Acorns app

Acorns app

Here’s something useful: An app that automatically invests your spare change in the stock market–and picks smart investments all on its own.

Acorns is a mobile app that takes your spare change from purchases, and automatically invests them in a set of ETFs (exchange traded funds) designed to get returns for beginning investors.

Everything is automatic. You install Acorns on your phone or tablet (there’s a web app as well for all you desktop folks) and plug it into your credit card accounts and checking or savings account.

Acorns keeps track of the spare change from every credit card purchase and automatically invests it each week. For instance, if you buy a coffee for $3.67, Acorns will automatically invest 33 cents in an ETF for you.

Those amounts might be small, but they add up over time.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the average Acorns user has about $175 invested in the service. There are very few places you can invest those sort of small sums.

And you know what? Those small sums add up. Compound interest can be powerful at times, and this way you can actually make money from your credit card purchases.