Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I'm At
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about the scoop on micro investing apps. So, Joel,
Speaker 1: I saw some folk art today, and I'm saying that
Speaker 1: to make you extremely jealous, because I know you love
Speaker 1: folk art. Man, why would you? Why would you be
Speaker 1: a trader to our friendship and go see folk art
Speaker 1: without me? Yeah? I didn't tell you about this, but
Speaker 1: did you know that the High has the second Sunday
Speaker 1: of every month they have free admission. Emily and I
Speaker 1: like literally just saw a billboard for so the High
Speaker 1: museums like our local major art museum in Atlanta. It's
Speaker 1: a I mean, it's a major art museum across the country.
Speaker 1: I saw the billboard that there's some major folk art
Speaker 1: exhibit at the High right now, and Emily and I
Speaker 1: were like, okay, wait, we got a research like wins
Speaker 1: the three Days again. Okay, So it's second Sunday of
Speaker 1: the month. Yes, so second Sundays of the month it's
Speaker 1: free admission. Um when I think normally it's fifteen bucks.
Speaker 1: So that's why we went. You know, it's a great deal.
Speaker 1: So we actually went because I saw that they have
Speaker 1: like a Oneie the Pooh exhibit, and we don't care
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, I don't care as much. Although they've
Speaker 1: got a ton of sketches by the artist. Super fascinating
Speaker 1: because you could, you know, you get to see the
Speaker 1: process and there's a there's a lot of drawings to
Speaker 1: where he didn't like, wouldn't erase stuff, and so you
Speaker 1: can kind of see the progression of the characters. Super cool.
Speaker 1: I'm all about the process and kind of how did
Speaker 1: you arrive to the you know, the final product. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the story to get to the final product is to
Speaker 1: me almost more fascinating than the than the end result.
Speaker 1: And I actually didn't even know that the folk art
Speaker 1: thing was going on. It was because it was called
Speaker 1: like outliers American vanguard artists sort of thing, basically talking
Speaker 1: about how you didn't you know the folk artists starting
Speaker 1: in their early nineteen hundreds, you know, throughout close to
Speaker 1: the two thousands. I guess just lad the way I
Speaker 1: guess with like kind of modern art and based on
Speaker 1: their sort of out fire tendencies and ways in the
Speaker 1: way they did things. So we almos want as an afterthought,
Speaker 1: which you would have been like murdered me over had
Speaker 1: and I going. But yeah, you'll be happy to hear
Speaker 1: there's some poward finsters in there, and a bunch of
Speaker 1: other guys. I'm sure you're more you're more familiar with gosh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that I wish I could have in my house. They
Speaker 1: already actually at the High they have a normal, awesome
Speaker 1: folk art exhibit just upstairs, I think the top floor.
Speaker 1: That's that's good no matter what. That's always there, permanent
Speaker 1: installation of great folk art. But so the fact that
Speaker 1: they have this exhibit expanded exhibit, yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: have to go for sure. It's not just folk cart
Speaker 1: That's why they call it the outlier, sort of vanguard thing.
Speaker 1: It's I mean, it's sort of an umbrella term I think,
Speaker 1: to include just a bunch of outliers, just folks that
Speaker 1: weren't doing art, you know, whether it be because they're
Speaker 1: self taught or just using different techniques. One guy in particular,
Speaker 1: I thought you would, you'd love to look for Sam Doyle.
Speaker 1: When I saw the stuff, I was like, man, Joel would, totally.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's right up Joel's alley. I'm writing
Speaker 1: the name down. I'm gonna look at this slew stuff.
Speaker 1: Sam Doyle. Yeah, he's a self taught artist out of
Speaker 1: South Carolina and sometimes he would paint on building materials
Speaker 1: and kind of different stuff like that, but just a
Speaker 1: general s plus, this stuff is really big, and I
Speaker 1: know everything you like is like oversize. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: loves art, Like, why would you get something it's like
Speaker 1: nine inches by nine inches or something like that. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I love like the big broad strokes, like
Speaker 1: if it's not at least three ft long, like don't
Speaker 1: even show it to me. Then yeah, check this guy
Speaker 1: out there. You'll love it. But so, okay, here's my question.
Speaker 1: When you go in for you know, the free museum day,
Speaker 1: how bad is the line? Yeah, okay, that's what I
Speaker 1: was about to say, because the lines were a little
Speaker 1: bit longer than than we would have preferred. But we
Speaker 1: also went kind of at the right in the middle
Speaker 1: of the stinking day, so like right at the peak hours.
Speaker 1: I would definitely recommend going, you know, right when they open,
Speaker 1: or maybe even closer to the end while everyone else
Speaker 1: is heading out of there. Dude, that's a good call,
Speaker 1: but in general, still worth it and it's fun. We
Speaker 1: actually hadn't been there with the girls yet and so
Speaker 1: even though I've been there for for work, you know,
Speaker 1: multiple times with photography, never actually taking the kiddos there.
Speaker 1: So it adds another element of stress when you've got
Speaker 1: your girls and she just from touching like a priceless
Speaker 1: work of art on the wall, which Eddie straight up
Speaker 1: succeeded in touching something. I was just like, oh dag,
Speaker 1: it likely didn't set off any alarms. Like father like daughter.
Speaker 1: I just like to lick it, you know, like it
Speaker 1: give me that artwork. Yeah, but that's a cool thing.
Speaker 1: We recently just heard about that, like the free Sunday things,
Speaker 1: So everybody out there that these are the kind of
Speaker 1: things that you can do, you know, save thirty bucks
Speaker 1: here there and actually you know, go do something you
Speaker 1: know with your family or you know, with your spouse.
Speaker 1: These are just awesome, you know, potential date night or
Speaker 1: but they're there are all sorts of you know, tips
Speaker 1: and tricks like this that you can find out in
Speaker 1: your town, probably with a quick Google search or asking friends,
Speaker 1: you know, what what they do to save money around town.
Speaker 1: And man, that's like, yeah, that's a great tip. Because
Speaker 1: literally I saw that billboard and I was thinking, I
Speaker 1: need to figure out when the free time to go
Speaker 1: is because I know there is one if you live
Speaker 1: in the you know, in the county where we live,
Speaker 1: and so I'm totally taking taking you up on this
Speaker 1: thanks to the tip buddy. You got it man, all right,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you really quickly, I sold a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff today on the Facebook yard sales site
Speaker 1: and so I sold two items, made ninety bucks, just
Speaker 1: kind of trying to declutter a little bit and do
Speaker 1: The Facebook yard sales site has gotten so much better.
