Alinea Invest review - does it work for couples?

What is Alinea Invest and what are they known for?

Alinea Invest is an investment platform built for those who are new to the world of investing, specifically women and Gen Z users.  The app has a very user friendly interface and comes with features like fractional share investing, automated investing, personalized investment plans, and thematic investing strategies.  This allows users to build “stacks” of stock based on their personal and financial interests.  

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

• Automated investing 

• Tutorials and articles 

• Wealth management services

Who is Alinea Invest for?

Alinea Invest is designed to work for people who are less comfortable with finances.  However, the Alinea Invest team has decided to focus mainly on: 

• Women of all ages

• Gen Z investors

• Those with limited knowledge of personal finance and 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. When you invest, you’ll choose ‘playlists’ which are groups of stocks (instead of using the more conventional approach based on a Nobel-prize approach to creating a diversified portfolio).

 Source: Alinea Invest website as of July 2024

What is Alinea Invest’s all-in pricing

Alinea Invest charges a flat fee for the use of their product, which runs $120/year.  However, they do not charge any commissions for the purchase of stocks or ETFs, and you’re only required to deposit $1 to open an account.  

In exchange for your annual membership fee, you receive the following:

• Curated portfolios that align with your personal and financial beliefs.  

• An easy-to-use platform to buy and sell stocks and ETFs with no commission fees.

• Curated educational content and articles that are easy to understand for novice investors.

• Simplified financial information regarding the companies that you invest in (or are looking to invest in)

What investment offerings does Alinea Invest have

• ETFs 

• Stocks (With the option to buy Fractional Shares)

• Cryptocurrency

• Account types: 

  • Individual, Self-Directed Brokerage

  • Automated Investment Account

Does Alinea Invest work for couples?

Alinea Invest 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 Alinea Invest if you’re married

If you already have an Alinea Invest 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 Alinea Invest or already have an account, Plenty is an easy way to start managing money with your partner while continuing to use Alinea Invest.

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 Alinea Invest account if you’d like to keep the investments where they are; when you connect your Alinea Invest 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

Alinea Invest, www.alinea-invest.com.

Porello, Steven and Emma Newbery. "Alinea Invest Review: Fun, Thematic, Expensive." The Ascent: A Motley Fool Service, 2 Aug. 2024, www.fool.com/the-ascent/buying-stocks/alinea-invest-review.

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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The information provided herein is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered individualized recommendations or personalized investment advice. The type of strategies mentioned may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor should evaluate an investment strategy based on their unique circumstances before making any investment decisions.

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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