Investing can be a scary thing for people. Just the word alone can be intimidating. What a lot of people don’t realize is that there are several companies working to make investing easier for everyone. Not only has investing becoming more accessible, but you can get started with only $100! I have compiled 3 of the best ways to start investing for beginners. Whether you are just wanting to dip your toes into the investment pool, or you are ready to get aggressive and start making some huge profits, there is something in this list for you.
*This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission on my recommendations at no cost to you.
When should you start investing?
First of all, when it is a good time to start investing?
Billionaire Warren Buffett started investing at the ripe age of 11! So, when we’re talking about when to start investing, the obvious answer is, the sooner, the better. However, if you are in significant amounts of debt, your best option is to pay that off first.
According to Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps, the smartest time to begin investing is after you have paid off debt and built up significant savings. After all, investing won’t get you very far when you are paying significant amounts of interest toward debt.
If you’re not quite sure where to start when it comes to debt payoff, my biggest recommendation is the Debt Snowball.
How to start investing with only $100
I am absolutely amazed that there are so many programs these days that allow you to get started investing with $100 or less. I have used some of these tools myself and I still can’t believe how well they really work. The following investment options give you flexibility in how much you invest, how much you make, and can even lead to significant profits of around 300% or more.
Savings Builder
The Savings Builder savings account with
While other banks offer interest rates higher than this for a savings account (and not much higher), you are often required to have an initial deposit around $5,000. For
How much can you make with the Savings Builder?
Consider that over a 40-year span, saving $100 per month would leave you with $48,000. While this is a pretty significant saving, look at the difference in savings when you take advantage of the Saving’s Builder’s 2.45% compounding interest rate.
Here is an example I typed into Bankrate.com‘s Savings Calculator. You can see that after your initial $100 to open an account, plus an additional $100 per month, in 40 years you will have a savings of $81,660.25. That’s almost double the amount you’d save just by tucking away $100 without gaining any interest.
Is a savings account really investing?
Opening a savings account like the Savings Builder is not quite the same as investing because it’s a lot less risky. As you can see, even though it may not have as big of a payout as investing, it still offers huge financial perks if you can stay committed.
My personal opinion is that opening a compounding interest savings account is one of the smartest ways to invest your money. There is
Apply for a Savings Builder account online.
Acorns Investment App
The Acorns spare change investment app was probably the thing I have been the most skeptical about. It all just sounds too good to be true. How Acorns work is by rounding up the purchases you make on a daily bases and then invests your spare change for you. So if you spend $4.75 on a latte, Acorns will round your total up to $5 and invest the .25 cent difference for you.
Not all that impressive, right? Wrong. I decided to just invest spare change with Acorns and am currently projected at having a tiny nest egg of $58,000 when I’m 72. I mean, that’s quite substantial considering I’m only investing spare change!
Monthly investments of $100
Besides just investing your spare change, Acorns also has options for you to do one time investments or recurring investments. So what happens with a $100 monthly recurring investment? Take a look.
You can see that by upping my investment to $100 per month (plus my spare change) I will have nearly 5 times more money invested by the time I am 72! Projected amount for age 72: $249,568! See my full Acorns review.
Is Acorns legit?
Many people’s main concern (and my original concern) is that Acorns cannot be as legit as other forms of investing.
Trust me, before I officially got signed up with Acorns, I read review after review after review and was pleasantly surprised to find that most people had made substantial amounts of money using Acorns.
The only downfall is that after you have earned over $5,000 in investments Acorns will take a cut of .275%. Before that, the total cost for using Acorns is $15 per year! These costs might turn people off but are actually significant savings compared to the cost of actually using a stockbroker.
Sign up with Acorns here and get $5 to start investing.
Stock Advisor
Beginning investing with the Savings Builder or the Acorns app are both proven methods for gaining significant amounts of money in interest.
What about when you are ready to take your investing a little more seriously? If you are ready to start investing with the “big boys” but are still unsure of how to proceed, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor is for you. The Motley Fool Stock Advisor program that can get you access to all of the best investment experts and tips.
For just $99 per year, (marked down from $199), you gain unlimited access to Stock Advisor’s library of expert stock recommendations. Each month you’ll receive new stock picks plus 24/7 monitoring of your investments.
Do the insider tips pay off?
Veteran investor, David Gardner, the man behind The Motley Fool, has recommended people invest early on in stocks like Netflix and Tesla. Now, there is a whole new investment they are buzzing about.
The stock resembling an early Amazon: Get the Info you need from The Motley Fool
For serious investors only
Needless to say, investing in The Motley Fool Stock Advisor is for serious investors only. If you are just getting your feet wet in the world of investing, a safer bet like the Savings Builder or Acorns might be a better bet. However, if you are looking for the biggest payout, I highly recommend giving The Motley Fool Stock Advisor program a try. The best part is you can try risk-free for 30 days! If you are unsatisfied with the program, you have up to 30 days to request your money back.
Do you still have more concerns when it comes to investing? Have you tried any of these programs with significant results? If so, please share!
Pin this!