Speaker 1: I was. I'm surprised at how good it's gotten with
Speaker 1: kind of I feel like the listings just look better,
Speaker 1: and like the user interface basically, like it just feels
Speaker 1: better as you're kind of swiping through stuff. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's like so much easier to post to multiple spots,
Speaker 1: Like if you're a member of you know, specific groups
Speaker 1: like the East Atlanta group that I'm a member of,
Speaker 1: and then there's a couple other ones that I'm that
Speaker 1: I'm also a member of, I can post to like
Speaker 1: all of them at the same exact time, plus the
Speaker 1: generic market place as well, and so it just they
Speaker 1: they've made it super easy. It's way better than than
Speaker 1: listening to Craigslist now, And yeah, I had an easy
Speaker 1: time getting rid of stuff. And you know that would
Speaker 1: you would you rid of So I had like this
Speaker 1: big mid century style metal like metal island cabinet looks
Speaker 1: you know. Oh yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, we sold that as a beast. Oh yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: did you tell them that you're gonna help them take
Speaker 1: it off the porch? Yeah? But I was also like,
Speaker 1: you need to bring like three people because it's gonna
Speaker 1: take four people to lift. And yeah, I'm glad I
Speaker 1: wasn't there for them. Me and this like one dude
Speaker 1: did it together. And then I sold a mid century
Speaker 1: style like rolling bar for like fifty bucks. So yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's the thing too, Like I was, you know,
Speaker 1: I probably could have gotten a little bit more for
Speaker 1: each one, but I'm just kind of like ready to
Speaker 1: get rid of them, and you know that they seems
Speaker 1: like a fair price for me to be able to
Speaker 1: sell stuff quick. So I just kind of going back
Speaker 1: to like that spring cleaning episode we did. You know,
Speaker 1: it just feels good just to kind of unload stuff
Speaker 1: and just be done with it. You can kind of
Speaker 1: move on and just remove it from your brain and
Speaker 1: just kind of move on with the things you want
Speaker 1: to think about, not just the stuff that you have
Speaker 1: floating around your house. Yeah, and I mean there's a
Speaker 1: lot of things that that I have to think about
Speaker 1: on on a daily basis, you know, like kids and
Speaker 1: work and podcasts and all these things. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: for me, sometimes if I can you know, list it
Speaker 1: at a at a ice point where I can get
Speaker 1: rid of it, you know, fairly quickly and easily without
Speaker 1: too much hassle, then I'd rather, you know, lose ten
Speaker 1: bucks and kind of sell it in in a way
Speaker 1: that's gonna mean less mental stress for me. So yeah,
Speaker 1: Facebook gard sales sites is great. At the end, it
Speaker 1: asked me to rate the person that that bought the
Speaker 1: item from me on their punctuality and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: Like they're like six different items they want to kind
Speaker 1: of like taking it to like the level of eBay
Speaker 1: almost Yeah, and accountability. Well, I'm like interested to see
Speaker 1: how that actually how do I then see a user's
Speaker 1: like ratings, Like I don't know, I don't think they've
Speaker 1: actually put that side out of it yet, but right
Speaker 1: now they're gathering information atly. I wonder if they instead
Speaker 1: of actually rating it. So just like on eBay where
Speaker 1: you see their actual rating or their star rating. I
Speaker 1: wonder if they're just going to feed that into like
Speaker 1: their algorithm and instead they're gonna feature people who are
Speaker 1: rated well, oh totally. They're gonna like feature their posts
Speaker 1: like when they go to sell like higher up or
Speaker 1: sort of thing, give them priority, or or maybe if
Speaker 1: they message you, like because that's usually how people try
Speaker 1: to get in touch with you about buying something. Maybe
Speaker 1: you'll see like a little something you know by their
Speaker 1: by their picture, like this guy sucks trusted buyer or
Speaker 1: or even like trusted by so and so, like if
Speaker 1: you there's a transaction that you did. I'm so curious
Speaker 1: and now as to how they're going to implement yeah,
Speaker 1: or it could just be like like like uber ratings
Speaker 1: essentially where if you get enough batter reviews, they banned
Speaker 1: you from buying or selling on the marketplace. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but it'll be really interesting to see how they use
Speaker 1: those things. How sad would that be if you got
Speaker 1: banned from Facebook marketplace? Man? Like, hey man, I need
Speaker 1: to use your profile real quick. You have to be
Speaker 1: to go make a purchase, You have to be one
Speaker 1: rotten apple, right, So yeah, man, that's really got me
Speaker 1: thinking because I actually purchased a washer dryer recently on
Speaker 1: through the marketplace, and I don't remember any of that,
Speaker 1: So I wonder if they only rated me, it might
Speaker 1: just be the seller that rates. I'm I'm not sure
Speaker 1: interesting because as a buyer, I don't remember that. However,
Speaker 1: it would probably make sense to rate on both sides
Speaker 1: of the coin, right, it would make sense. Maybe they hadn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, this was only like two weeks ago though
Speaker 1: for me, But yeah, I got a wash and dryer.
Speaker 1: I did remember it being easier though. You know, they're
Speaker 1: constantly updating stuff and they've got the listing and then
Speaker 1: you click a button and it's like at an automated
Speaker 1: message that ye, since it's I mean, yeah, they just
Speaker 1: make it so easy for those transactions, just and you
Speaker 1: can you can notify everyone after you've sold it essentially,
Speaker 1: but you hit sold and then it essentially says, you know,
Speaker 1: we're telling everybody that messaged you then about the items
Speaker 1: they know not to contact exactly. It's yeah, it's gotten
Speaker 1: really nice because it used to be super ganky and
Speaker 1: people like, wait, is it still available? Is it not.
Speaker 1: And basically you're saying, used to be like Craigslist. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess you could just like remove the post on Craigslist,
Speaker 1: but um, but yeah it was. It used to be
Speaker 1: a lot worse. And Facebook Marketplace is really getting it together.
Speaker 1: It's really kind of becoming kind of that go to
Speaker 1: resource for selling stuff locally, so especially neighborhood groups like
Speaker 1: that where you can just hop on, hop on down
Speaker 1: the street to pick something up from somebody. Yeah. Like, well,
Speaker 1: and I used to never even click like the marketplace
Speaker 1: button because I would just look in the groups. But
Speaker 1: the marketplace itself has actually gotten really really robust, and
Speaker 1: I feel like feeding me things that I'm interested in
Speaker 1: and then also just just kind of making it easy
Speaker 1: to scroll through things. So yeah, way to go Facebook.
Speaker 1: I love it. Awesome, man. Let's get to the beer today.
Speaker 1: We've on a beer by a local brewery here in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: Orpheus Brewing, and they have donated Wandering Blues, which is
Speaker 1: a blueberry sour ale. I don't know if I've ever
Speaker 1: actually had this, dude, so I'm I'm super pumped. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been around for a few years, but yeah, they
Speaker 1: I think last year they started putting it in like
Speaker 1: six pack cans, and um, I feel like they've actually
Speaker 1: kind of honed in the recipe. So I'm excited to
Speaker 1: have this one again. So without even pouring it, you
Speaker 1: can pop that can and I can. I can see
Speaker 1: that head and it's pink. Yeah. Man, kind of like
Speaker 1: last week's beer poured a cherry red. This one pours
Speaker 1: like a blueberry that kind of bluish purple. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We were talking about how many held it up to
Speaker 1: the light. It looks like a soaked cherry. This looks
Speaker 1: like a soaked blueberry, yeah, which is like the exact color.
Speaker 1: You want beer like this, so, yeah, you want It's
Speaker 1: a match. I can't remember what beer this was. I
Speaker 1: was listening to a beer podcast and they're talking about
Speaker 1: a perfectly clear beer that this brewery was making, which
Speaker 1: sounded terrible. It's like, what is there to see? Yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly reminded me of like pepsi crystal or something like that.
Speaker 1: You know, That's what my mind immediately went. You're just like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is gross. It's like, what kind of chemicals are
Speaker 1: in here? That is fooling my eyes? Right? Yeah? And
Speaker 1: I love by the way, I love the can art
Speaker 1: on this and and so if you want to see,
Speaker 1: you know, a picture of that, go to our Instagram page.
