Many people usually do not participate in stock market because they do not have the confidence to stand beside people with big portfolios. But, with current various online investment services and flexible investment accounts you can start investing with a small amount of money.
These days, there are many startups investment accounts which do not have opening balance requirement.
Through these investment services with no minimum balance, you can slowly build your investment balance. Those services usually called as micro-investments.
Imagine if you invest $20 per month for a year, you will have $240 invested by the end of the year. That amount may seem small. But, if you are able to just spare a dollar only each day, you will get $1,000 in three years.
Here are the free services that you can try.
Acorns for Spare Change
Acorns offers a spare change account with no minimum balance. You just need to connect your debit or credit card. Acorns, then, will monitor your purchases and round up to invest your spare change.
For instance, if you go to the sandwich shop and spend $4.75 on a hero sandwich, Acorns will round it up to an even $5. The extra 25 cents, will be invested in your account.
However, Acorns still charges you a $1 monthly fee for accounts with a balance under $5,000 and a 0.25-percent management fee for accounts over $5,000.
Robinhood Has No Commission
Unlike big brokerages which charge you $10 to $5 per stock trade, Robinhood charges nothing. It is an online-only brokerage for your stocks.
It can offer digital stock trade for free by avoiding physical branches and expensive infrastructure.
Also read: Which is Better? Stocks vs Property Investment
Betterment Uses Robots
Similar to Robo-Advisors, in Betterment you just need to tell them your goals and they will invest your dollars. They will choose a combination of low-cost funds customized for you.
Moreover, it has no minimum balance and no trade fees. It only charges a 0.25 percent annual fee on your account balance, exactly the same as Acorns charges on accounts over $5,000.
