Thinking about investing some of your money, but not sure how to get started? There are several apps that make it easy, even if you don’t have a lot of money. Here are our picks for the 5 best investment apps of 2024.
1. Magnifi
Magnifi is a great app to use if you’re just getting started in investing. It has a lot of information to help you understand investing, as well as resources you can use to research specific investments you’re considering.
Magnifi uses AI to make recommendations for you, based on your investing goals, how much money you have to invest, how much risk you’re willing to take, and other factors. It’s similar to the way Yelp or Netflix recommends restaurants or movies based on what you search for and show interest in.
Magnifi is a solid choice, and more comprehensive than many other investment apps, but it requires a bit of investment itself: it’s $14 per month for access to all the resources and investing tools. (You can get a discount that brings it down to $11 if you commit to an annual subscription.)
2. Stash
Stash is another investment app that is good for beginners. Like Magnifi, it takes into account your risk tolerance and investing goals to create a portfolio. It also uses AI, but doesn’t promote that fact the way Magnifi does.
When you use Stash, you have the option to allow it to create a portfolio for you, or you can research over 3,000 stocks, bonds, and funds to make your own hands-on investing decisions. Stash also offers fractional shares of some stocks, so you can get started investing with just $5.
Stash starts at $3 per month, and that includes all of the investment tools it offers, as well as two kids’ portfolios if you have young family members you want to start investing for.
3. Acorns (best for simplicity)
Are you way too busy to even think about researching investments? Acorns one of the easiest investment apps to set up. All you have to do is enter your basic preferences, and Acorns will do the investing for you. It’s truly set it and forget it.
The other interesting thing about Acorns is that you can get started investing without even feeling much financial impact—once you set up your account, Acorns will ‘round up’ your everyday purchases and invest that amount.
For example, if you spend $63.22 on groceries, Acorns will round up to $64, and invest that extra 78 cents for you. It does that with all of your purchases, so you can actually end up investing a fair amount of money over time.
Acorn’s monthly fees start at $3, which includes automatic investing capabilities.
4. Public
Public makes investing accessible to basically anyone by offering ‘slices’ of stock—that means that if a stock’s share price is high—like $300, for example—Public might allow you to buy a fractional share, or slice, for $5.
Another interesting thing about Public is that it has no fees to use the app or to trade, and no commissions on trades. It also lets you deal in real dollar amounts rather than shares, so it’s easy to figure out exactly how much you’re spending.
5. Betterment Digital
Betterment is a completely hands-off investing app. It automatically buys Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and cryptocurrency for you based on your financial goals and risk tolerance.
You have to be okay with just letting the app manage everything, but if you are then Betterment can be a very convenient option. Another feature that Betterment offers is tax-loss harvesting; that means selling some investments at a loss to strategically reduce capital gains taxes.
Betterment starts at $4 per month.