Speaker 1: We've got like an awesome little instagram following instagram dot
Speaker 1: com slash poor not Poor. Let's drink this puppy cheers.
Speaker 1: That really does have like a juicy blueberry definitely some tart.
Speaker 1: It's also like a little bit sweet at the same time.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's kind enough the city though, to
Speaker 1: kind of balance that. Yeah, like it's to me it
Speaker 1: almost has like a red wine um, like a red
Speaker 1: wine vinegar, like red wine acid, like almost balsamic i guess.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's not that concentrated though. It's it's
Speaker 1: a really a light beer. It's really good. So thanks
Speaker 1: to Orpheus Brewing for donating the beer for tonight's episode,
Speaker 1: Wandering Blues Blueberry sour Ale. Yeah, this one was great, guys,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. All Right, Matt, onto the topic
Speaker 1: in hand, the scoop on micro investing apps. This is
Speaker 1: kind of like a hot new segment, right, and it's
Speaker 1: been around now for a couple of years, and you know,
Speaker 1: new players are coming in and existing players in that
Speaker 1: sphere are making changes, and so it's kind of tough
Speaker 1: to know, like, wow, should I be using a micro
Speaker 1: investing app? And if so, you know which ones are good?
Speaker 1: And there's different fees and some are kind of say
Speaker 1: they're free, but are they really free. They're just kind
Speaker 1: of a lot to sort through. And so we figured
Speaker 1: let's tackle this subject and kind of give people the skinny,
Speaker 1: the scoop on you know, what the deal is with
Speaker 1: micro investing apps. Yeah, and by the end of this episode,
Speaker 1: we're hoping that you as a listener. Um, we're not
Speaker 1: gonna do it like a run through of every single
Speaker 1: app that's out there, because I got a feeling that
Speaker 1: there might be ten more new ones, you know, by
Speaker 1: the end of eighteen. So it's not we're not going
Speaker 1: to get a give a comprehensive review necessarily, but we
Speaker 1: want to sort of talk about this maybe from like
Speaker 1: the ten thousand foot view for specifically you do walk
Speaker 1: away from this episode and to know should I be
Speaker 1: getting into micro investing in particular through these these apps
Speaker 1: because they make it so handy, man, that's like it's
Speaker 1: just so easy. Yeah, So we'll talk about what it
Speaker 1: is some of our favorite players or some of the
Speaker 1: big players right now and kind of go over you know,
Speaker 1: what their model is, and then we'll kind of talk
Speaker 1: about pros and cons and then at the end whether
Speaker 1: we recommend you know, you getting involved in micro investing
Speaker 1: or not. And so let's start with like kind of
Speaker 1: a definition MATT. Micro investing usually takes place in apps.
Speaker 1: Micro investing is usually geared towards younger folks, millennials in particular,
Speaker 1: right if you like to use that word and generation
Speaker 1: why for the more studious, right, well, you are more
Speaker 1: studios than I. So it's and it's typically done via
Speaker 1: an app. And like a lot of these micro investing
Speaker 1: players don't even have like a website where you can
Speaker 1: do it. I know, Robin Hood is one of the
Speaker 1: big players, and they just like recently started allowing you
Speaker 1: to kind of trade stocks on a web platform as well.
Speaker 1: But but it used to be app only. Uh so
Speaker 1: that the may there's just a huge shift right now
Speaker 1: that micro investing allows people of all income levels and
Speaker 1: savings abilities to actually begin to invest. Now whereas investing
Speaker 1: used to be, there used to be this big barrier
Speaker 1: to entry. Now minimum trading level and high fees have
Speaker 1: kind of been torched gone by. There are by the
Speaker 1: wayside in this new model that allows you to begin
Speaker 1: building wealth in like minutes with almost no money. Ye mean,
Speaker 1: it makes me think of just the different ride sharing apps, right,
Speaker 1: You've got like Uber or Lift and and even the
Speaker 1: newest thing that is in our city at least are
Speaker 1: the scooters. And it takes no time to just be like,
Speaker 1: I wonder what that's about, and you just download the
Speaker 1: app and before you know it, you're hailing a ride.
Speaker 1: You know, you're you're you're calling for a lift, or
Speaker 1: you're about to scan a scooter and you know, drop
Speaker 1: a few bucks to try this thing out. Well that's
Speaker 1: a good too, because we went in our town at
Speaker 1: least from zero scooter services to like seven overnight. Like
Speaker 1: I see all these different brightly colored scooters and bikes,
Speaker 1: the bikes, and so there's there's a new ure's a
Speaker 1: new bike share now too, like the bright yellow ones
Speaker 1: you like, it won't be long before you know, we
Speaker 1: have a ton more of those two. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of one of another. Yeah, and one of those things
Speaker 1: that's like expanding quickly and hitting up cities and then
Speaker 1: just inundating cities quickly, and so so obviously, I mean
Speaker 1: the reason that this is happening is because they're popular, right.
Speaker 1: It's incredibly easy to just everyone's got the smartphone. You
Speaker 1: just pull it up, download it, or scan it, give
Speaker 1: it a shot. And it's not a huge deal. And
Speaker 1: I mean you said it a second ago when you
Speaker 1: mentioned barriers to entry. That is the number one thing
Speaker 1: that these micro investing apps have gone for them is
Speaker 1: the fact that anyone can do it well. And probably
Speaker 1: the first major player in the industry made it, you know,
Speaker 1: the absolute easiest. And so we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: the major apps that are out there right after this break.
Speaker 1: You know, the first major player that I know of
Speaker 1: in the micro investing sphere was a company called Acorns.
Speaker 1: So in Acorns got bought by PayPal, so they've got,
Speaker 1: you know, this big major corporation behind them. They've got
Speaker 1: enough money to sun like fifty million into them or
Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah, so you know Acorns is gonna
Speaker 1: be around for a while, yeah, man, Acorns. So essentially
Speaker 1: they round up your purchases and invest your spare change.
Speaker 1: It's almost like the digital version of kind of coming
Speaker 1: home at the end of the day with your pockets
Speaker 1: full of change, and you take that and you like
Speaker 1: in the change jar, right, except that I never do
Speaker 1: that anymore because I don't ever use cash, and so
Speaker 1: this is the digital version of that. You know, you
Speaker 1: make all your purchases, whether via debit cards or credit cards.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so imagine making a purchase for seven fifty.
Speaker 1: You know, they rounded up fifty cents to eight bucks.
Speaker 1: You still see that eight dollar charge on your credit card,
Speaker 1: but fifty cents. So that gets invested in whatever investments
Speaker 1: that you've chosen. It's kind of brilliant because there's I
Speaker 1: feel like a group of people who kind of counted
Speaker 1: on the changes are because whether it be just sort
Speaker 1: of like having some cash on hand, uh for sort
Speaker 1: of unexpected small emergencies, or folks that would use it
Speaker 1: specifically to say, for stuff. And so one of the
Speaker 1: great things about acorns is that they do allow you
Speaker 1: to invest in both traditional and roth ira A. So
Speaker 1: you get that tax advantage, you get that tax benefit.
