Acorns makes it easy to invest your spare change, but the monthly fee might not make sense for everyone

 

• Acorns, a micro-investing app, is best for beginners who want a hands-off investing experience.
• Acorns will round up your transactions to the nearest dollar and invest that spare change.
• The app will invest your money in a portfolio of six ETFs based on your goals and risk tolerance.
• Click here to open an Acorns account »

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Is Acorns right for you?

Acorns is best for investors who want a hands-off investing experience, from start to finish. With Acorns, you don’t have to think about setting money aside every month to invest – the app can handle all of that for you through round-ups, “found money,” and recurring investments.

 

You don’t have to choose your own investments, either. Acorns uses a series of questions to determine how to allocate your assets, then assigns your funds to a specific portfolio of ETFs.

Acorns uses these same six funds for every investor but adjusts the asset allocation depending on your goals and risk tolerance. The funds represent a mix of companies, markets, real estate, and bonds. 

Acorns is more expensive than other investing apps on the market. Most have zero fees, but Acorns’ fees start at $1 per month. This may not seem like much, but it can add up to a large percentage of your portfolio if you have a limited amount of money invested.

Editor’s rating	4.2 out of 5
Fees	$1 to $5 per month
Account minimum	$0($5 to start investing)

Open an Account

Acorns pros and cons

Pros

• Helpful automatic saving and investing tools
• Portfolio suggestions built to match your risk level
• “Found money” invests a percentage of your purchases from certain companies

Cons

• Flat monthly fee is on the high side, especially for smaller accounts
• No option to choose individual investments

How does Acorns compare to other investment platforms?

Editor’s Rating 4.2 out of 5	Editor’s Rating 4 out of 5	Editor’s Rating 4.5 out of 5
Account Minimum $0 ($5 to start investing)	Account Minimum $0	Account Minimum $0
Management Fees $1 to $5 per month	Management Fees $1 to $9 per month	Management Fees $0
Trade Fees None	Trade Fees None	Trade Fees None
Open an Account	Open an Account	Open an Account

Ways to invest with Acorns

Acorns Invest is the core service that Acorns offers to its users; it costs $1 per month. Here’s what you get with an Acorns Invest account.

Round-Ups let you invest spare change

After you’ve created your Acorns account, you’ll have the opportunity to link your bank account, debit card, or credit card. Once your card or account has been linked, Acorns will monitor all the purchases that you make and round up each transaction to the nearest dollar.

For example, if you bought a cup of coffee for $2.25, Acorns would set aside $0.75. Once you’ve reached a $5 threshold in your Acorns account, it will be automatically invested in your Invest account portfolio. Acorns says that the typical person invests over $30 per month with Round-Ups alone.

You can set Round-Ups to work with every transaction or you can manually select the transactions that you’d like to round up. Also, you can tell Acorns how much you’d like to invest when your transactions equal exactly one dollar.

Finally, you can supercharge your Round-Ups by adding a multiplier of 2x, 3x, or 10x. That means a Round-Up of $0.25 would actually add $0.50 to your Invest account with a 2x multiplier, for example.

Investing with ‘Found Money’

Acorns partners with over 300 companies, including Airbnb, Nike, Walmart, Barnes & Noble. When you make a purchase with one of these retailers through the Found Money portal, the company will invest a percentage of your sale amounts into your Acorns Invest account. It’s like a shopping portal, but insteading of getting cash back, you get a small amount added to your Acorns Invest account.

Each brand is free to set its own investment amount. When I checked the Found Money page on my account, these are the offers I found*: 

• Tidal: Will invest 5% of your purchase
• Walgreens: Will invest 2% of your purchase
• Chevron: Will invest $0.25 when you spend at least $20
• Walmart: Will invest 1% of your purchase

*Note: These rates are subject to change.

You can search for Found Money deals on the Found Money section of the Acorns app and website or by using the Google Chrome extension. Found Money rewards are credited to your account 90 to 120 days after your purchase.

