Apps that help manage your money like a Wall Street pro

8 min readJul 15, 2020

For the average person, alternative investment options are not readily available. IRA plan, a 401K, and brokerage accounts are available that offer the ability to buy stocks and possibly mutual funds and bonds depending on the brokerage account. All of that, as expected, is offered with a fee as well. Nowadays buying and forgetting low-cost index funds are the key to outperforming the equity managers, especially for the average American. But what if you wanted to do more? What if you wanted access to new markets, trade for free, automatically budget, invest in cryptocurrency without the hassle of using a complicated exchange, or even invest in real estate directly without that huge capital barrier?

In this new age of financial technology, you have access to tools that allow middle-class Americans access to assets that are more than just a 401K and a home. There are a few apps I have come across that will transform the way you can manage your money. With the right use of these tools, you will never need to worry about being un-diversified, paying too much in fees, or not being in control of your budget.

Fundrise

Let’s start with the website. In a review by Andrew Fiebert on Listen Money Matters, he eloquently explains that “Fundrise allows individual investors to invest in commercial real estate online through an eREIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) or an eFund. Their crowdsourcing model sets them apart from a traditional REIT allowing the average investor to participate in deals for as little as $500. Since the Fundrise eREIT is sold directly to investors cutting out middle-men, they can have fees lower than 90% of the competition.” Also, a user can easily manage their investments based on their goals and timeline for payback. For instance, if you are young and just starting out, you might choose a long-term investment strategy.

So, why real estate? Real estate has historically been the leading catalyst for American middle-class growth. Real estate values have grown faster than the stock market, especially in urban or soon-to-be urban areas. If you own real estate, you are either collecting rent, or living and using the space until you sell it. In the United States and in many parts of the world the population is growing thus more space is demanded. And since space has a limited supply, the value of the land you own goes up. In general, the risk of owning real estate (compared to other assets) is very low and the reward is very high in the long term. The only problem with real estate investment for middle-class Americans is that it is too capital intensive, extremely illiquid to buy and sell, and very hard to diversify. Fundrise solves those problems completely.

Acorns

For those of you who want to think as little as possible about safe and smart wealth management, Acorns is the perfect app for you. Acorns is the best of a few “robo-advisor” brokerage companies that allow you to effectively grow your finances without hassle. Once you have signed up, you choose to fund your account, create a financial profile, and select a portfolio strategy. These management strategies range from conservative (meaning low risk/low reward. For people looking to retire soon and want to secure their money more than anything) to aggressive (meaning high risk/high reward. For younger people looking to grow their money and lots of time before they need to spend it or lots of time to make money back if it is lost). These portfolios are comprised of Vanguard ETFs that generally covers the global stock market. Other robo-advisors have similar features but this app is much more than a simple robo-advisor.

There are four key features that make this app the best low-hassle financial tool out there. This company has a feature called “round-ups”. This feature is best described using an example so bear with me. Say you go out to grab lunch and you pay for your meal with your debit card or bank account that is linked to your acorns account. The meal was $10.75. Acorns receive this data and “round up” your purchase by adding 25 cents to your acorns account. These small acorns' of investment are barely noticeable but grow over time and allow you to save and grow your wealth effectively without you even knowing.

The next feature is called Found Money. On the acorns app, there is an easily accessible database of deals and discounts that other companies put on the Acorns Found Money page (much like Groupon) where the company gives you a discount for buying a product or subscribing to something but instead of the money getting deducted, it goes into your acorns account. This allows you to spend on brands you love at a discount while growing your wealth. Acorns is also about to release the Acorns Spend card which is a debit card linked to a separate Acorns Spend account that automatically processes discounts from Found Money without having to enter a code or order online using the Found Money link.

Acorns Grow is a feature added that provides articles and advice from successful money managers, market experts, and average people who have successfully managed their money to help you navigate and learn more about best practices and to keep you informed and in the know about markets and personal finance strategies. There are different articles to sift through filtered by topics like debt management, retirement, supplemental income, etc. Users can read trending articles about how to best utilize your Acorns account.

