Investing Blog

Everyone knows the value of investing, but how do you get started with it? Indeed, to a person who has just recently stepped into the world of finance, it can all feel quite daunting.

Fortunately, plenty of great books have been written by experts to help interested individuals quickly learn the art of investment. If you want help narrowing down which ones to pick up first and read, below are my recommendations of the 12 best investing books for beginners.

There are thousands of different ways to invest these days and almost just as many types of investment platforms. Three of the most popular platforms to invest through are traditional investment brokers, micro-investing apps, and robo-advisors. Each one offers different benefits, and I decided to review three of the leaders within their respective platforms to uncover the differences: Acorns vs Robinhood vs Betterment.

In general, the three investment platforms specialize in different areas of investing:

• Micro-Investing: Acorns
• Traditional Investing: Robinhood
• Robo-Advisor: Betterment

Below I’ll give a comprehensive review of Acorns, Robinhood, and Betterment, as well as compare and contrast the differences between these leading investment platforms.

Learning how to invest in the S&P 500 got a lot easier after 1976.

That is the year that John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, created the first index fund. This new type of investment fund allowed everyday investors, like you and me, to invest in indices (such as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average) with just one purchase.

Without index funds, if you wanted to invest in the S&P 500, you’d either have to buy each stock individually through 500 separate transactions or pay a mutual fund manager too much money to try to recreate the index themselves.

Index funds enable people to invest in the S&P 500 with just one purchase, and for a very low cost.

Free investing apps have taken the world by storm since Robinhood launched in 2013. It’s hard to remember, but free trading was largely unheard of back then, and Robinhood was a pioneer. However, since 2013, multiple new apps have launched, which I why I decided to do a comprehensive review of three of the biggest players: Webull vs Robinhood vs M1 Finance.

These investment apps largely cater to millennial investors thanks to their sleek trading platforms and low fees. Though, when diving deeper into Webull, Robinhood, and M1 Finance I found benefits that I wasn’t necessarily expecting, such as:

• The ability to trade in low-cost exchange traded funds (ETFs)
• In-depth analysis and trading tools
• New investing strategies: Pie Investing

There are some major differences between the apps, as well. Below you’ll learn more about the details of Webull vs Robinhood vs M1 Finance to determine which is the best free investing app for you.