Best Investing Apps for Beginners

Investing your money is essential for building wealth over time. However, traditional brokerages can be complex and intimidating for new investors. Thankfully, a new generation of intuitive and easy-to-use investing apps help beginners get started in the markets quickly and safely. This guide explores the top beginner investing apps based on fees, account minimums, educational resources, and unique features.

Why Investing Matters

Investing gives your money the potential to grow faster over time through compounding market returns. Key advantages for beginners include:

• Combating inflation eroding idle savings
• Multiplying net worth faster than only relying on income
• Achieving financial goals more quickly
• Funding major purchases like homes without massive saving
• Building retirement security independent of pensions
• Developing passive income streams through dividend investing
• Accessing professional money management otherwise available only to the wealthy
• Gaining experience for more advanced investing strategies later

Investing early, regularly, and for the long term is the path to financial freedom and security. Apps make it simple to get started.

Features of the Best Investing Apps

Leading investing apps for beginners excel across these attributes:

Easy Account Opening

Signing up is quick and easy through the app interface in under 5 minutes without lengthy paperwork.

Low Minimum Balances

Many apps allow starting with as little as $5 or $10 removing barriers for new investors.

Low Fees

The very best apps offer commission-free trading of stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs). Management fees are also rock bottom.

Educational Content

They provide investing guides, videos, articles, tips, and recommendations tailored for beginners to build knowledge.

Automated Investing

Optional robo-advisor services build and automatically manage diversified portfolios matched to your goals and risk tolerance.

Additional Features

The best apps offer extras like analyst ratings, virtual trading, community forums, news feeds, and tax tools.

Intuitive Interface

Clean, easy-to-use design including graphs and dashboards simplifies the investing experience.

With the right app, investing is accessible for any beginner.

Top Stock Investing Apps

Apps make buying stocks easy without hefty trading commissions:

Webull

Offers commission-free stock, ETF, and options trading with valuable market data, analysis tools, and educational content. $1 minimum to open account.

Robinhood

Pioneer of commission-free trading. Beginner-friendly app allows buying and selling stocks, funds, options and cryptocurrencies.

Stash

In addition to stock trading, Stash offers auto-managed portfolios. Accounts start with just $5 minimum. Unique thematic investment options.

Public

Social investing platform with community feeds. Excellent stock research from ratings to price targets. $0 minimum to start.

eToro

Enables copying expert portfolios. Good for beginners seeking access to proven investing strategies. Start with $50.

Invstr

Fun gamified experience makes learning investing concepts and buying stocks engaging. Minimum $1 to open account.

Stock trading apps provide the tools and resources to invest in companies profitably.

Top Automated Investing Apps

Automated “robo-advisor” apps build and manage portfolios tailored to your profile:

Betterment

Industry pioneer offers globally diversified custom portfolios created for your goals and risk tolerance. No minimum or commissions.

Wealthfront

Offers automated portfolio management guided by Nobel-winning research and financial experts. Requires only $500 minimum.

M1 Finance

Allows selecting customized portfolio components across stocks, ETFs, and bonds. Starts at $100 minimum.

Ellevest

Diversified portfolios created specifically for women’s financial needs. Digital advisor provides coaching.

Fidelity Go

Fidelity’s robo-advisor builds portfolios from low cost Fidelity funds. $10 minimum. Integrates with main Fidelity app.

Schwab Intelligent Portfolios

Uses proprietary algorithms to construct portfolios from a wide selection of funds. No advisory fees or commissions.

Automated investing apps simplify long-term wealth building for beginners.

Best Retirement Investing Apps

Retirement-focused apps make saving easy:

Acorns

Invest spare change automatically in diversified ETF portfolios. Offer 401k roll-over accounts. $0 minimum.

Blooom

Analyzes workplace retirement accounts like 401(k)s and recommends specific improvements to your fund selections. Basic service is free.

Yieldstreet

Unique platform offers investment in alternative assets outside regular stocks and bonds, like real estate. $500 minimum.

Betterment

RetireGuide tool helps plan for retirement and can manage accounts before and during retirement. No minimum or fees.

Wealthfront

In addition to taxable investing, offers IRAs. Automated retirement planning tools and cash analysis. $500 minimum.

SoFi Invest

Manages active and automated investing for IRAs alongside banking, borrowing, and personal finance services. $1 minimum.

Retirement-oriented apps streamline building long-term nest eggs through automated, diversified investing.

Best Social Investing Apps

Socially-oriented platforms enable sharing ideas with other investors:

eToro

Enables following and automatically copying successful portfolios of other experienced eToro investors. $50 minimum to start.

