Stash

Hey everyone! So today I'm going to be writing about the app "Stash". If you read my blog posts that are going to be at the first of the month every month one of the categories in the investment section is labeled as Stash. This app is what I am referring to in that section. I started with this app a long time ago through an offer through Swagbucks where I essentially got paid to try it out and then I really liked it so I kept it. I now have two different portfolios on in. One is a personal portfolio where I invest in what I want to invest in and then another is a smart portfolio where a robo-advisor invests for me based off of a risk assessment quiz I took before opening it. There are pros and cons to both of these types of accounts and that is why I invest in both of them. Stash has two different pricing plans available. One of them is $3 a month and the other is $9 a month. I personally am on the $3 a month plan and if you pay it yearly it is only $32 a year so you save a couple of bucks that way. The $9 a month plan would be neat if I had children because it comes with 2 kid profiles so that you can start setting your children up for success as well. 

I am what the BiggerPockets team kind of calls a "lazy investor." In my personal portfolio I am invested in one thing and it is an index fund called the American Dividends fund. The fund is made up of 75 American stocks that provide with quarterly dividends that are set to be automatically reinvested. I personally have invested $974.42 over the last 3 years (my first investment was January 12, 2022) and it has grown to $1,068.69. I only add $15 a month into this portfolio, which is one of the nice things about Stash, is that I can invest in partial shares instead of having to buy full shares. Once or twice a month Stash hosts a "Stock Party" where they give their users some free stock just for logging in and joining the party. The stock they give you isn't much (basically around 12 cents each time), but something is better than nothing. I then sell this stock the second it lands in my account and reinvest that into this dividend fund as well. The 12 cents at a time gets added into what I consider I personally invest. 

I currently have $697.08 in my smart portfolio that is managed by the robo-advisor. I don't understand how to read this section of the app as much as the personal portfolio section, but it says that my total dollar return is $97.08 so I think that means that I have only invested $600. I did not start this as soon as I started the personal portfolio. I waited until October 14, 2022 to start this. With this portfolio I only invest $5 a week, every Monday. My robo-advisor has my investments divvied up by 40% bonds, 38% US companies, 17% foreign companies, and 6% in up and coming markets. This is a pretty standard allocation as the 4% rule is based on a 60% stock and 40% bond portfolio. Trades are done in this account pretty consistently and I don't have to do anything about it. It just happens which is really nice. There are also dividends that comes from this account and the robot automatically reinvests those as well so it is truly an extremely passive way to invest. 

I do love Stash, especially for beginners because you can save tiny amounts of money and do it consistently and it really does add up over time. It is extremely user friendly and very easy to figure out. Investing in partial shares is amazing because it has taken me 3 years to buy 9 shares of that American Dividends fund. If you are interested in investing with Stash too I will provide my referral link at the end of this post. If you sign up through this link you will get a free $20 to start your investing journey! 

https://get.stash.com/rebecca_brnpdxv