Every new investor faces two challenges:
- The barrier to entry being too high
- Not having the slightest idea of what to actually invest in
It’s no secret that investing jargon can sound like a foreign language. This can deter many people from ever taking the time to learn what they actually need to know. On top of that, many brokerages require investors to have minimum balances and automatic deposits that are just too much.
Fortunately, those days are long gone.
Technology has been huge for lowering investment barriers. There are now so many options that are both accessible and easy to understand by everyone.
One of those options that could be a good fit for you is the Stash Invest App (On mobile? Open Stash in the App Store).
If you want to skip the review, we honestly don't recommend Stash because of the high prices. Instead, we recommend that investors check out a full-service free solution like TD Ameritrade or Fidelity. Both of these companies offer great apps, no minimum IRAs, and hundreds of commission-free ETFs.
If you want an app-based option, check out these 5 apps that allow you to actually invest for free.
Why Stash Invest?
Stash Invest is an app that launched in 2015 after the founders set out to answer the question: why don’t half of Americans invest?
They kept coming back to one answer. Most people found investing to be unrelatable, expensive and intimidating. (Can you relate?!) From those answers, Stash Invest was born.
The Stash Invest app allows investors to start investing with as little as $5. Not only that, but Stash makes choosing investments extremely simple.
Stash Invest offers 30 different themed investments to choose from which are narrowed down by your risk tolerance and personal preference. Through the app, you can buy additional investments, diversify, and monitor your progress.
They also have low fees at only $1 per month if your account has less than $5,000 or 0.25% per year if your account holds more than $5,000. Plus, Stash Invest is free for the first three months, which gives you time to build up your Stash.
How to Get Started in Five Simple Steps
If you want to get started with Stash Invest, the sign-up process is extremely simple. (After you sign up check the bottom of the post for ways to quickly grow that balance.)
# 1 – Click Here to Get Started
Click here to check out Stash Invest online and get started on your desktop.
Click here to get Stash for free on the App Store, you’ll be directed to the app store and you can download the app to your phone.
# 2 – Fill Out Your Profile
Next you’ll fill out your basic information and answer a couple of questions. These questions will help Stash guide you on making investment decisions. It’s important that you’re honest with these survey questions because they help determine your risk tolerance.
This should only take a couple of minutes.
# 3 – Choose an Investment
Based on the answers you provided, Stash Invest will show you investment options that line up with your risk tolerance (conservative, moderate, or aggressive.) You can click on the different investments to learn more about them. (Don’t worry they’re explained in layman’s terms!)
The great thing about Stash is that they make investing relatable. Instead of crazy names of ETFs and ticker symbols, you invest in “themes” that are based on your wants, beliefs, or likes. We’ll talk more about that below.
# 4 – Link Your Bank Account
Link up the bank account you want to have money withdrawn from to make your investments.
It takes about 2-3 days for the money to transfer into Stash.
# 5 – Confirm Your Identity
Verify your identity, create a four digit pin number and you’re all done.
How To Actually Invest With Stash Invest
Stash does things differently than your traditional investing app or brokerage. Instead of choosing a stock or ticker symbol to invest in, you choose from themed investments. This is a really great way to make investing relatable, while at the same making investing affordable and easy.
For example, if you believe that Americans will spend more on healthcare simply because they are getting older, you could invest in “Live Long & Prosper”. This investment is based on an ETF that invests in U.S. healthcare companies.
Similarly, you could invest in your “wants”. For example, you could want to invest in a piece of Warren Buffett. The “Roll With Buffett” investment features Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway.
When you click on an investment you can see the underlying holdings – real companies that you invest in:
Placing an investment is really easy. You just click on the “Add To Portfolio” button and enter how much you want to invest:
What To Do Next
The goal of Stash (and any investment account) is to build your portfolio over time. Stash Invest makes it fun and easy by creating milestones and ways to encourage you to invest more.
Once you make your first investment, you’ll get the milestones based on thresholds:
Stash also tries to show you your potential – by both adding new investments and teaching you the value of investing often.
Over time, you can check in your home screen and see how your portfolio is doing overall.
Pros and Cons of Stash Invest
Stash makes it easy and understandable to get started investing. I know some of the biggest “scare” factors of investing is the knowledge that you have to have to get started. Stash eliminates this and makes investing relatable.