Set up recurring investments

If you’d like to invest more than just your Round-Ups and Found Money rewards, you can do that with Acorns, too. 

When you set up your Acorns account, you can set up a weekly recurring investment. You can also transfer one-time amounts to Acorns from your linked bank account at any time.

What is Acorns Later?

Acorns Later is a solution for investors who are looking to use Acorns to save for retirement. With Acorns Later, you can open an IRA in just a few taps. Acorns will help you pick the right IRA for your situation and, as with Acorns Invest, you can get started investing with as little as $5.

For most users, Acorns Later will only cost two dollars more than Acorns Invest. You’ll pay $3 per month for Acorns Later.

How much does it cost to invest with Acorns?

Acorns’ fees range from $1 to $5 per month. The basic Lite account gets you access to Acorns Invest. For $3 a month – an Acorns Personal subscription – you get access to Invest, Later, and Spend, Acorns’ checking account. For $5 a month, you’re an Acorns Family member, which gives you Invest, Later, Spend, and Early, Acorns’ investment account for kids.

On the surface, Acorns’ fees seem inexpensive. After all, even its priciest tier only costs $5 per month. But, like other micro-investing apps, it’s important to think about fees from the perspective of a percentage of your invested funds.

For example, let’s say you’re an “average” user and invest about $30 per month with Round-Ups. If you were an Acorns Personal user paying $3 per month, that would be 10% of your invested amount. 

Even if you only paid the $1 fee, that would still be over 3% of your invested funds. That seems pretty outrageous when you consider the fact that some of the top robo-advisors charge as little as 0.25% of assets under management.

However, it should be pointed out that Acorns’ flat-fee structure benefits users more as their portfolios grow. For example, with a $10,000 portfolio, Acorns pricing becomes a steal. While you’d pay $25 per year with a 0.25% pricing structure, the basic Acorns Invest tier only costs $12 per year.

Finally, it should be pointed out that if Acorns’ “invest your spare change” model helps you invest just $12 to $36 more per year than you would with a different provider, the benefits of the technology outweigh the cost.

How to sign up with Acorns

It’s easy to start investing with Acorns. It took me about five minutes to get up and running. First, you’ll need to create your account and password.

Next, you’ll need to link your bank to your Acorns account. For most banks, you’ll be able to connect your account by simply providing your bank login credentials.

Next, Acorns will ask you for some more information about your income, risk tolerance, and financial goals. You’ll also have the opportunity to choose how much of the cash in your Acorns account you’d like to invest.

Finally, Acorns will tell you how it plans to invest your money, based on the information you provided.

Above, you can see the asset allocation that Acorns suggested for me. More specifically, Acorns said that my funds would be invested in the low-cost ETFs seen below.

Is Acorns trustworthy?

The Better Business Bureau has given Acorns an A+ rating. The BBB analyzes several factors when assigning company ratings. These include time in business, complaint history, licensing and government actions, and advertising issues. 

However, the BBB also says on its website that its ratings don’t necessarily suggest that a company will be reliable or perform well. This is why it’s important for prospective clients to conduct their own research as well. 

Acorns’ record is generally clear of any major goverment actions or lawsuits. According to BBB data, the company has closed 114 complaints in the last 12 months. 

What is Acorns?

Acorns is a micro-investing app that offers automated investing accounts, retirement accounts, investment accounts for kids, and checking accounts. On the investment side, the company mainly invests your money in ETFs, and it offers five portfolios with risk tolerances ranging from conservative to agressive.

The robo-advisor offers three different investment plans: Acorns Lite, Acorns Personal, and Acorns Family. And if you’re looking for retirement savings options, you can sign up for Acorns Later. Acorns Spend grants you access to a checking account and debit card, and Acorns Early lets you invest for your kids. 

Acorns was founded in 2012 by cofounders Jeff and Walter Cruttenden. However, according to its website, the app officially launched in 2014 with the mission of looking after the financial best interests of the up-and-coming. 

Today, Acorns holds more than $3 billion in assets under management, with millions of brokerage accounts. 

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