Speaker 1: It's not just money that's pushed aside and invested in
Speaker 1: a standard brokerage account where're getting hit with your regular
Speaker 1: amount of taxes. You know, it's still tax sheltered, which
Speaker 1: is awesome. Yeah, and acorns is added Yeah, kind of
Speaker 1: a couple of things to their business model. And so
Speaker 1: you know, for one dollar a month you can get
Speaker 1: their basic rounding up and investing service, and for two
Speaker 1: dollars a month you can get there they're Acorns later,
Speaker 1: which involves saving for retirement, and then for three dollars
Speaker 1: a month you can combine that and essentially get acorns
Speaker 1: new banking service. So Acorns has really, you know, grown,
Speaker 1: expanded their offerings now the PayPal has invested in them.
Speaker 1: But even though the Acorns business model seems really cool,
Speaker 1: and I actually really like the idea of people being
Speaker 1: able to invest their spare change, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: that's I think it's pretty cool, a brilliant concept, right,
Speaker 1: And the one dollar fee every month doesn't seem like
Speaker 1: that big of a deal. Or two dollars if you're
Speaker 1: going for the retirement account, or three dollars even right,
Speaker 1: and if you're going for their banking service as well,
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like that much unless we're talking about
Speaker 1: you investing twenty dollars a month. And yeah, those dollars
Speaker 1: cutting into your investment returns can add up rather quickly.
Speaker 1: Yea all of a sudden two bucks that doesn't seem
Speaker 1: like much at all if you're only in you know,
Speaker 1: setting aside twenty bucks. I mean, that's a ten percent hit,
Speaker 1: which is gigantic. Like our favorite funds. If we go
Speaker 1: directly through Vanguard, we're looking at point zero four or
Speaker 1: or point zero five per cent point zero five percent.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say that again because because that's so
Speaker 1: small and it would make the you know, acorns business models,
Speaker 1: it sort of seemed like a racket almost if you're
Speaker 1: looking at it from a from a percentage standpoint. So
Speaker 1: it's definitely worth considering. And we're gonna get more into
Speaker 1: like sort of the pros and cons a little bit
Speaker 1: later on and in our specific recommendations. But yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: glad you brought that up. Man, fees that's how I mean,
Speaker 1: they gotta make money somehow, right, Yeah, And fees are always,
Speaker 1: you know, the retirement killer. So a couple other major
Speaker 1: micro investing apps that you need to be aware of
Speaker 1: our the robin Hood app. And robin Hood was the
Speaker 1: first player on the scene to offer completely free investing,
Speaker 1: so you could trade individual stocks and ETFs completely free,
Speaker 1: zero dollars for buying and selling, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: So I personally. This is one that I have tried
Speaker 1: out just with a really small amount of money. I
Speaker 1: just kind of wanted to, you know, play around and
Speaker 1: see how it worked. And so I took five hundred
Speaker 1: bucks that I figured outuld play with for you know,
Speaker 1: about six months and just kind of tool around, and
Speaker 1: you flush, you just got five hundred bucks just laying
Speaker 1: around man in your side gigs. You're like selling everything
Speaker 1: you got on Facebook, I know, right. I mean well,
Speaker 1: I was like sometimes too to be able to talk
Speaker 1: about these things. It's really good to use them and
Speaker 1: see what they actually look like firsthand. And so I
Speaker 1: figured we would be talking about this, and I really
Speaker 1: wanted to test out robin Hood because it is literally
Speaker 1: the first platform where you can actually buy and sell
Speaker 1: stocks commission free. You know. I just remember, you know,
Speaker 1: going back to to high school, you know, probably like
Speaker 1: ninth grade, when you did that stock market challenge and
Speaker 1: you try to outbeat all your friends and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: It's a terrible way to teach kids about how to
Speaker 1: invest in stocks. We shouldn't be doing that in schools.
Speaker 1: But that's always kind of captivated me a little bit,
Speaker 1: and this small part of me, I mean I know
Speaker 1: it's dumb, but I still kind of, you know, part
Speaker 1: of me wants to buy some individual stocks and see
Speaker 1: how it goes. And you know, with Robin Hood, I
Speaker 1: figured five hundred bucks, I can give that a shot.
Speaker 1: And so I'm like pretty much on like Walmart and Mattel. Uh,
Speaker 1: don't ask me why you've got your reasons. You're like,
Speaker 1: I got girls, and I know America's cheap. So you
Speaker 1: want to hear a quick funny story. The stock market
Speaker 1: game brings totally jogs my memory, and so I remember
Speaker 1: doing that in like third or fourth grade or something. Right,
Speaker 1: so my best friend George back from elementary school. I
Speaker 1: would go over to his house and because that's where
Speaker 1: the bus stop was, and we would actually kind of
Speaker 1: finish up our homework right. Well, the challenge involved choosing
Speaker 1: a stock the day before and then the next day
Speaker 1: at school. That was part of the assignment. And like
Speaker 1: the workers supposed to us at in classes, look up
Speaker 1: the stock that you you know that you purchased the
Speaker 1: day before. Well, we would do our homework that morning
Speaker 1: and so we would have that day's paper, which meant
Speaker 1: that we could go back in time and make a
Speaker 1: purchase on something that we knew gained. How are many
Speaker 1: points that day? It's the confession we cheated a little bit,
Speaker 1: like the Marty McFly of stock paking. That's what you are.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of the guy. What was that show on
Speaker 1: like USA back in the ten years ago twenty years
Speaker 1: ago where the dude got tomorrow's paper. Yeah, except for
Speaker 1: we just cheated in class. We were bad kids. But
Speaker 1: uh yeah, specifically I remember one standing out, which was Xerox,
Speaker 1: and they must have had a good quarter or something
Speaker 1: that that that year. But I just remember buying Xerox
Speaker 1: over and over because we would we kept looking and
Speaker 1: they just kept climbing and kept climbing, and so we're like,
Speaker 1: I feel like I can almost still remember the Socksuville
Speaker 1: like x r X or not. Probably it was something
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, what a terrible thing to teach me, Lane, Right,
Speaker 1: when it comes to stock investing, to pick individual stocks
Speaker 1: and to see how they do over a day or two, right,
Speaker 1: that's just a terrible way to do it. But so
Speaker 1: a little more about the robin Hood app you can
Speaker 1: put in, you know, as little money as you want.
Speaker 1: You're buying full shares of a stock or an e
Speaker 1: T f though on that app. So that's really cool
Speaker 1: that you can for the first time at the at
Speaker 1: your fingertips you're buying sell stocks and e t F
Speaker 1: commission free. I love that. But the downside is that
Speaker 1: you can't invest in iras, roth iras or any tax
Speaker 1: sheltered accounts for one case, right, So you can't do
Speaker 1: any of that investing. You're essentially using a brokerage account
Speaker 1: and you're gonna pay regular capital gains taxes on it.
Speaker 1: So you know, robin hood is maybe good for a
Speaker 1: little bit of fun, but not really good for serious investing.
Speaker 1: So how long have you had that the robin Hood app.