The biggest drawback of Stash is the cost. $1 per month (or 0.25%) may not seem like a lot, but on a small portfolio, the percentage is very high. $1 per month is $12 per year. On a $100 investment that is 12% in investing fees. That's incredibly hard to earn back, and those fees keep coming. That can really kill your portfolio's earning potential.
Also, another drawback right now is that you cannot set up automatic deposits; you have to make all transfers manually.
Finally, to pay your account fees, they don't take the money out of your investments – they auto-debit your account on file, which can be annoying to see fees leaving your checking account (versus your Stash account).
Our Preferred Alternative To Stash
What I'd honestly recommend is opening an IRA or brokerage account at a mainstream brokerage like TD Ameritrade or Fidelity. What most people don't realize is that you can open an IRA with no minimum, you can get access to hundreds of commission free ETFs, and you have a great app to use. You essentially can build your entire diversified portfolio for free, on an app.
So, instead of paying high fees and investing in their custom ETFs, you simply get a regular “mainstream” account, can invest in the same ETFs, and experience no fees.
Check out TD Ameritrade for yourself.
Easily Build Your Investments
With Stash, all you need is $5 to make a deposit. This is perfect for anyone getting started. Plus, it’s so easy to understand!
Here are some useful tips for growing your Stash Invest account quickly:
- Add $5 to your account when you skip your morning coffee.
- Add $5 to your account every time you purchase something on sale that you had planned on paying full price for.
- Add $5 to your account every time you receive your paycheck.
- Add $5 to your account for every hour of overtime you work.
- Add half of your side hustle income.
A bunch of $5 investments can add up to something big. If you want to get started investing but haven’t made the plunge, sign up for an account with Stash today.
Stash Invest
Pros
- Easy to use app
- Great investment choices
Cons
- Expenses are very high
- Must use direct debit to pay fees
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I don’t care for an app you cannot investigate before inputting my bank account?
Plus, it’s pushy. Open the app and it flat refuses to close.
Unistalled.
I am not really fond/want to connect my bank account info to what is supposed to be “My STASH ACCOUNT” -I don’t understand why I have to directly connect my personal banking accounts to an app that can withdraw fees from my account it seems to be a VERY HIGH SECURITY RISK to put your banking information on an app that you are simply trying to “STASH”/SAVE “Money On until you have enough to try to make investments that will flip your $50.00 into a $100.00 or just Make more money on what you choose to invest in.I think STASH would be a great idea if it was an account all by it’s self that you can use to make investments.
I agree. I would even prefer paying through a Paypal account or something similar. But directly connecting my bank account…makes me too nervous.
Terre – I’ve not had any problems with the app. Sorry to hear that yours didn’t work well.
I think one of the greatest benefits of an app and investment option like this is that it may help change the way that consumers think about saving money (the phone interface that makes account info readily accessible, very low minimum investment options, and real time updates). For me, it has helped me consider savings options on par with other real time purchase/spending options. For instance, do I get something to eat on the way home, or do I eat when I get home? Stash allows me to take the $10 that I saved by not eating out and put it immediately in my Stash account. So, savings/investing becomes a real time option, instead of a more distant/future alternative.
I find stash to be very easy. It got me to invest and ive wanted to for years. In this time. I feel I am lucky to have found it. Imo its a great time to bet on American companies. Unless your Nordstrom.
I’ve been a user of the Android app since March of 2015. Set up is simple. There are access points on almost every page that enables users to transfer money into an account to create or add to an investment. However withdrawing or selling all or part of my investment (not dividends or available cash) is hidden. The cognitive workload that it takes to find a call to action that will enable me to withdraw or sell my investment is a deal breaker. If an app or any service for that matter is great at acquiring customers then they should be equally transparent when it comes to cancellation of service.
I concur, Carlos, as I have yet to find the “secret trap door” that allows me to withdraw my cash at my disposal.
It is easy, click on your investment and click on the orange buy/sell button in the top middle. Follow the prompts. Not sure why you don’t see that. Hope that helps.
Exactly. Ive had no issue.
Stash isn’t available in other countries……kinnda bad for me now that i’m out of the country
Did you start your account in the US and now can’t access it?
I having the same problem trying to find out how to withdraw my money.
Robert, any thoughts on that?
