The best investment apps for beginners

Robinhood

Robinhood is one of the most popular stock portfolio apps that everyone is talking about. It's free to open an account, and they have no account minimum. One of their best features is offering free trading for stocks, options, ETFs, and cryptocurrency. It's very easy to function, and they offer Robinhood snacks, a daily financial newsletter to fill you in on financial updates or launches that boost company shares, etc.

Once you get the Robinhood app, you instantly get a stock and also get a free stock for every person you share the app with. If you choose to upgrade your account for the Robinhood Gold membership for $5 a month, you'll be provided research on 1,700 companies from Nasdaq Level II quotes, Morningstar, and access margin loans.

E-Trade

E-Trade is a great app for beginners because they offer several resources and educational pointers, and they have a wide range of no-fee funds. The company has two mobile apps and offers no minimum fee to obtain an account, and it's free to trade stocks. On the E-Trade app, you can move money using the mobile check deposit, and it's really easy to track the market, trading ETFs and stocks. The second app is called Power E-Trade and allows users to enter orders inclusive of complex options trades on a single ticket.

This is a great investing app to start with because they offer extensive educational information for new investors, including articles, videos, and live educational services.

Merrill Edge

Bank of America's Merrill Edge is another great option for beginning investors, especially if you're a Bank of America customer. If you are a current member of Bank of America, you have immediate access to cash transfers to your brokerage's account, and you'll have access to a Merrill adviser in over 2,000 Bank of America locations. There is no minimum needed to open an account, and it's also free to trade stocks.

One of their best features lies in their educational materials; they offer articles and videos explaining college planning, personal finance, retirement, and how to begin investing.

It's better to start small versus not at all!

Fidelity

Fidelity is known to be one of the most investor-friendly broker apps in the industry, making it an excellent option for new investors. There are no minimums to open an account, and they offer one of the lowest published margin rates at just 4.00%. Fidelity is committed to educating their clients with in-depth research from over 20 independent providers, and they offer zero expense ratio index funds.

The site is easy to navigate, and users have access to various webinars and see previously recorded classes in almost every area of investing.

TD Ameritrade

The best investment apps for intermediate and advanced investors

Ellevest

Ellevest is an investment app built for women and created by women! Let's go feminine divine! This is an excellent app for goal-based investing in multiple investing categories. Ellevest charges a monthly fee ranging from $1 to $9, based on your financial needs. The primary tier provides you an investment portfolio, banking features like ATM reimbursements, and access to educational services.

If you choose to invest in their higher tiers, they offer goal-oriented planning, executive coaches, and reduced fees on meetings with financial planners. They also provide monthly progress reports to celebrate when you're on track with your financial goals, and they provide suggestions if you're not meeting your financial objectives.

Betterment

Betterment is an automated investment platform, also known as a robo-adviser. They have an algorithm that calculates your portfolio based on your goals and preferences. They create portfolios by investing in expansive market sectors through ETFs — because they are tax-efficient and low-cost. Betterment also uses the data you give them to provide retirement advice by recommending an allocation and advising what amount is safe to withdraw. Your inflation and portfolio performance are factored into their ongoing advice — which is all up to you if you want to take their pointers.

You can open several different investment accounts with Betterment, like a Roth IRA, trust account, SEP IRA (single participant only), and Betterment for business (this is their 401(k) for small employers). They charge a minimum of 0.25% annual fee.

SoFi

SoFi is an all-in-one investing service that provides robo-advisers and investor-friendly service. They provide goal-based planning to assist your financial objectives and offer automatic rebalancing. There is no management fee, and the company's account minimum is $1. SoFi provides access to financial advisors, career services, and discounts on other SoFi products for no extra fee.

The company also provides a unique option that allows you to choose the stocks, crypto, ETFs you'd like to invest in, or they provide the option to create a portfolio for you with automatic investing. And if you're on a budget, investing they have a stock bits option which lets you invest in your favorite companies without committing to purchasing a whole share.

Choose from the best investing apps

Personal Capital

Personal Capital is a free mobile and online personal finance and investment management app. It's available on iOS and Android, and it lets you analyze your entire investment portfolio visually regardless of where you store your assets(401k, Fidelity, etc.). They even suggest stocks you should sell and invest in alternate assets.

And of course, that's a basic example but a helpful one; they also analyze your portfolio by market cap, industry, and a ton of other variables. Personal Capital has a feature called "You Index", which keeps track of your holdings and assesses their performance against leading market indices, so you can easily see how you're doing across cash, stocks, mutual funds, and ETF.

Stash

Stash is a great investment app for first-time investors and advanced investors. They offer three different plans ranging from paying $1-$9 a month, which makes it affordable and easily accessible to build wealth. Stash provides an option to invest what you can afford with their fractional shares; you have the opportunity to choose how much to invest.

Their $1/ month plan includes their stock-back card, personal investment account, personalized advice, and $1,000 of life insurance coverage through Avibra. The company's higher tier approach is $9/month including a stock-back card that earns double stock, a Roth IRA or Traditional IRA retirement account, investing for children, and $10,000 of life insurance coverage through Avibra.

The bottom line

Guys, any of the investment apps you choose, y'all are all winning and saving time and money! Stock portfolio apps help you keep track of all your investments on the go. All of the listed apps are iOS and Android friendly. Some apps require you to manually pop in your data versus other apps syncing your existing apps. All of the apps give great tips to read in less than a handful of minutes and provide tools to make your financial dreams become your financial reality!

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