income level is over the threshold to contribute to a Roth IRA, you can mega backdoor.

Based on the last 100 years, if you contribute $5.5k per year to your Roth IRA for 35 years, compounding interest will turn your on-going investment into $1M roughly upon retirement.


401K is another option for long-term growth but that's another story.

[Artemis Fowl]

Yeah, Robinhood is honestly the best brokerage for beginners to intermediates. Open up a Robinhood account and invest in some ETF's, maybe a few index's, and a few monthly dividend paying stocks and you'll be absolutely golden. Wish I had no fee trading available to me when I started.

[Ninetales.]

looking for more opinions