I hate getting change. Quarters I can stomach, but pennies, nickels, and dimes I find infuriating. I know damn well that they are worth something, and that if I just collected them all and deposited them over time, they would add up to a lot of money. But instead they end up in every corner of the house, under couch cushions and behind the bureau, gathering dust.
A new app being released to the public today, Acorns, can’t solve my problem with physical coins, but it does the equivalent with every digital dollar I spend. The app links to any credit or debit card and automatically rounds up purchases to the nearest full dollar, investing the rounded-up cents into a portfolio of index funds. You could always add a lump sum to your account, but the “spare change” approach is meant to gently nudge users toward regular contributions. It’s an attempt to take the complex and often expensive process of putting your savings to work and simplifying it down into a mobile app with some basic choices and minimal fees.
Read More At The Verge.