Public

Features community feed for discussing stocks with other investors. Follow influencers for insight. No minimum.

Invstr

Connects beginners with experienced investors on the social platform. Discuss and share strategies. $1 minimum.

StockTwits

Largest investor community to exchange investment ideas and market sentiment. Curated news and analysis. Free.

TipRanks

Tracks and ranks analysts and blogger recommendations. Follow top experts for investing tips. Free app.

Seeking Alpha

Platform for financial experts and investors to share research, analysis, and portfolios. App available. Free access.

Social investing provides motivation, knowledge sharing and exposure to proven ideas to boost beginner success.

Best International Stock Apps

Access investments globally:

StashAway

Simple goal-based automated investing across global stocks, bonds, gold and cash for higher diversification. Based in Singapore.

Wealthsimple

Offers broad index ETFs encompassing thousands of global stocks. Popular investing app from Canada. No minimums.

Nutmeg

UK-based automated investing providing diversified passive portfolios. Transfer existing pensions into accounts. £100 minimum.

Freetrade

Enables fee-free stock trading on UK, European and US markets. No minimums. Based in the United Kingdom.

BUX Zero

Leading European social trading platform. Zero commissions. €500 minimum deposit. Based in Amsterdam.

IG

Well-known global broker popular in Europe and UK offering stocks, options, ETFs, and CFDs. Australia offices available.

International platforms provide geographic diversification and local access abroad.

Key Considerations Choosing Investing Apps

When selecting apps, evaluate:

Entry Barriers – Prioritize no minimums and account fees so you can start small.

Account Types – Many support IRAs and joint accounts for retirement investing and couples.

Investment Choices – Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, robo-advisors, etc. Offerings will vary.

Fees – Check for no commissions on trades and no or low management fees.

Educational Resources – Look for guides, videos, webinars, and personal advice appropriate for beginners.

Tax Features – Some provide tools like loss harvesting, annual tax documents, and import for TurboTax.

Security – Review cybersecurity, encryption, FDIC insurance safeguards, and fraud monitoring.

Customer Service – Expect responsive assistance when needed from knowledge experts.

The best apps have features tailored specifically to simplify investing for beginners.

Developing Long-Term Success Habits

Once you select an app, cultivate habits for ongoing growth and learning:

• Start early – Begin investing as soon as income allows, even if small amounts. Time enables compound growth.
• Invest regularly – Develop consistent habits like auto transfers even for modest amounts. Investing episodically reduces returns.
• Reinvest dividends – Reinvest portfolio distributions for exponential compounding rather than withdrawing income.
• Hold long-term – Avoid panic selling on volatility. Ride out downturns to benefit from eventual recovery over long periods.
• Diversify – Construct portfolios across asset classes, market caps, sectors, and geographies to minimize risk exposure. Apps make this easy.
• Learn continuously – Leverage educational materials provided by apps to build investing knowledge over time. Stay curious.
• Monitor periodically – Review accounts at regular intervals but avoid obsessively watching daily fluctuations.
• Upgrade strategically – As experience grows, evolve into more advanced trading approaches, higher risk assets, and new strategies.

Adhering to sound investing principles and habits leads to growing returns over decades.

Conclusion

Easy-to-use investing apps empower any beginner to build wealth for the future. Low costs, education resources, and automated options provide an accessible onramp to long-term market returns. Select an app aligned to your needs and cultivate smart habits. Get started on the path to financial freedom today.

FAQs

Do investment apps actually help beginners?

Yes, the best apps are designed specifically for novice investors. Features like fractional shares, education tools, retirement accounts, automated advice, and social orientation simplify getting started in the markets.

What is the catch with commission-free trading apps?

There is no catch. Leading investing apps make money through monthly subscription fees, management fees on balances, margin lending, or selling order flow data to market makers.

Is it risky to rely on automated investment apps?

Automated apps use Nobel-winning investment methodology to construct diversified, risk-appropriate portfolios. For beginners, this provides low-cost exposure to proven investing strategies.

How do investment apps make money?

Popular monetization models include monthly membership fees, management fees on balances, interest on cash in accounts, order flow payments, margin lending revenue, and interchange fees on linked debit cards.

What types of investment products do apps offer?

Apps enable easy access to stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, cryptocurrencies, and alternative real asset classes. Some focus on certain assets more than others so compare selection.

Can I transfer existing investment accounts to an app?

Many apps allow transferring traditional IRAs, 401ks, and taxable accounts. Some enable consolidating multiple existing accounts into their platforms via simple online forms. This retains tax advantages.

Investing apps provide beginners an easy, low-cost entry point to build long-term wealth and financial security through the markets.