Are you ready to find out about one of the best tools to use to invest your money?
First, a quick story…
I love to go out and have fun. I’m always trying to be the life of the party. I just believe that life’s too amazing to feel sorry for yourself. Yet despite my positive attitude, I always run into the occasional bitter person. I once offered an acquaintance to join us after class for drinks. He then responded with:
“My parents don’t give me money to go out, like yours do.”
That caught me off guard. For starters, my parents don’t give me money to go out. Also because this guy took less courses because there were only morning classes offered that semester and he didn’t want to wake up early. I believe in working hard and playing harder. As corny as that sounds, I’ve always enjoyed working for my freedom because I never wanted to be a miserable prick that brought others down. I just brushed this guy off and had a great time.
What’s the point of all of this?
I’m always doing my best to research new tools to help you invest your money. I want us to conquer our money in our 20s so that we can afford to have a few beers on Wednesday night instead of bashing others because we can’t afford it.
I know that you work hard for your money. At some point, you want your money to work for you. I also know that you want to have a damn good time. Studenomics isn’t about being lame and missing out on our 20s. I want us to be on top of the world, saving money, and having a blast the whole time. The good news is that once you get your money right, you can go back to my material on how to be a travel agent for your next epic adventure.
When I wrote about how the stock market works, I mentioned that you needed to find the right service to get involved in the stock market. I was introduced to an interesting tool a few months ago. I was told that Betterment would be perfect for new investors and even the more seasoned investors that want a passively managed and automated account in addition to their more active trading accounts.
Before we even get into investing tools, let’s look at a much more important question…
Wait! Is investing my money even worth it in my 20s Martin?
You don’t have to take any risks with your finances. You can keep simple. I’m not the biggest fan of the stock market, but I believe in optimizing your spending/cutting back so that you can put your money away wherever you want it to be. You can then turn around and invest these saving as you wish. You can always play it safe and open up a savings account for your money.
Is it worth investing money in your 20s? Absolutely. As you can see the number don’t lie. Imagine the savings! Actually, don’t imagine and play around with the actual numbers for a few seconds.
The numbers that I suggested above lead to $357,520.31 in savings in the future!!!
Now let’s look at the tool that makes it possible to invest your money…
Is Betterment an ideal option to learn how to start investing?
The good news is that Betterment is indeed great for active investors who appreciate the automation and diversification Betterment provides, but Betterment itself is a passive account. You can’t be an active trader within Betterment. Active traders can use Betterment as a passive account to supplement their more active accounts.
Betterment is a registered broker and an adviser. This means that you’ll get the service features that a broker offers, along with the help that an adviser would give you. You get the best of both worlds.
Investing for beginners is great with Betterment because you get a 30-day free trial. You also get a $25 bonus just to get started.
What are some of the other benefits of using Betterment to invest your money?
- It’s a flexible tool.
- Hands-off money management.
- Your money is invested in indexes.
- Easy to get started.
Betterment is already shaping up to be a solid investment tool.
How does this investing for beginners tool work?
You start off by signing up with Betterment by filling out the easy forms. Then you can link your checking account to your Betterment account so that you can transfer over money to start making some moves. The next few steps are pretty interesting:
- You setup specific goals. You put in a goal deadline, starting amount, goal amount to see where you stand and what’s best for your money.
- You pick your asset allocation. You decide how you want your money divided between stocks and bonds. You don’t have to worry about putting all of your eggs into one basket.
- You get recommendations for monthly savings and asset allocation. Betterment helps you decide how to invest your money in the role that a paid adviser usually would.
As you can see, this is an excellent investing tool for beginners. You can essentially let someone else do your investing for you while you worry about what matters to you in life (traveling or spending time with friends).
What else makes Betterment one of the best ways to invest money?
I found another helpful tool inside of Betterment. This is the demographics option that they have. What this means is that you can input your age range, income range, and sex to see what others in your demographic are doing with their money.
You’ll also see how your asset allocation compares to that of your peers. It’s always fun to see where you stand as an investor. On top of this, you can also see your returns compared to your peers.
What are the fees?
When we went over stock market basics, we made it clear that you’re going to have pay fees on each trade that you make and maintenance fees depending on your type of account. Betterment doesn’t charge trade fees. You only pay the annual management fee.
Your pricing depends on how much money you have in your account to invest.
If you carry a balance of $0 to $10,000, you’ll have an annual fee of 0.35% and you’ll get the Betterment portfolio (now offered to all tiers). You can still enjoy the benefit of next day deposits. Instead of paying an annual fee, you can be charged a low monthly fee.
If your balance is at $10,000 to $100,000 you’ll be charged an annual rate of 0.25%. You’ll get a Betterment portfolio with this and the ability to have next day deposits.
In more good news. I browsed around and couldn’t find any hidden charges or fees that could possibly surprise you. The annual management fee is the only one you pay.
Are you ready to start investing?
I was going to promote this tool a while ago. Then I was informed by the company that there would be a price reduction along with further incentives coming up. This is why I was excited to finally inform you guys about this investing tool today.
[Quick note: If you’re ready to start investing, I urge you to sign up with Betterment. You get $25 for free, a 30 day trial period, and a hands-off money management tool to help you make more money than ever before. Sure beats doing nothing.]
I’m a recent college grad and looking to make more money. I haven’t invested in stocks before and I’m interested in doing so. Are you still using Betterment? How has it been working for you?
Hey Jordan, thanks for the visit! Have you been able to find work yet? I personally don’t use Betterment, but it’s one of the best tools for all rookie investor because it takes into consideration your goals and risk tolerance.
I’ve been working with the same job for about 4 years now. I do all my job office work from home which is great but it’s not something I want to do forever. I don’t really know what I want to do. So lost but I do know I want to make more money. BTW this site is so great.
Howdy MD, just clicked over from my site where you left a comment saying you have no investments in stocks. Is Betterment not about investing in stocks? Sorry for the confusion if I’m reading things wrong.
You read correctly my friend, you’re not that old yet! Despite me pulling out of the stock market recently it doesn’t mean that my readers should. Many readers, friends, and blogging peers suggested this tool to me. I felt it made sense to write about it 🙂
Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.
Interesting. I am glad I read this since I have never heard of this tool. I’m also going to start investing my money this year after paying my student loans off. Thank you for the recommendation
One of the reasons I have nearly $500 sitting around in cash in my IRA right now is because e*Trade charges $35 per trade!
In one review of Betterment that I read, it said no minimum balance, but then it said something like $300 to open. Which is it?
Hey Edward, this link should explain everything: https://www.betterment.com/how/ It says that you don’t need a minimum balance but that you have to deposit $100/month.
Ahh, thanks. A little out of my range as just yet.
Nice recommendation, Martin. Never having done anything with money management other than online banking, would this really be a good idea for me? Now that I have a job, I’m aiming to save as much money as possible to pay for graduate school. I’ve never invested either, or even thought of it until recently. Do you think it will help?
Those management fees are really not that bad. Interesting idea for those just getting started with investing.