Speaker 1: I guess I've been playing around with it for about
Speaker 1: two or three months. Yeah, So, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you can read all the benefits and like the pros
Speaker 1: and cons whatever, like on the review side or even
Speaker 1: hearing us talk about it, but like you personally, like,
Speaker 1: how does it feel? The interface is quite slick, is it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a really cool good written about it. They're
Speaker 1: talking about how you know obviously, so the way that
Speaker 1: they're able to make these zero commission trades is there
Speaker 1: an electronic brokerage, so they're able to buy and sell
Speaker 1: on Wall Street for zero you know, at zero cost,
Speaker 1: and then they're able to pass that along to the consumer,
Speaker 1: which is why it's called robin Hood, right. It's sort
Speaker 1: of like get your spot at the table without having
Speaker 1: to like pay the big fees the big expenses. So
Speaker 1: I was thinking that, like, with it being this sort
Speaker 1: of scaled down, minimal app, that maybe it would be
Speaker 1: kind of clanky or kind of junkie. Now it's it's actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really good, and we'll get into it in the
Speaker 1: pros and contection. I think there's actually probably some benefit
Speaker 1: to learning a little bit about investing, you know, as
Speaker 1: you're using an app like this. So yea, yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: get into that. One more app I wanted to mention
Speaker 1: before we kind of move on to the pros and
Speaker 1: cons is an app called m one that sounds British.
Speaker 1: It totally sounds like is there with James Bond Works
Speaker 1: or something like that. Um well, m m was like
Speaker 1: the Boss Lady or boss Man, depending on what century
Speaker 1: or what decade you're watching, all right, M one, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then one sounds like a fancy name and they
Speaker 1: are now turning into probably the second biggest player behind acorns,
Speaker 1: and that's because they used to charge a small feet
Speaker 1: if you had over a certain level of investments. But
Speaker 1: now m one has made their platform pretty much unlimited,
Speaker 1: free to anybody, and so you can buy individual stocks
Speaker 1: or et s on M one. And the great thing
Speaker 1: too about M one is unlike robin hood, where you
Speaker 1: have to buy a full share of a stock, right,
Speaker 1: so if I wanted to buy, you know, one share
Speaker 1: of Amazon, that's a lot of money, right, But apparently
Speaker 1: you can drop thirty bucks on Amazon on M one
Speaker 1: and buy just a partial share, which is which is
Speaker 1: kind of cool. Interesting. So I haven't used this one
Speaker 1: and I will need to do I'll do that. I'll
Speaker 1: put that on my list to mention to M one.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool if you can go in with like whatever,
Speaker 1: all the amount. So that's one of the big advantages
Speaker 1: over robin hood. The other thing is you can invest
Speaker 1: in a traditional ira, a roth ira, a set ira.
Speaker 1: You can roll over a four oh one k into
Speaker 1: M one. Also, uh, no fees for that. So I
Speaker 1: love that you can buy ets or individual stocks on
Speaker 1: the M one app. It seems to be probably right
Speaker 1: now in my mind, you know, the winner for micro
Speaker 1: investing because there are literally no feest You're not paying
Speaker 1: a dime to anybody to do these trades, and you
Speaker 1: can buy some of these some awesome ETF and some
Speaker 1: awesome individual stocks completely free from an app on your phone.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, IN One, now that I've tried Robin
Speaker 1: hood out, I'm totally gonna try M one out and
Speaker 1: give it a shot, just just to kind of see,
Speaker 1: you know, how it works, and and if I actually
Speaker 1: like it, I get using the app. But I think
Speaker 1: in particular for people that are interested in micro investing
Speaker 1: or investing through an app on their phone, you know,
Speaker 1: IN one is probably that logical choice because of the
Speaker 1: commission free trades, but then on top of that, because
Speaker 1: of the ability to invest your money in tax sheltered
Speaker 1: retirement accounts. Yeah, it almost seems like they're kind of
Speaker 1: going after the big guys, right, like Vanguard and Fidelity
Speaker 1: and even like like Charles Schwab like, if you can
Speaker 1: go to M one and do all of your trades
Speaker 1: specifically E T S, I like E T S personally,
Speaker 1: that's like the Vanguard E T F V V oh
Speaker 1: that's like my number one. I can you know, have
Speaker 1: a ton of money invested with them if I can
Speaker 1: make these E t F trades via this app from
Speaker 1: the comfort of my thumb, Like, why would I want
Speaker 1: to sit down at my desktop computer, I guess and
Speaker 1: log you have to log in when I can just
Speaker 1: do a thumber condition. So, now now that we've named
Speaker 1: the top three, you know, micro investing app players, I'll
Speaker 1: just say there's a couple others. There's Stash, there's Clink.
Speaker 1: We're not going to mention those because those have higher fees,
Speaker 1: and in a traditional sense, their fees are super low
Speaker 1: to but but we thought these players definitely deserve the
Speaker 1: most merit. They're the biggest ones, and they're the ones
Speaker 1: that can offer some of the best options. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about the pros and cons mat right after the break.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt back can break. Let's go over the
Speaker 1: pros and cons of micro investing. Yeah, man, so the
Speaker 1: first one, Uh, it is so incredibly easy to get started.
Speaker 1: Most oftentimes you can be investing in five minutes or less.
Speaker 1: And like we were talking about earlier, that's what's so
Speaker 1: great about these apps is I mean in ten seconds,
Speaker 1: you can have it downloaded, and you can have signed
Speaker 1: up for an account, you can even link it, so
Speaker 1: I don't know, like your Facebook and whatever, and before
Speaker 1: you know, you're rolling and you're able to just try
Speaker 1: it out. It's incredibly easy. The barriers to entry have
Speaker 1: been either lowered or completely removed. And something that was
Speaker 1: from before that was just the sort of elite, elatest
Speaker 1: sort of thing, like m I'm gonna go in and
Speaker 1: talk to my financial advisor and open up a raw ira,
Speaker 1: a four own k blah blah account. It's like super
Speaker 1: fancy talk. And then all of a sudden you've got
Speaker 1: like kids downloading this app, trying this thing out, and
Speaker 1: before you know it, they're just they're saving money. I
Speaker 1: love it from that standpoint, the fact that folks out
Speaker 1: there can start investing, you know, at a way earlier
Speaker 1: age as well. Right, because apps, I mean, like a
Speaker 1: ten year old can download and like I wouldn't recommend
Speaker 1: it and allow your to do that. I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: in the terms and conditions somewhere that they're not supposed to,
Speaker 1: but right, yeah, but I mean it's not easy, and
Speaker 1: so from that standpoint, just the ease of use, I
Speaker 1: love that, Yeah, no doubt. I think it's amazing. I
Speaker 1: think how much easier investing has become and how much
Speaker 1: more transparent, And then this is just kind of adds
Speaker 1: that extra layer of ease and simplicity for people. That's incredible.
Speaker 1: Another pro is that it's great for folks that don't
Speaker 1: have access to a four oh one K and want
Speaker 1: to invest in smaller chunks. So the four oh one
Speaker 1: K is like the super automated thing, right, A certain
Speaker 1: percentage of your paycheck comes out every month and gets invested.
Speaker 1: And the great thing is you know you're saving for
Speaker 1: retirement over the long haul. Well, if you don't have
Speaker 1: access to that something like Acorns that is kind of
Speaker 1: this automated investment style taking money out every time you
Speaker 1: make a purchase. I kind of love that way. If
Speaker 1: you're having a hard time getting the ball rolling getting started,
Speaker 1: Acorns can kind of be that push in the right direction,
Speaker 1: the push to get you starting putting some of your
Speaker 1: money in investments for the long term. So I think
Speaker 1: that's a big pro for for a lot of people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then the last pro that we need to mention
Speaker 1: is that these apps have you know, lower no fees.
