Many people think of investing and the stock market as an activity for the wealthy. The old adage “It takes money to make money” reinforces this idea, but you may be pleasantly surprised to know that you can start investing with just a few dollars a week.
Micro-investing involves saving small sums of money — such as spare change — and investing it consistently into the markets through ETFs or fractional shares of stock. Over the long term, even small amounts of money can turn into tens of thousands of dollars if invested wisely.
Here’s how to get started with micro-investing.
How micro-investing works
In general, micro-investing allows you to invest your savings even when you don’t have much to save. Skipping small purchases that have become a habit or rounding up to the nearest dollar when spending can help you get started. Personal finance apps like Acorns and Stash even offer debit cards that automatically round up your purchases and invest the additional money in ETFs or fractional shares of stock.
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With stocks of certain well-known companies such as Amazon and Google’s parent company Alphabet each selling for more than $2,500 per share, it can take time to save enough to purchase just one share. Fractional shares allow you to invest before you can afford an entire share.
This approach of consistently investing savings into the stock market over time has proven to be profitable in the long term. Investing a fixed amount each week or month is known as dollar-cost averaging, which takes the market-timing decision out of the equation. The consistent purchases mean that you’ll be buying more shares when prices are low and fewer shares when prices are high. With dollar-cost averaging, you’ll be buying over time and averaging your purchase prices.
Advantages of micro-investing
- Low minimum investments: Micro-investing allows you to get started even when you don’t have much money to invest. With just a few dollars, you can start making investments in ETFs and fractional shares of stock, which isn’t possible with more traditional investments such as mutual funds, which typically require a minimum investment of a few thousand dollars.
- Diversification: If you choose to invest in low-cost ETFs tied to broad market indexes such as the S&P 500, you can build a diversified portfolio for just a few dollars each month.
- Small amounts add up: Consistently contributing even small amounts of money to an investment account can add up over time, potentially turning your extra change each week into tens of thousands of dollars over decades.
- Automatic investing: Micro-investing helps automate the investing process, making it easier for people to stick with their plan through good times and bad.
- Makes saving a habit: It also helps create a habit of saving early in your investing life, even if you’re only able to save a bit of extra cash.
Disadvantages of micro-investing
- Won’t lead you to retirement goals: While micro-investing can be a great way to get started investing, especially if you’re young, it isn’t likely to result in the kind of savings needed for an easy retirement. You’ll also need to save more to achieve that goal through retirement plans offered by your employer and by contributing to tax-advantaged accounts like traditional and Roth IRAs.
- Need to save more than spare change: Most experts recommend saving between 10 and 20 percent of your income for retirement planning and an emergency fund, so if you’re only able to save a few dollars each month, you might need to revisit your budget.
- Fees: Micro-investing platforms like Acorns and Stash charge monthly fees to users. Fees vary across different plans, but the middle plan offered by Stash charges users $3 per month. This isn’t a lot, but if you’re only able to contribute $5 or $10 each month to your account, a $3 fee will significantly reduce your return.
The bottom line
Micro-investing can be a great way to get started with investing when you don’t have much in savings. Consistently contributing small amounts can add up over time when invested properly, but you’ll need to contribute substantially more to secure your future retirement.
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