Acorns is a micro-investing platform which allows you to invest small amounts (or large amounts) in various exchange traded funds for a monthly fee. I've only just started using them and it seems ok. Just beware that due to their fee structure, if you only deposit a small amount then the fees will make up a large chunk of your portfolio.
For the month of March, they are giving $5 referrals so use the referral randomiser below:
$5 each for referrer & referee (after minimum $5 investment).
The point of Acorns is that it's for people where $2.50 or $5.00 is exciting enough to bother. You're not investing huge amounts, you're investing round-ups of less than $1.00 which get pooled together.
The fees are $1.25 per month for accounts under $5,000, or 0.275% per year for accounts over $5,000.
So you could look at the referral bonus as "pay your account keeping fees for 4 months instead of 2 months"
Disclosure, I have been using Acorns for just shy of a year.
What sort of returns have you been seeing? This is something that's never mentioned (conveniently I might add)
No problem discussing it, personally. In the past year using a "moderate" portfolio, linked to my everyday transaction account and my AmEx, as well as investing $25 extra per month…
Overall account balance is up 3.95%, which is inclusive of $17.57 in dividends.
So if I look at the dividends as paying my account keeping fees for the year ($1.25 * $12 = $15 in fees) I'm still up 3.94% annually.
@Darkscythe: No worries. One thing to note, the account app doesn't list how much you've paid in fees per year. You'll only get that as part of your tax statement. So when looking at your account and seeing "+$X.XX" performance you have to remember to mentally deduct the fees. That's why I refer to the dividends in relation to the fees, considering them bonus payments, and the investment performance as actual profits as if it was a savings account.
Thought I would throw in my two-cents too.
The reason you have just listed above is the reason I got rid of it.
Every month you are provided with a 'statement' so to speak, of how much you've earnt or lost. My main issue with it is that it didn't include the monthly fee in that statement. Its not transparent at all.
Including my fees (which I had to work out myself), I typically found that I was making no gains at all.
@Rocket6: Yeah, totally agree. It's not ideal and it's probably the most on the nose thing about it.
Is that 0.275% on anything over $5,000 or once you reach $5,000 the fee structure switched over?
I'm pretty sure it applies to the entire account balance, but I'll check.
Yeah, so the way they treat it is…
Account less than $5,000 - Account fees 0.000%, + Maintenance fee of $1.25 per month
Account greater than $5K - Account fees 0.275%, + Maintenance fee of $0.00 per month
+ "Underlying Issuer Fees" 0.254% to 0.342% depending on investment mix. (I'm awaiting a response as to whether these fees apply to both accounts under and over $5,000 - assume they do until I hear back.)
PDS: https://acornsau.com.au/product-disclosure-statement/
So the fee changes depending on where your account balance is. It's either a maintenance fee, or an account fee, not both.
@beeawwb: … and don't forget the "Underlying Issuer Fees" - 0.311% pa. - this is added on top of the account/maintenance fee, so in fact "total fees" for $5K+ are 0.586%
The point of Acorns is that it's for people where $2.50 or $5.00 is exciting enough to bother.
You're not investing huge amounts, you're investing round-ups of less than $1.00 which get pooled together.
That still doesn't show me any evidence of A DEAL.
So you could look at the referral bonus as "pay your account keeping fees for 4 months instead of 2 months
So, that confirms this is thread is simply for referral harvesting.
Where's JV when ya need 'em? LOL
I did the math and the monthly fee ($1.25) can be considered "small" only if your balance is in the $4500-$5000 range. With such a small investment even a good % return is a small $ figure. From that point of view the $5 referral bonus is exciting.
Even if you cross the $5K threshold their fee is not too bad, but if you have a big bag of $, most likely there are better options for you.
The way I see it Acorns is more valuable as a "savings helper" - obviously some people like the roundups as a way to save regularly, I personally do not. If you start small ($100 for example) and just use the roundups (probably $20-50/month) then the $1.25 will be pure profit for them.
Treating it as a savings helper is exactly how I think of it. It's an extra amount sitting to the side that I don't think about. As long as it performs better than the fees (which so far, it is) and keeps pace with my regular savings account (again, so far, it is) I'm happy. Anything extra is gravy.