Speaker 1: So with an app like Acorns that we mentioned, it's
Speaker 1: anywhere from a dollar to three dollars a month based
Speaker 1: on you know which level of service you want, and
Speaker 1: you know, that's really not that expensive. That's definitely less
Speaker 1: than you know, what you're paying for Netflix or Hulu
Speaker 1: or any of those things. And then other apps like
Speaker 1: robin Hood or in one have no fees and I
Speaker 1: really like that. Cool man. Now let's cover some of
Speaker 1: the cons. So you know, you just mentioned how you
Speaker 1: know some of these have little to no fee at all. Well,
Speaker 1: even though some of these fees might be low, it's
Speaker 1: worth looking at it as a percentage of how much
Speaker 1: you're saving. And so you know, again you might be
Speaker 1: thinking two bucks, that's really nothing for me to really
Speaker 1: get my savings off the ground. But in the at
Speaker 1: the end of the month, if you're only saving like
Speaker 1: twenty bucks, that's a lot of money that you're spending
Speaker 1: to save those twenty dollars. We would recommend that instead
Speaker 1: of looking at it as a dollar amounts of you know,
Speaker 1: as a fee, instead look at it as a percentage
Speaker 1: because what you'll find is that if you go straight
Speaker 1: through a low cost investment company like our favorite Vanguard
Speaker 1: or Fidelity or even charge Schwab, you'll find that the
Speaker 1: percentages significantly lower. And I'm talking the difference between like
Speaker 1: maybe point three or five which sounds like hardly anything
Speaker 1: at all, down to point oh four or five percent,
Speaker 1: So you're looking, I mean, yeah, seven times the cost. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Another con is that micro investing can also and often
Speaker 1: will mean micro result. Matt and I think that you
Speaker 1: should be investing a whole lot more than just your
Speaker 1: spare change. If that's all you're putting into your investments,
Speaker 1: and if you're only investing in a brokerage account and
Speaker 1: you're not saving in tax sheltered retirement accounts, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be broken retirement, and we want more for you than that.
Speaker 1: And and so investing just your your spare change just
Speaker 1: what's coming out between you know, your cushions or rounding
Speaker 1: up purchases like Acorns does. Just doing that, that's not
Speaker 1: going to make a big dent in your retirement savings
Speaker 1: over the long run. And so you need to be
Speaker 1: doing a lot more than that. So make sure if
Speaker 1: you are using one of these apps, you're using it
Speaker 1: wisely and it's not the only way that you're investing. Also,
Speaker 1: some of these apps UH encourage you to purchase individual
Speaker 1: stocks while you can purchase e t s in them.
Speaker 1: Most folks are buying shares of Snapchat or Facebook, you know,
Speaker 1: like that basically whatever is hot and whatever is in
Speaker 1: the news or whatever it is that they're using. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I like Snapchat, all buy the stock, you know. It's
Speaker 1: like that is not the wisest way to purchase stock.
Speaker 1: I think that actually is the number one stock purchased
Speaker 1: on the robin Hood apps real Snapchat. Yeah, so they're like,
Speaker 1: what do I buy? I don't know. I use Facebook
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah, it's like millennials literally buying up social
Speaker 1: media stocks. So you want to be you know, careful
Speaker 1: about how you're investing your money, and and those just
Speaker 1: lend themselves to investing your money stupidly in you know,
Speaker 1: one or two stocks that minor might not have good
Speaker 1: returns over time. Yeah, it goes without saying that. Joel
Speaker 1: and I believe in a very widely diversified approach and
Speaker 1: strategy towards investing, especially retirement investing, like the ultimate you
Speaker 1: know investment. And so yeah, I don't buy individual stocks, uh,
Speaker 1: if you can't afford to lose that money. Oh dude.
Speaker 1: And one more con that I just thought of is
Speaker 1: actually like the risk of purchasing something on a whim,
Speaker 1: so right, like obviously like Facebook, it's just you know,
Speaker 1: you haven't put a whole lot of thought into it.
Speaker 1: But also folks that are sort of thinking about stocks
Speaker 1: and are kind of hearing what's in the news, if
Speaker 1: it's that easy to sort of buy that stock because
Speaker 1: it's in an app, it's on your phone, it's in
Speaker 1: your pocket, Like in literally ten seconds, you could buy
Speaker 1: like several hundred dollars or hundred thousands of dollars worth
Speaker 1: of stocks. I almost see that as a bad thing,
Speaker 1: you know, that's certainly that's one of the benefits of
Speaker 1: this being something that's great for a lot of people
Speaker 1: is just like how easy it is to do that.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, for folks that don't have
Speaker 1: the knowledge and don't have a plan, I see that
Speaker 1: as a negative. There listening to the news or they
Speaker 1: hear that's you know, there's rumor about something happening to
Speaker 1: you know, Facebook or Tesla, like they Elon Musk is
Speaker 1: going crazy on his Twitter account, like like he's prone
Speaker 1: to do, and it seems like that he's got some
Speaker 1: huge breakthrough. Well you might think, well, shoot, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: freaking buy some Tesla real quick before everybody else catches
Speaker 1: the news because I'm young and I'm hearing what's going on,
Speaker 1: and I see that as a as a negative. You know,
Speaker 1: that's not the again, if you want to do that
Speaker 1: because you want to have some fun or try something out,
Speaker 1: like Joel did with you know, five bucks, just laying around,
Speaker 1: but really it's like gambling, like and I knew that
Speaker 1: putting five bucks into it. I knew this was like
Speaker 1: point oh two percent of my portfolio something that I
Speaker 1: don't care. It's kind of like back and testing it
Speaker 1: out and thinking out, have some fun, just to try
Speaker 1: it out. Like, but again, if you can't afford to
Speaker 1: lose it, don't invest your money that way. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think I don't think it's an amazing point. I
Speaker 1: think for people that lack the knowledge and the discipline,
Speaker 1: they can you know, purchase something on a whim or
Speaker 1: sell something on a whim, and that can trigger tax
Speaker 1: consequences and ultimately, you know, much worse than that, just
Speaker 1: severe losses of your capital. You and I, Matt, we
Speaker 1: both believe in long term stock investing, and so if
Speaker 1: you were going to use an app like in one
Speaker 1: or Robin Hood even we would hope that when you're
Speaker 1: buying something, you're holding it for a decade or longer.
Speaker 1: And that's just not the case for most out the
Speaker 1: case right using these apps, and so that is a
Speaker 1: huge downside that people would you know, use it for
Speaker 1: day trading or you know, quick buy and sell transactions
Speaker 1: that are you know, really actually gonna hurt them, or
Speaker 1: even man just to get their hands on some cash.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if you've made the mistake
Speaker 1: of like a late night purchase on Amazon, like from
Speaker 1: your phone or something like that, or even like a
Speaker 1: late just a comment that you're like, oh, man, I
Speaker 1: shouldn't it was the weekend. I shouldn't have made that comment.