Another key feature (that still needs some work in my opinion) is Acorns Later. This is a robo-IRA account that, based on your financial profile, places you into the right IRA account for your needs. As a whole, this feature puts the icing on the cake as this app becomes the one-stop shop for everything personal finance-related. The one issue is that, so far, you are not able to switch your IRA or manually choose it which can be an issue. It is important to note that the investment strategies used are by no-means risky when compared to even investing in an S&P 500 index fund because all the portfolio strategies are all diversified across different asset classes. Even just buying an S&P 500 index fund could be considered riskier than the most aggressive strategy.

Lastly, add a beneficiary or dependant to your account to take full advantage of certain tax benefits that may come with that. Acorns is slowly becoming a one-stop-shop for all long-term personal financial planning and we’re here for it!

Robinhood

If you haven’t already heard of Robinhood, it’s the fastest-growing investing platform for the average person mainly because it charges no commission fees for any transactions and no monthly payments. Before I describe its features, I think it’s important to explain how this app makes money at all. When you purchase a stock, Robinhood rounds up the bid price by one cent and keeps the premium. So immediately after purchasing a stock, you are down one cent on the stock for each stock you purchased. For this reason, if you plan on day trading with lots of money (upwards of $10,000, like an institutional investor might), using this app might cost you more than it's worth. But if you want single stock exposure and don’t want to pay fees or commissions and don’t plan on trading with lots of money, Robinhood can save you lots of money. Additionally, a user has the option to pay 10 dollars monthly for Robinhood Gold which is essentially a premium version of Robinhood with extra buying power, and interest-free margin. The details of the Gold membership are outlined well in this article here. But, Robinhood keeps expanding its features for non-Gold members and continues to make money on those members and its increasing user base.

Over the past couple of years, Robinhood has been expanding its features by adding after-hours trading (a half-hour before and 2 hours after the markets close) for everyone, a checking account with a debit card, a savings account with 3% interest (as of the time of publication), and commission-free cryptocurrency trading. The 3% interest rate on its savings account may have caught your eye but there are a few important caveats to this new feature. Since Robinhood is not a bank, it is not FDIC insured. Instead, Robinhood is insured by the SIPC which is insurance for brokerage accounts and is not as reliable as FDIC insurance. Robinhood plans on investing the savings deposits in treasury bonds which is where it plans to cover the 3% interest. But with the newly slashed interest rates, Robinhood’s savings are at a mere .6%. If you want to earn a little extra on the cash that sits on the sidelines of your Robinhood account, this might be a way to do it.

Coinseed

Coinseed is arguably the most versatile platform for investing in cryptocurrencies. You’ll have access to about 20 popular cryptocurrencies and their portfolio of alt-coins is constantly growing. They’ve launched their own cryptocurrency called Coinseed alongside a “save and earn” program where you can lock your assets for a certain period of time and earn up to 4% annual return paid out weekly to be redeemed in Coinseeds that can either be transferred for dollars (about 1 cent per Coinseed) or gather enough Coinseeds to get a discounted product (kind of like found money on Acorns). The one caveat they have is that you cannot invest in specific cryptocurrencies directly. Instead, you can allocate a certain percentage of your portfolio to certain crypto assets, the smallest allocation being 5% and only adjustable in increments of 5%. So it’s a less flexible system, but it's a user-friendly way to passively invest in a handful of the best cryptos out there.

SeedInvest

Also, If you’re looking for access to investing in exciting startups but aren’t an accredited venture capital investor, check out SeedInvest. This platform acts as a crowd-sourced venture capital firm. That means that instead of using high net-worth individuals’ capital or institutional capital, they crowdsource their capital by offering micro-investments to people like us! You can browse startups that SeedInvest is fundraising for and get in on early investment rounds before they ever hit public markets! Think of it this way, would you want to have invested in Facebook before it was listed on the public market? If your answer is yes, then SeedInvest is the right type of investment platform for you! If you have a stomach for risk and want high rewards, check it out here.

I receive no compensation for mentioning certain companies or services in this article. Anything I mention is simply for information’s sake and is not investment advice and is not an investment offer.