OK, I need to apologise - I've very carefully re-read the Posting guidelines and find that "non-deals" like this are allowed, even though there is no actual benefit except for the referral credit itself.
I read in the OP that "For the month of March, they are giving $5 referrals so use the referral randomiser below" and somehow missed the "$2.50 for the referrer & referee" in the grey referral link box.
So, whilst I personally think it's an absolutely atrocious "deal" (almost a pyramid marketing scam) I concede that technically my Neg is not really valid. Intended to revoke it, however I learnt from the posting guidelines that…
How to check if a referral link for a store is allowed
◾ Is this your first post or has it been 6 weeks since your first post? Users with a L or P next to their name on deal posts are not allowed to post referral links or codes.
◾ If any of the above is true, stop! Referral codes are not allowed anywhere in the dealhttps://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/help:deal_posting_guidelin…
"I'm so happy micro-investing with Acorns ☺ If you join using this link, we'll both get $2.50 as a gift."
It is not that useful.
My experience: After 4-ish months on an aggressive investment scheme, investing $1 a day as a default with no roundups, I have made an additional $2.64 not counting the monthly fees.
On balance I have lost money, but it's practically a savings account. One that doesn't really save. Whatever.
That mirrors my memories to a degree. I'm pretty sure my account didn't become profitable until 6 or 7 months in or so. It really does rely on the snowball continuing to roll until your dividends start becoming more than $0.01 a pop.
A savings account that charges you fees and could possibly lose money if the market goes down :)
Acorns isn't for me, personally.
Fair enough. I also have 2 ING accounts and other direct debits, I don't miss the money at $1 a day. It's my crap version of financial diversification.
Having said that, i've just checked my account and i've made 94c just his morning. Lunch is on me…
Over 4ish months I have put in $665
I have made an additional $32.74 or 4.91%
Even if I took away account keeping fees surely its better than a bank.
So around $5 a day investment. Not a bad return then.
My experience was also the same.
I was peeved at the lack of transparency within Acorns, primarily in relation to the fees.
Ended up getting rid of it.
I squirrel away $10 a week to Acorns, plus my bank has a roundup feature which I also use, as opposed to the Acorns built-in roundups.
Like others have said, this is a good way for me to diversify my savings, it's also nice having the money somewhere not-so-liquid.
This is just rainy day money, I'm not trying to be Rene Rivkin.
Hope not, cause he's dead as a dodo.
I share my experience:
Aggressive strategy option
When i signed up (May 2016) I transferred around $1000
Round up with my credit cards (max $1 per transaction)
Automatically transfer of $50 per week (this is the winning strategy. In my opinion)
Current account value = $3,437.15
Current total gain in less than 1 year= +6.89% ($221.47)
Note that the markets have been favourable recently.
Markets will always go up and down…
I forgot to list the reinvested dividends which are $61.42 (on top of the $221.47).
Total gain $282.89
Total fee paid $12.5
Net $270.39
Not a bad return for less than 3 grand…
These figures are very similar to mine and I also opted for the aggressive portfolio. So for what's worth I can be added to the list of pro Acorns people… if there was such a list…
I think I worked out, if you have ~$600 in acorns, then you break even on the fees.
In the last 10 months, I have got a return of $36 on my now $600 (I started with $10). So it has covered its own fees at least.
My experience has also not been bad.
started 12 months ago.
investing $30 a week
Plus roundups from transaction account and Credit card account
Invested - $2,147.91
Market returns +174.25 or 8.11%
Current value $2,322.16
Maint fee is 12x$1.25 = $15, so even after taking this into account, i am better off by about $160
Just to clarify. I never said the fees were small in my original post. And yes, the deal is that the referer gets $5 and the person signing up gets $2.50. It's my first posting so apologies if it's not worthwhile.
I'm only a very new user of Acorns and got this deal in an email so thought I would post it up. I'm just trying this form of investing out to see if it's anu good or not. Seems like a mixed bag based on the comments above.
Due to their fee structure, I put in $5000 as an initial deposit and have the round-ups activated. Will see how it goes after a few months
Why don't you TELL US what the "small monthly fee" is?
And why would anybody think that either $2.50 or $5.00 is exciting enough to bother.
Nope. I don't see any deals yet. Are you trying to get some referral prospects?
I am Negging this as spam and referral prospecting. I will revoke if you can show us a deal.