Speaker 1: Oh you're that guy in the YouTube comments section, Matt, Yeah,
Speaker 1: not even YouTube of it, you know, talking about imagine that,
Speaker 1: but like with consequences with monetary value attached to that,
Speaker 1: you know, like I would love to know what the
Speaker 1: stats are of like some of these purchases that go
Speaker 1: down like late night when someone's maybe not in the
Speaker 1: best frame of mind and they're like, oh man, I
Speaker 1: gotta get my hands on three hundred bucks by it tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Because I gotta do this, and they're like, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna sell some of this with zero regard to you know,
Speaker 1: what the market is doing and if it's a downturn
Speaker 1: or anything like that, that's yeah, and nine concern of
Speaker 1: people at least will not use these apps wisely. And
Speaker 1: so you know, if you can be one of those
Speaker 1: uber discipline people that once commissioned free et F purchases
Speaker 1: inside of a roth IRA through a company like m one,
Speaker 1: I think that's great. But yeah, just make sure that
Speaker 1: you're you're willing to be in it for the long haul,
Speaker 1: because yeah, that that is I agree. I think that's
Speaker 1: actually probably you know, the biggest potential con to these apps.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, let's move on. So do we actually
Speaker 1: recommend using these micro investing apps. Yeah, so micro investing
Speaker 1: we think can be a small part of your stock
Speaker 1: market investments. Apps have gotten so much better over the
Speaker 1: last few years especially, and the fees have been reduced
Speaker 1: to next to nothing, and so you know, micro investing
Speaker 1: apps are probably here to stay. Just know that investing
Speaker 1: regularly in tax advantaged accounts is probably going to be
Speaker 1: the best bet for your long term financial health. And
Speaker 1: maybe you know, it's not just a small part of
Speaker 1: your investment strategy and your portfolio, but specifically, I see
Speaker 1: it better suited to be like an initial like the
Speaker 1: early onset portion, like as like on a timeline right
Speaker 1: early on, if you're trying to get into investing and
Speaker 1: you're trying to find a ways to set aside money,
Speaker 1: whether that be through a load to no cost brokerage
Speaker 1: like robin Hood, or just finding ways to set aside
Speaker 1: money what you know, like through Acorns, where it just
Speaker 1: kind of rounds up. I see that being a great
Speaker 1: approach and a great strategy to like we said earlier,
Speaker 1: just kind of like kicking it off and getting started.
Speaker 1: But honestly, long term, I see that being less and
Speaker 1: less a part of your overall financial plan. You know,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts? Yeah, no doubt no, I think yeah,
Speaker 1: I can be kind of that jump start that way
Speaker 1: for someone to actually get in on investing and figure out,
Speaker 1: you know, how to start and maybe learn about I
Speaker 1: think another benefit is that it kind of piques your
Speaker 1: curiosity and and so you know, doing something like Acorns
Speaker 1: or robin Hood, you know, hopefully learning a little bit
Speaker 1: you know, piques your curiosity about investing, and maybe you
Speaker 1: start doing some more reading and some more thinking about
Speaker 1: you know, your long term financial future. And there's a
Speaker 1: you know, a huge swath of Americans that have I
Speaker 1: thought for more than fifteen minutes about their long term
Speaker 1: financial future. And so maybe you know, one of these
Speaker 1: apps kind of gets them thinking, you know, along those lines,
Speaker 1: and I think that's great, all right, So yeah, do
Speaker 1: I recommend it? Well, I would say I personally don't
Speaker 1: see myself continuing to invest on micro investing platforms, but
Speaker 1: I think for a lot of people, this, like we said,
Speaker 1: this can be you know, the kickstart to thinking about
Speaker 1: stashing money away for the future. I think for most people,
Speaker 1: you know, the pitfalls and the cons are actually greater
Speaker 1: than the potential rewards. Specifically in regards to moving your
Speaker 1: money around, you know often which is a terrible thing
Speaker 1: to do when it comes to the stock market. You
Speaker 1: want to be well diversified in your holdings, and you
Speaker 1: want to hold onto that well diversified portfolio over you know,
Speaker 1: the long run. We're talking decades, and so anything that
Speaker 1: causes you to even think about your moving money around
Speaker 1: willy nilly here and there, I just think that's a
Speaker 1: terrible strategy of terrible way to approach it. I think
Speaker 1: micro investing apps have a lot going for them. I
Speaker 1: think they're really cool. I think the interfaces are neat.
Speaker 1: I think it's getting a lot of people interested in
Speaker 1: saving for retirement that haven't thought about it before. But
Speaker 1: I think ultimately, you know that are are a lot
Speaker 1: of potential pitfalls that that could really derail your your
Speaker 1: savings for the long term. Yes, I think what we
Speaker 1: said earlier in the fact that it kind of gets
Speaker 1: people curious. I think that's one of the best benefits
Speaker 1: of this. I think that it gets people thinking about it,
Speaker 1: They get curious, they kind of do a little bit
Speaker 1: of dig in, they kind of do some googling, see
Speaker 1: what's out there, and it gets them down the path
Speaker 1: of better financial literacy versus just like this app that
Speaker 1: they kind of use and they don't really know exactly
Speaker 1: how it works, but they're doing it. And I love
Speaker 1: the results of that because it gets people saving. But
Speaker 1: at the core, you still need to have a plan,
Speaker 1: and so if it converts app users into spreadsheet users users,
Speaker 1: like that would be the path that I would love
Speaker 1: to see more users kind of going down. I think
Speaker 1: it's all about having a plan, being able to think
Speaker 1: things through, and then you know, based on the plan,
Speaker 1: based on your goals and what it is that you
Speaker 1: want to pursue, make the changes that you need to make,
Speaker 1: uh to achieve those things. And so along those lines,
Speaker 1: we would recommend you too, if you haven't already, to
Speaker 1: listen to episode nine, where we talked about how investing
Speaker 1: for retirement is a lot simpler than you think. It's
Speaker 1: not this sort of complicated thing, and certainly app developers
Speaker 1: out there have found a way to develop that into
Speaker 1: this slick app that you can kind of just touch
Speaker 1: on your phone a few times and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you're saving and setting aside chunks of money. But
Speaker 1: really it's not that hard to begin with. It oftentimes
Speaker 1: does get overly complicated if you allow it to kind
Speaker 1: of build up to be this sort of giant thing.
Speaker 1: But listen to that episode. We really try to break
Speaker 1: it down and help you realize that it is so
Speaker 1: much simpler than you think. Yeah, I agree, Matt. Investing
Speaker 1: as an individual investor has gotten so easy, you know,
Speaker 1: and these apps are just kind of that furthest reach
Speaker 1: of like how easy can you get? But just regular
Speaker 1: investing through you know, a discount brokerage house is so easy.
Speaker 1: We tell you how in that episode. That's an episode
Speaker 1: you should listen to before you go all in on
Speaker 1: one of these micro investing apps. All right, let's head
Speaker 1: back to the beer mat tonight. We're drinking Wandering Blues,
Speaker 1: a blueberry sour ale from Orpheous Brewing. Yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: guys again so much for donating this beer. Uh, we
Speaker 1: think it's delicious. What I've noticed as a sort of
Speaker 1: warmed up man as we've gotten to the bottom of
Speaker 1: my glass, it's almost got like I feel like I
Speaker 1: say this too much, but it's almost has like a
Speaker 1: weedy finish it to me, It kind of finishes like
Speaker 1: a like a Berlin advice. Yeah. I think it's pleasantly
Speaker 1: tart along with you know, a nice dose of blueberry sweetness.