I had to email them, and that was annoying. You can contact them here: support at stashinvest dot com
It’s an investment app. Not a trading app/checking account. I’m new to it and and it’s pretty clear in their pitch, that this isn’t meant for aggressive trading and withdrawals. There are hundreds of apps for aggressive stock action. Emailing or calling this company to get your money shouldn’t annoy you when this is clearly an app for beginners who would like to “invest” for at least a while and/or learn how to save for the future. It might help to read before you toss your money into something.
No matter what type of app, no company should make it difficult to close or withdraw your funds. What if you simply want to move to a truly free brokerage? Most online brokerages and apps don’t make it difficult to withdraw funds.
What are the fees and associated cost on withdrawal? If in case I want to close the account, what are the termination terms? Would like to know the full picture not just bells and whistles, thanks.
Their outgoing ACH fees are free currently. Here’s their fee schedule: https://stash.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/6000094736-account-maintenance-and-bank-transfer-fees
Not that hard guys. Click on investment you made. Click orange buy/sell button. Click sell. Type in amount you want to sell….follow prompts. Hope that helps all.
The little as $5 is quite misleading. You’d have to have returns of 240% to actually make money. But they don’t increase the fee rate until you get to $5,000. So the more money we add (up to $5,000) the less we lose in fees.
At $100, we still need returns of 12%. That’s pretty unlikely, but not impossible.
$250 – 4.8% This is probably about all we can expect to make on our investments. We might make a bit more, but we could do less too.
$500 – 2.4% This is tipping more in our favor already, making 3% off our investments should be pretty easy. (But by no means guaranteed)
$1,000 – 1.2% Now we’re getting into more profit
$2,000 – 0.6%
$3,000 – 0.4%
$4,000 – 0.3%
$4,999 – 0.24% – This is the best fee ratio that we’ll ever hit. If we have a return of even a low 3% we’ll still be making $150 (and they’ll take $12 of that)
$5,000 – At $5,000 the fee model changes to a flat 0.25%, which is only slightly worse than what we were getting before.
The catch here, of course, is that we aren’t guaranteed a 3% or 7% return. We aren’t even guaranteed a positive return. You could lose 10% and still get dinged with the monthly fees.
Contrary to how they are marketing it, this isn’t an app for someone to try out investing with a few bucks to see what happens. If you want to hope to make enough to overcome the fees then you’re going to need to risk at least $250 or $500. Any less and you’re not really investing at all, you’re just paying their fees. They deduct the fees from your bank, not your stash in the app. So it may look like you’re making money as your stash goes up, but really you’re just dinging your bank account with their monthly fees.
If you can do more than $500, then you have a shot at actually making some money here. But to the article’s point, if you have a couple thousand dollars laying around, there are other places that you could attempt to invest it for less fees. The $5 they spot you to start, and the free month they give you, does give you 6 months to invest without fees and see what happens though. But don’t stick around any longer than that unless you’re willing to risk some real money on this project.
You’re spot on. The title of the article is “Investing With $5 Isn’t Worth It” and we say so in the first paragraph. We recommend opening a no-minimum IRA at Fidelity or TD Ameritrade, and leveraging their commission free ETFs. Now you have an almost truly free investing experience.
I have to disagree with the author I do not feel Stash is expensive. I’m sure from money crunching financial geeks the percentage is high but $12 a year is $120 in 10 and if I invest $600 monthly and can get 2.9% return I’m sitting at $84k give or take and it cost me $120 in 10 years or so. I have a traditional brokerage account and I find Stash easier. But that’s just my opinion and I know nothing about this stuff since I’ve lost more money trying to figure it out than anyone I know so for me Stash is really nice
If you do choose to invest $600 monthly, you’d quickly jump into the 0.25% annual fee amount.
In year one, you’d pay: $8 + $18 = $26 in fees to Stash. That ends up equaling 0.36% in expenses, which might not see like a lot, but it is an additional fee on top of what you’re paying the ETFs inside Stash. That’s why we recommend going with something truly free.
Even a robo-adivsor like Wealthfront that charges 0.25% in fees gives you the first $10,000 free so that you can escape the high fee/low amount timing of your portfolio. And for their fee, they actually do the investing for you.
