Acorns review - does it work for couples?

What is Acorns and what are they known for?

Acorns is a well known investing app that became famous for its “Round-Up” feature.  This allows users to link their debit or credit cards, and round each purchase up to the nearest dollar, and invest the difference through Acorns.  When investing through Acorns, you tell them your financial goals and your overall risk tolerance, and they then invest your round-ups (and deposits) into a portfolio of ETFs.

They provide three types of services that fit different stages of a person’s financial journey:

• A thoughtless and hands-free way to set money aside for your future

• Tutorials, articles, and educational content (with Acorns Personal Plus & Premium)

• The ability to open both Traditional and Roth IRAs (all tiers) and custodial accounts for children (for Premium only)

Acorns was cofounded by Walter Wemple Cruttenden III and his son Jeffrey James Cruttenden in 2014, and was designed to help young people set aside money for retirement without even realizing they’re doing it.

Who is Acorns for?

Acorns is designed to work for everyone, with its easy to use interface.  However, the Acorns team has decided to focus mainly on: 

• Gen Z investors

• Investing beginners

• Investors looking for a hands-free approach

• Those who struggle to find a way to save

• Parents who want to teach their children about investing

The platform is built to be used by yourself (you cannot add a partner to the account) and you can only invest in individual accounts, instead of joint investment accounts. It’s commonly a great platform to get started on. Once you’re looking to save and invest larger amounts, it’s common to graduate to a more mature product.

Source: Acorns website as of July 2024

What is Acorns’s Pricing Structure?

Acorns has a multi-tiered pricing structure, with three different plans that come with a host of different benefits.  Their three plans are Acorns Personal ($3/month), Acorns Personal Plus ($6/month), Acorns Premium ($12/month).

Their Personal Plan comes with the following benefits:

• The ability to open an account with an expert-built diversified portfolio

• Round-up your purchases and save spare change

• The ability to open an Acorns Later retirement account (IRA)

Their Personal Plus Plan comes with all of the features of the Personal Plan, plus the following benefit:

• Earn a 1% IRA match on new contributions to your Acorns Later Retirement Account

• 3% APY on Checking Account Balances and 5% APY on Emergency Fund Balances

• Live Q&As with investing experts

The Premium Plan comes with all of the features of the Personal Plan, plus the following benefits:

• Earn a 3% IRA match on new contributions to your Acorns Later Retirement Account

• Open custodial investment accounts for your children

• Customize your portfolio with the ability to purchase individual stocks

• Educational courses

What investment offerings does Acorns have

• ETFs 

• Stocks (Only with Premium)

• Account types: 

  • Individual Brokerage

  • Roth IRA

  • Traditional IRA

  • Checking Account

  • Custodial Account

Does Acorns work for couples?

Acorns is not built to work for couples. For some couples, they’ve shared logins so both partners have shared visibility. Investment accounts are structurally individual accounts, and not joint accounts.

How to keep using Acorns if you’re married

If you already have an Acorns account, you can easily share visibility with your partner by using a platform like Plenty to track your accounts. That makes it easy to understand what you and your partner have together, especially when you’re tracking towards goals like buying a house. 

Plenty’s dashboard provides two views of your finances: what’s ours and what’s mine. You can connect all your credit cards, bank accounts, student loans, etc, and flexibly label accounts as shared / visible or private. That then provides one view where you can see all the things you own together and separately. Plenty then takes all the credit card and bank account data to help you track your spending (by category and merchant), and how much you’re both saving / investing. 

If you plan to continue using Acorns or already have an account, Plenty is an easy way to start managing money with your partner while continuing to use Acorns.

What if we want investments to be in joint accounts?

At Plenty, we were built for couples to use Plenty together. You can easily open up a joint investment account for new saving/investing you’d like to do together. You can also connect an existing Acorns account if you’d like to keep the investments where they are; when you connect your Acorns account on Plenty, you’ll be able to choose if you’d like to share visibility of your account balance with your partner (ie. make it shared), or make it private.

Interested in trying Plenty out? Start your 1 month free trial today or book an onboarding call to learn more.

Sources

Acorns, www.acorns.com.

Baker, Brian and Mercedes Barba. “Acorns review 2024.” Bankrate, 1 Jule 2024, www.bankrate.com/investing/roboadvisor-reviews/acorns.

Taylor, Sri. “Acorns review: This micro-investing app offers an approachable platform for beginners.” CNBC Select, 11 June 2024, www.cnbc.com/select/acorns-review.

Benson, Alana. “Acorns Review 2024: Monthly Fees, But Plenty of Perks.” Nerdwallet, 1 July 2024, www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/investing/advisors/acorns.

"Acorns Subscriptions." Acorns, www.acorns.com/pricing.

About Plenty

Plenty is an investment platform designed specifically for couples to build wealth, together. We go beyond budgeting, making it simple to invest, save and grow towards your future goals by unlocking access to the financial strategies of the wealthy. Ready to get started? Sign up for your 1 month free trial today.

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Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Asset allocation, diversification, and rebalancing do not ensure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets. Examples provided are for illustrative purposes only and not intended to be reflective of results you can expect to achieve.

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