Speaker 1: And it really it has like that kind of feeling
Speaker 1: of biting into a blueberry. And and you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of these fruit bears, I would say, got lack
Speaker 1: some of the fruitiness that you're that you're looking for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this one's got it for sure, this one's got it.
Speaker 1: This one's got blueberries. Hopp The wazoo and so fruity tart.
Speaker 1: I think it's excellent for the summer. It was actually
Speaker 1: fermented with fresh blueberries that were actually juiced. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's probably got like actual blueberry juice in there, which yeah,
Speaker 1: it's this is really good. So yeah, Orpheus literally just
Speaker 1: put this back out in six packs, into the into
Speaker 1: the wild and in our fair state of Georgia, and
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's really good. Look forward at your local
Speaker 1: bottle shop. Yeah, if you're coming down to Atlanta, if
Speaker 1: you're a local, Yeah, check these out. Man. Before we do,
Speaker 1: like o our little recap that we normally do. What
Speaker 1: do you like? What are your thoughts in general? Like,
Speaker 1: so specifically we're talking about m one where it seemed
Speaker 1: like that them and actually some future apps that are
Speaker 1: out there are looking to compete with some of the
Speaker 1: big names like Vanguard and you know, even kind of
Speaker 1: replace them altogether if they've got zero fees. Like, do
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable, like, would you transfer like your entire
Speaker 1: rathire a over from you know, a big player like
Speaker 1: Vanguard or Fidelity or something like that into this app?
Speaker 1: So I wouldn't transfer my funds over And there's a
Speaker 1: couple of reasons. One, you know, my four O one
Speaker 1: K through work is through Vanguard, and so just doing
Speaker 1: all my investing in one place just gives me kind
Speaker 1: of one less thing to worry about, one less headache,
Speaker 1: especially when you know the expense ratio on the fund
Speaker 1: that I'm in is so ridiculously low. To move into
Speaker 1: an app that has, you know, kind of I don't
Speaker 1: know the future for them, I'm I'm not willing to
Speaker 1: do that. You know, I would definitely be willing to
Speaker 1: maybe start dabbling in an app like m one or
Speaker 1: and like I did with Robin Hood. But I definitely,
Speaker 1: you know, think that Vanguard is this kind of stalwart
Speaker 1: or Fidelity or Charles Schwab. They are these companies that
Speaker 1: have been around for decades and you know, will likely
Speaker 1: continue to be around because they've built a busines this
Speaker 1: that will stand the test of time. Yeah. Man, certainly
Speaker 1: they've got a lot more to lose than like these
Speaker 1: new startups, right, Like, I mean, we even talked about this,
Speaker 1: but I think of even like customer service, and I've
Speaker 1: never had to get on the phone to talk to
Speaker 1: Vanguard or anything like that, but I gotta imagine it
Speaker 1: would be a heck of a lot easier to talk
Speaker 1: to somebody and have them fix the problem. Vanguard versus
Speaker 1: you know, Robin Hood where I'm just like, where's my money?
Speaker 1: Then like nobody picks up. Um, but yeah, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: totally with you. They only probably do customer service to Snapchat,
Speaker 1: I would imagine, so they're like new number who do this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I'm self employed, so I don't have a four
Speaker 1: one K. I've just got the roth ira A and
Speaker 1: I would not at this point at least feel comfortable
Speaker 1: transferring over, um, my my roth are a or my
Speaker 1: wife's roth are from Vanguard over to a newer startup
Speaker 1: and a newer app. But you know what, if I
Speaker 1: was just starting out, I would feel way more comfortable
Speaker 1: starting off there and building up from there and just
Speaker 1: kind of riding it out and seeing where it leads,
Speaker 1: just because you know, you've got less to lose, certainly,
Speaker 1: and nobody wants to lose you know, the amount of money.
Speaker 1: But it's not like, I mean, you're not gonna be
Speaker 1: losing money anyway. These apps are insured by the s
Speaker 1: I A PC, just like any of the big players
Speaker 1: like Vanguard, Uh Infidelity to your funds are insured up
Speaker 1: to fix exactly one or a vantguard. But something about
Speaker 1: starting off small and kind of building up with the
Speaker 1: company versus just sort of like doing this massive shift
Speaker 1: of all of your funds over um, I would feel
Speaker 1: much more comfortable kind of doing the small growth model
Speaker 1: along with the company. It's like we're in this together,
Speaker 1: versus feeling like you're coming to the table with a
Speaker 1: lot more chips and who knows how long they're going
Speaker 1: to be around. Yeah, no doubt, So let's do a
Speaker 1: quick recap. Mat Ultimately, I think that micro investing is
Speaker 1: this major shift that is breaking down barriers to investing
Speaker 1: and allows pretty much everybody to invest, whether you've got
Speaker 1: five bucks or five bucks. I kind of think it's
Speaker 1: really neat in this investing revolution that it's accessible to
Speaker 1: pretty much anyone. Yeah, man, I love how it levels
Speaker 1: of the playing field and uh, it's completely accessible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And we only mentioned some of the bigger and better
Speaker 1: players that are out there, that being Robin Hood, Acorns
Speaker 1: and then the sort of honorable mention the new guys
Speaker 1: for us at least M one. But just keep in
Speaker 1: mind that this is a very fast evolving scene. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of players out there. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of folks I bet that are going to be
Speaker 1: out there that didn't even exist when we recorded this
Speaker 1: by the end of the year. Is to be sure
Speaker 1: to do your homework. It will be sure to link
Speaker 1: to our favorites there on our show notes. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: one of the pros of micro investing is that it's
Speaker 1: easy to get started. You can be investing in stocks
Speaker 1: and ETFs in five minutes or less from the comfort
Speaker 1: of your own smartphone, which is nuts. The second best thing, man,
Speaker 1: is that these apps have low or no fees all together.
Speaker 1: When you're looking to save money, you don't want it
Speaker 1: to cost you money. But sadly, micro investing really is
Speaker 1: going to be micro results. And so so it's not
Speaker 1: good to bank all of your retirement nest egg on
Speaker 1: pennies rounded up here and there put into a portfolio
Speaker 1: of stocks that's just not going to be enough for
Speaker 1: you to live on. And so you need to be
Speaker 1: thinking about investing on a level that faster passes just
Speaker 1: micro investing. And another downside is that you're buying and
Speaker 1: selling of these stocks within these apps could be based
Speaker 1: more on emotion than there would be otherwise. You know,
Speaker 1: when it's as easy to sell or buy a stock
Speaker 1: as unlocking your phone and making you know, two or
Speaker 1: three clicks, that scares me, to be honest, Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1: And I think micro investing ultimately can be fine, you know,
Speaker 1: initially starting out and you know, learning a little bit
Speaker 1: about stock investing with small amounts of money, but you
Speaker 1: need to have a plan for the long term and
Speaker 1: you need to be saving more than just your spare change,
Speaker 1: which is what micro investing apps are really all about.
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone for listening. Our home on the web is
Speaker 1: how to money dot com. We'll have shown us up
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Speaker 1: hear and have found this podcast helpful, please let us
Speaker 1: know by giving us a review on Apple Podcast. We'd
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Speaker 1: while you're there. Until next time, Man, Best Friends Out,
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out. M