Investment/Savings apps: Acorns and RobinHood. Anyone use either?

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These two apps caught my eye recently.

Acorns is an app that links to your credit card and rounds all your purchases up to the nearest dollar. The extra is placed into an investment account. They charge $1 per month for the service, but it's free for four years for anyone with a valid .edu email address (which is great for me at the moment!) I kinda wish I had such an app when I was doing my last job. I used my credit card constantly (4-5 times a day, at least). I also made enough money that I wouldn't have noticed a few cents extra each time I bought something!
Still, I think it's a cool little app. Every time I buy a Monster for $2.69, I stick $0.31 in a savings account. I buy 2-3 Monsters a week, so that's almost a dollar a week. I won't really feel it, honestly... but after a year, I'll have $50 making money for me. $50 I probably wouldn't have saved or invested otherwise.

RobinHood is a stock trading app. It provides fee-free stock trading. Now, trades usually take 2-3 days to complete after ordering, so it's not suitable for day-trading. But if you see a company that is slowly but steadily on the rise, you can still buy in. They make their money by collecting interest on uninvested funds in their system (I loaded mine with $10... haven't bought anything yet, as I don't know what to put it into.) It's not a get-rich-quick setup, but it's good for people that want to get into stocks without incurring trading fees. Since you could easily pay normal brokerage houses $3-$20 per trade, this system is appealing. They offer a premium paid version that provides faster, more powerful options. Probably better suited to people that want more timely trades... but for me, the free stuff will likely be just fine.
edit: purchases seem to be instant. I think the 3 day wait is for selling. I've bought, but not yet sold... so I don't know for sure how that works. I'll figure it out!

I'm not really pushing or advocating either of these, as I'm just now getting into them. I just found them interesting, and I was curious to see if anyone else uses them or anything similar.
The links above are referral links (just changed as I found them within the apps). I just wanted to be up front about that. I'm not looking to be shady. If you use the Acorns link, apparently we both get $5.

[Crankshaft]

I have not used anything like this exactly but the first one you mentioned is similar to the BOA keep the change account, thanks for the trading app; i had someone mention to me a couple days ago that he wanted to venture in that world.
Thanks

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A coworker of mine was doing a mock trading exercise for a class he's in. It got me interested in buying some stock. I have little cash to spare, so this no fee way was appealing!
I just bought a single share in Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, Inc. for $7.80. It went up over $2 since November. Seemed like a good jumping off point!

The Acorn app actually invests in an index, or something. You can choose an aggressive or conservative option. I went with aggressive for now. Might as well take a risk when there's little to lose.

[Crankshaft]

I just bought a single share in Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, Inc. for $7.80. It went up over $2 since November. Seemed like a good jumping off point!

The Acorn app actually invests in an index, or something. You can choose an aggressive or conservative option. I went with aggressive for now. Might as well take a risk when there's little to lose.

You are absolutely right, specially if you consider that $7.80 is about what some people pay for a Starbucks coffee.

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Ok, I threw $10 into Robinhood over the weekend, and bought a few stocks. I bought a few more yesterday and today, and went through the entire $10.
At the moment, I hit a high of $11.07 total portfolio value. Basically, I grew my money by over 10% in 3 days! I don't actually know what I'm doing, other than buying cheap stocks in companies that look to be promising (the last couple shares were purchased solely on the fact that they cleaned out the last few straggling cents in my pending account.)

I'm really digging this, though. With the cheap stocks, it's little more than gambling. But I think it's cool. Definitely glad I did this. Now I need to learn about the stock market properly, so I can actually learn what I'm doing with it.


My Acorns account is still pending, so I have no feedback on that one yet.

[Crankshaft]

Ok, I threw $10 into Robinhood over the weekend, and bought a few stocks. I bought a few more yesterday and today, and went through the entire $10.
At the moment, I hit a high of $11.07 total portfolio value. Basically, I grew my money by over 10% in 3 days! I don't actually know what I'm doing, other than buying cheap stocks in companies that look to be promising (the last couple shares were purchased solely on the fact that they cleaned out the last few straggling cents in my pending account.)