Started my stash acct about 8 months ago. If all you plan on saving is $100 a year then yea the fees are bad. I have automatic deposits set up and ive made a 5% return. I love the ap and haven’t had any issues with it. TD Ameritrade and Fidelity may have lower fees but they charge $10/transaction. Don’t get bent out of shape about $1/month
Tim, both TD Ameritrade and Fidelity offer countless ETFs with no transaction fees. Since Stash does ETFs, this is extremely similar (and free) You can find the list here:
TD Ameritrade – https://research.tdameritrade.com/grid/public/etfs/commissionfree/commissionfree.asp
Fidelity – https://research2.fidelity.com/fidelity/screeners/etf/etfholdings.asp?freeEtf=all
Second, Fidelity currently offers a promo of 200 free trades for 2 years. That means you could build a portfolio of non-free ETFs and still not pay anything.
Finally, the S&P 500 has returned roughly 9% over the 8 months. You have underperformed the market by 3%.
I’ve been using Stash for a year, and I love it. I’ve also had no trouble selling off my ETFs. I like it because IRAs usually have penalties for drawing money before retirement age; whereas, if I needed to… I can draw from Stash. They’re also coming out with something called Stash Retire, which will be a Roth IRA. I’m going to do that too. Never can you have too many baskets.
I’m so confused by this because you say you don’t like IRAs because they have penalties for withdrawing the money early, but then you promote their new product Stash Retire, and say you’re going to do that too. This sounds phishy to me.
If you’re looking to do an IRA, open an account at a place that doesn’t charge you fees!
I’m not opposed to an IRA, and I’ve been looking into them. But generally, I prefer most of my investments to be less rigid long-term options. I’ve looked into Ameritrade tonight, signed up, and made my first transfer. I’m not sure what I think about it yet, so the jury’s still out. The appeal of Stash is that it’s made easy. I’ve always found investing to be daunting, which is where other trading platforms have always lost me. Now that I’ve stashed for a year, I’m feeling more confident and learning as I go along. There’s nothing “phishy” about that.
I have really appreciated reading the above article! Although I do not disagree that the misleading alignment for “new investors” is to start off with $5 (huge % of fees with this balance), I think it is a extremely practical approach for people that have a few thousand dollars sitting in the bank account. Personally, I TRADE with Robinhood with no fees and have done well by using technical analysis off third party sources and this has been great! However my biggest draw to use STASH as well was that I wanted a place to put a couple thousand dollars in a less risky – moderate investment fund where it has the capability of increasing in value apart from the extremely lousy 0.001% interest in typical major banking accounts. I was tired of seeing “Interest Credit – $0.07” in my account instead of something I could at least buy a hamburger with.
A friend of mine uses Stash. I did not really know much about it until reading reviews today. I told him to sign up with Robinhood instead because the $1 monthly fee is still $12 he would have to generate annually with his Stash account to just break even. I missed telling him that the ETFs he has also have expense rates, so the $12 is on top of the fund expenses. I imagine he does not have much money in Stash currently. I do not even know how Stash buys the ETFs. Can you buy fractional shares? That is the drawback with Robinhood. You have to buy whole shares. He is a generation younger than me too. I kind of want to give him advice I wish I had when I was his age. He is on the right path I guess but since he is a millennial, I think he does not have much money to invest or does not understand that he could FIRE in 20 years if he wanted to.
I just downloaded the app a couple months ago for the fun of it. I only throw a small amount of money ($25/wk) into the account, but I like to trade aggressively with it just for thrills. This is roughly the same amount of spending I otherwise would spend on a hobby or game, and even at a loss I will still have something left of my money when I get bored with it and cash out.
So far, 6 weeks in, I’ve averaged just under 1% per week, which has earned me $4 to offset the $1 charge coming up.
Honestly, this article is totally correct to say that Stash isn’t worth the money as a true investment app. However, as a training tool or a fun way to feel like a rich kid, go nuts. My only complaint with this app really is that they consistently miss the two trading windows that they use, and it can be very frustrating watching a stock price free fall after you’ve already put in the sell order an hour previously. If they’re going to impose trading windows, that’s fine, but they should at least hold to using the trading windows they say. Today, my purchase didn’t go through until 45 minutes after the trading window closed, and that’s a long time in stock land.
If all you can set aside is $5, you’ve got no business in even thinking about investing…Another fintech company exploiting the ignorance of consumers. Think about how they market themselves..”invest in things you care about…” Their entire appeal (to those uninformed) is based upon the #1 fundamntal rule which is to NEVER make decisions based on emotions…that should tell you all you need to know about Stash. Sure it’s easy…for them to get your money from your account into theirs. Nothing against Stash, calling it like I see it.