Stash Review

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Stash is an online investment platform for beginners that aims to make it easier for everyone to invest, spend and save, all from one intuitive app. They provide retirement, banking, individual investment, and custodial accounts through a simple subscription model, minus all of the complicated technical jargon. You can invest from as little as $5 into fractional shares with a generous selection of thousands of stocks and hundreds of ETFs available for you to choose from. I think it is useful how you can even incrementally invest small amounts if you are looking to build your portfolio over a period of time. I also like that Stash has built its platform centred around educating beginners on a wide variety of investment and financial topics. They can be worth consideration for new investors looking for an all-digital experience with different subscription models to match their needs.

Summary

Stash was founded in 2015 with a mission to help everyday Americans invest and grow wealth. The Stash app is designed to help you build your wealth for the long term by investing in various stocks and ETFs. One of the key things that I like about Stash is how everything is made as simple as possible. I feel that alot of people are missing out on investing online as they think it will be too complicated. This is not the case as evident with the modern and intutive Stash app. I guess you could say that Stash is a budgeting app which is neatly packaged up into an investment account. The mobile app is geared toward beginning investors looking for an easy way to buy stocks and other investments. Stash customers also have access to banking and budgeting tools.

The platform operates in a straightforward manner involving the following processes:

Set your financial goals

Tthis is the first step to take when you sign up with Stash. You should seek relevant advice that would guide investment and achieve your financial goals.

Choose an investment plan

You are required to choose the plan that suits your investment capital, starting from just $1/month. Then, depending on your preferred investment plan, you can also open an individual retirement account (IRA) and investment accounts for kids.

Fund your account

You will need to add money into your Stash account.

Bank, budget, and create goals

The investment firm offers a plethora of automatic budgeting and saving tools to organize clients’ cash, create goals, and track spending.

Invest

After funding your Stash, you can choose to invest it in fractional shares of thousands of stocks and ETFs with a minimum of $5. Alternatively, you can make purchases with the Stock-Back Card and earn stock on Stash in the process.

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Regulation

When it comes to choosing a broker, regulation is one of the most important things to look for. I would always prefer to use a regulated broker as they must follow strict rules and procedures that have been put in place to protect investors. Stash Investments LLC is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an investment adviser and Stash Capital LLC is registered with the SEC as a broker-dealer and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). I consider this to be top-tier regulation and would therefore personally not have any problem trusting Stash.

Countries

Stash is open to US Citizens and legal residents of the United States with an accompanying green card or certain valid visas. Unfortunately, they do not currently accept investors from outside of the USA. If you are not located in the USA, please feel free to browse our broker reviews for some alternative options.

Platforms

Stash App

Stash is a personal finance app that makes investing easy and affordable for millions of Americans. By combining banking and investing in one app, Stash helps you build wealth your way. They provide you with both a web platform and mobile investing app. I found that both platforms have a user-friendly interface to suit beginners who are looking for a seamless way to buy stocks and other investments. They are replete with essential tools for budget tracking and investment management. The mobile app is compatible with mobile devices running on Android and iOS. I think it is a great all-around app for the average person to invest and save their money. Not only is it user-friendly, they can teach you step-by-step how to invest according to your own financial goals. From budgeting to saving for retirement, Stash unites banking, investing, and advice all in one app that helps millions reach their financial goals–all for one low monthly price.

Stash App

Tools

Stash does come with access to several tools that allow you to automate your investing and savings. The feature-rich Stash app is highly rated and can help beginner investors to build a diversified portfolio. I think the tools are sufficient for those who are looking to invest for the mid to long term but feel they may be lacking for those who like to really get down into the nitty gritty of market analysis. If that is the case, you might want to take a look at Forex.com as they have some of the best trading platforms that are fully loaded with all the tools you need for conducting complex chart analysis

Education

I am pleased to see that Stash provides investors with a good selection of learning resources that are designed to educate its users on how to develop their financial plans to know the suitable investment for them. The “Learn” section of the dashboard contains a wide variety of helpful content including press releases, learning articles, a newsroom, and an FAQ section that answers some of the top questions that investors may have. Stash’s education content is engaging and easy to understand. I like how they cover a wide variety of topics to help new investors better understanding of investing and the financial industry. Considering that Stash users tend to be younger or newer investors, a majority of the content is curated towards this type of audience. The quality of the material and ease of use can give Stash users the opportunity to meaningfully improve their investment knowledge.

Markets

With Stash, you can choose from thousands of stocks and ETFs. They have thousands of stocks and ETFs for you to browse through and get detailed info on each one. Stash also lets you buy fractional shares, which allows you to choose how much to invest in pieces of stocks and ETFs. These fractional shares start at $0.05 for investments that cost $1,000+ per share. With fractional shares, you can choose how much to invest. However, I think they are lacking in asset classes as they don’t support any other popular assets, including forex, options, futures and bonds. If you want access to an even greater selection of financial instruments, you may want to consider IG as an alternative. If on the other hand, you just want to trade stocks and ETFs, then there should be more than enough to meet your needs.

Accounts

Stash has a range of plans to make it easy to build wealth on your own terms. They offer the following account types: brokerage, retirement (Traditional or Roth IRA), and custodial investment accounts. The custodial account is an investment accounts for investors under 18 years old. Each of these accounts includes fractional share investing, automated tools, and unlimited advice while getting access to the accounts is dependent on the subscription plan you opt for. To begin investing on Stash, you must be approved from an account verification perspective and open a brokerage account. Stash has three subscription plans with minimum starting amounts as follows:

STASH BEGINNER

This account costs $1 per month and includes Investing, Stock-Back Card, banking, saving tools, personalized advice, and more.

STASH GROWTH

This account costs $3 per month and includes everything in Stash Beginner plus Smart Portfolio and a retirement account with investing tax benefits.

STASH+

This account costs $9 per month and includes everything in Stash Growth plus premium advice, and children’s investment accounts.

Smart Portfolio

The smart portfolio is designed for those who are looking to build wealth automatically by letting Stash invest for you. They can help you build a diversified portfolio that hits your financial goals.

Support

You can get access to a knowledgeable customer support team who are polite and responsive to answer all of your questions. The support team can be reached through telephone, email and various social media channels. I think it would be better if they could also add live chat support as I often find this to be the most convenient way to reach out.

Funding

Stash allows investors to deposit and withdraw funds to and from their Stash accounts using credit/debit cards (Stock-back cards) and bank transfers. I think this is a limited selection and believe they could improve by adding support for some online payment methods. Whilst I do appreciate card payment can be quick, I don’t always want to wait around for days whilst a bank transfer clears as I may miss the investment opportunity that I have my eye on.

Conclusion

Based in New York, Stash is a personal finance platform that simplifies investing, making it easy and affordable for everyday Americans to build wealth and achieve their financial goals. They provide you with an innovative investing app along with a range of investing tools to help you plan accordingly. I would say that Stash is best for beginners who want automatic investing options along with freedom to choose their own investments. With fractional shares, subscribers can invest in thousands of securities at any dollar amount. By giving Stashers access to simple, affordable investing and unlimited financial education, they remove what could be considered to be the two biggest barriers stopping regular Americans from building wealth: inaccessibility and lack of financial literacy.

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You can invest and build wealth with Stash, the mobile banking and investing app helping millions of Americans invest and save for the future.

All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

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