I'm really digging this, though. With the cheap stocks, it's little more than gambling. But I think it's cool. Definitely glad I did this. Now I need to learn about the stock market properly, so I can actually learn what I'm doing with it.


My Acorns account is still pending, so I have no feedback on that one yet.

Would be amazing if you became wealthy off a $10 investment. I need to go in there too

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I just tossed in another $5 to mess with some super-cheap stocks. It's probably throwing that $5 away, but I figure if I buy 40 shares of something for $1.30 (which I did...), and it goes up even a little bit per share, that can be good! If it goes down... it won't kill me. I seriously doubt I'll make any worthwhile profit, but that's not my goal. Right now, it's just an introduction to stock trading, and easy access to stocks. For the volatile low-priced stuff, it's not ideal... but it's easy. For the more stable higher-priced stuff, it'll probably be a good way to do things... but that's once I learn enough to risk more than the price of a large pizza.

I really should have gotten into this stuff LONG ago. I always just stayed away, because I didn't want to pay transaction fees as I was learning. Books and classes on the subject are SO boring. It only gets interesting when you see the numbers going up (or down, though that's interesting in a different way.)
I've always been a fan of role playing games (Final Fantasy and the like), largely because the incremental gains of leveling up your character and getting better equipment was fun. You start as a wimp with a strength rating of 10, but a new sword gives you a strength rating of 25... then you level up, and you're at 30, and kicking ass. Investing in stocks is kinda like that. You make decisions, and if the decisions are good, you level up! Honestly, if I lose my $15, it's still worth it. It's quite entertaining.
By depositing more money, though, I decreased my earnings percentage. I was at 10%, but now I'm at 66%!

[Crankshaft]

I just tossed in another $5 to mess with some super-cheap stocks. It's probably throwing that $5 away, but I figure if I buy 40 shares of something for $1.30 (which I did...), and it goes up even a little bit per share, that can be good! If it goes down... it won't kill me. I seriously doubt I'll make any worthwhile profit, but that's not my goal. Right now, it's just an introduction to stock trading, and easy access to stocks. For the volatile low-priced stuff, it's not ideal... but it's easy. For the more stable higher-priced stuff, it'll probably be a good way to do things... but that's once I learn enough to risk more than the price of a large pizza.

I really should have gotten into this stuff LONG ago. I always just stayed away, because I didn't want to pay transaction fees as I was learning. Books and classes on the subject are SO boring. It only gets interesting when you see the numbers going up (or down, though that's interesting in a different way.)
I've always been a fan of role playing games (Final Fantasy and the like), largely because the incremental gains of leveling up your character and getting better equipment was fun. You start as a wimp with a strength rating of 10, but a new sword gives you a strength rating of 25... then you level up, and you're at 30, and kicking ass. Investing in stocks is kinda like that. You make decisions, and if the decisions are good, you level up! Honestly, if I lose my $15, it's still worth it. It's quite entertaining.
By depositing more money, though, I decreased my earnings percentage. I was at 10%, but now I'm at 66%!

I do hope realize you can add investor to your portfolio now!?! And dont assume that just because its a few dollars it cannot add up, lew it turn itself into more money and eventually it can become a substantial amount if it keeps paying out. Money is money whether its big money or a few dollars

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Indeed. I now have investments worth $1 more than I put in just a few days ago. Small money, but a 10% return (which it was before I dumped in an extra $5) is impressive! We'll see what it turns into. I'm going to see where it goes. If I get to $20, I'm going to pull out of the duds and reinvest, I think.

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I added LOYAL3 to my list of apps. Similar to RobinHood in that you can buy stocks with no trading fee, but unlike RobinHood, it allows you to buy partial shares. Also unlike RobinHood, the available stocks are limited. Still, it's interesting.