Students who are more concerned with saving money than investing can do so through a new app called Acorns.
Just as acorns branch into mighty oak trees, a new app helps young people with small investments and how to help them grow.
Acorns, a new, free micro investment app, created by a father-son duo, Walter and Jeff Cruttenden, has hit the Google and Android stores. This allows people to invest their spare change in a diversified portfolio.
“We are helping people set aside money that they otherwise wouldn’t have,” Taylor Dance, the campus program manager for Acorns, said.
Acorns’ mission is to make investing as easy as possible. The basis for the app centers around the spare change that would go in a person’s pocket had they paid with cash.
When a person swipes their debit card, Dance said the app rounds the purchase up to the nearest dollar and deposits it into an account.
Natalie Chieffe, a retired Ohio University finance professor, said the money is then invested in stocks and bonds. Acorns has created five different portfolios — ranging from conservative to aggressive — based on the financial risk of the account holder.
The investoe can choose how comfortable they are with investing through the portfoilios. The more comfortable, the more money is invested into stocks, Chieffe said. Conservative portfolios will rely heavily on investing bonds, she added. When the money goes into the account, the account holder can withdraw money at leisure.
Chieffe said Acorns is a good investment vehicle in the sense that it makes it easy to start saving and investing simultaneously, but it might not be the best choice for college students.
“College students should have an emergency fund before they invest,” Chieffe, who is also a certified financial planner, said.
Alexis Marino and Shannon Price, who are both sophomores studying marketing, both said they have budgets but do not invest their money.
“Being a college student, I don’t really have money to invest,” Price said.
Acorns has gained half a million users and won several awards in the span of the year. To get started, students need to have their online banking and checking information within hands reach.
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Students who sign up with their OU email address will not be charged with a monthly fee. With a swipe of their debit card, people can watch their money accumulate and grow.
After being informed of the app, both Marino and Price said they seemed to like the concept of Acorns. Their main concerns revolved around the accessibility of the money being invested.
“As long as I can withdraw my money at anytime, it would be cool,” Marino said. “Every penny counts right now.”
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