The Acorns investing app is a popular app for first time investors.  It is a small dollar app designed to teach you how to make small dollar investments.  The app rounds up your purchases on linked credit or debit cards.  It next gathers up the change into a computer-managed investment portfolio. Acorns basically uses a small investment approach by allowing you to round to the nearest dollar for every purchase you make. You then invest the difference. All of those pennies will add up and compound over time.  It makes it easy for people to save because it happens automatically when you make purchases.

Acorns is free for four years for college students with a valid college email address. Other investors pay $1 a month until their account balance hits $5,000.  Then it switches to a 0.25% off their account balance rate per year.

There is no minimum amount to open an account.  Although, the service does require a $5 balance to start investing in one of Acorns five pre-built portfolios.

These pennies that are collected are invested in one of six asset allocations. Each portfolio is made up of different Exchange Traded Funds (ETF).  You get to decide how aggressive or conservative that you want to be with your saved money.  You can choose from portfolios that are either Conservative, Moderately Conservative, Moderate, or Moderately Aggressive.

Pros

• Great for young people
• Free for college students 
• No minimum amount to open an account
• Small amounts of money start adding up quickly
• Makes saving and investing very easy

Cons

• Not for big time investors
• Lack of tax benefits. This way of saving should not replace 401Ks or a Roth IRA.

What Other People Are Saying

Here are what some of the most well known critiques are saying about Acorns:

Nerd Wallet – 1/31/17 “If you want to make the most of your spare change and get the occasional retailer kickback, there’s really no better place to do that. The automatic roundups at Acorns make saving and investing easy, and most investors will be surprised by how quickly those pennies accumulate.”

My Finance 11/2/16 “To Acorns’ credit, they have done an outstanding job simplifying a time-consuming process that too many people don’t partake in. The app is in my opinion a great app for a certain type of person.”

Work at Home No Scams 3/14/17 “Acorns is definitely legitimate. It’s a win-win situation, especially if you’re new to saving and investing. The cool thing about it is that it’s connected to something you’re already doing, which is spending.”

Cost and Process to Join

Acorns is free for up to 4 years for college students with a valid college email address. Other people who want to join pay $1 a month until their account balance hits $5,000. The rates then switch to a 0.25% rate per year.

Customer Support

Acorns uses a support team to answer your questions and provide you with the help that you need.  To ask a question, you fill out your name along with the question you are asking, and then someone on the Acorns team gets back to you with an answer.

My Conclusion 

Acorns is a very simplified approach to saving and investing.  You collect spare change from purchases by rounding up and investing that amount.  It is free for college students for up to 4 years and then just $1 a month for everyone else until their account balance hits $5,000.  Acorns has received great reviews.  Out of all of the investment apps, I’ve reviewed, I really like this one because it is easy to use and works with no risks. I hope that my review can help you as you look for the best app to start investing your money. 

For more reviews and information, check out our list of the Top Ten Investing Apps of 2018.