It’s hard to overvalue convenience. The easier it is for us to do something, the more likely we are to take action.

Saving and investing are no exception to this rule. The simpler the process, the more likely we are to complete steps which benefit our long-term financial future. 

Fortunately, there are several apps that really simplify this process. You’ll develop better financial habits, in a stress-free manner. Over time, this process allows you to build long-term wealth, and achieve greater financial freedom. 

Let’s take a look at a few of the most useful (and popular) automated saving and investing apps. All of these are available for iPhone as well as Android users. 

1. Qapital 

Qapital offers several excellent options for automated saving and investing. Qapital allows you to create rules and goals for saving, such as rounding up your purchases to the nearest dollar, and setting aside that money, or automatically saving aside certain amounts every week or month. These savings can also be directed towards goals, such as purchasing a home, or going on your dream vacation. 

The money you’ve saved using these goals/rules is placed in an interest-earning account, with one of Qapital’s partner banks. These accounts earn just 0.1% in interest, which is perhaps the only major downside of Qapital. 

Qapital allows you to withdraw this money at any time, by transferring it back to your checking account, free of charge. You can also sign up for a Qapital Visa Debit Card, which allows you to spend the money directly (this comes with fees).

Qapital helps you to invest the money you’ve saved, based on your risk tolerance, through use of an exchange-traded fund. in stock market jargon, that basically means a stock investment which closely tracks the performance of the stock market, or some portion of it. Over time, consistently saving and investing money allows you to build wealth.

Qapital offers three tiers of membership, with costs of $3, $6 and $12 per month. Each type of account offers different levels of features and benefits, in terms of features and financial education.

We’re impressed by how simple Qapital has made the process of saving and investing. The goal-based strategy can also be quite helpful, since having a clear idea of what we hope to achieve, can make it much easier to get there. The only real downside of Qapital is that if you have small account balances, the fees can be relatively high. However, as your account grows, these fees won’t be such a big deal.    

2. Acorns

Acorns links your debit and credit cards to your Acorns account. It then rounds your purchases up to the next dollar, and automatically adds that amount to an Acorns account. For example, if you bought groceries of $39.74, Acorns would round that purchase to $40, and transfer $0.26 to your account. 

Acorns also arranges recurring deposits. Besides what you are setting aside by rounding up purchase amounts, you can ask Acorns to set aside a flat amount every few weeks or month, to accelerate your savings and investment growth. 

The money is invested in an exchange-traded fund, which, just as with Qapital, is based on the amount of risk you are willing to tolerate. If you are looking for a lower-risk option, you’ll invest more in bonds, otherwise, your portfolio will be more stock-focused.

Acorns offers several different pricing plans, with fees of just $1, $2 or $3 per month. Higher level plans offer tax-advantaged retirements accounts, as well as a checking account.         

One of the more interesting features of Acorns is that your money can be reinvested in your accounts (known in the app as Found Money) by spending with one of Acorns partners, including popular brands like Airbnb, Lyft, Macy’s, and Walmart. These companies will give Acorns additional money to invest for you, for each purchase made.

Acorns does a great job of making the investment process simple.The Found Money feature is also quite desirable, since it helps push more of your spending towards investing.

Perhaps the main drawback of Acorns can be the fees, depending on how much you have invested. If you are only saving 6 or 7 dollars each month, then a fee of $1 each month can be quite a large portion of your total savings. However, as your savings grow, this $1 will mean less and less.

3. Digit

Digit is one of the most popular automatic savings apps out there. Digit has you link your bank account(s) to the app, which it analyzes, to figure out how much you can realistically save each month. Digit sets this money aside in an FDIC-insured account. 

Since Digit is not a bank, you don’t earn interest on your digit savings. However, you do recieve a 1% bonus of your average daily balance, over the previous three months. So, if you held an average balance of $1,000, in your Digit savings, over the previous 3 months, you’ll recieve a bonus of $10. If you primarily use your credit cards for spending, Digit will still work well, as long as the bank account you use to pay that card is linked to Digit.

Digit also offers a tool to help you pay down your credit card debts. It allows you to set a debt reduction goal, begin automatically saving money, and paying down those debts. With Americans facing over $1 trillion in credit card debt, this looks like it will be a very useful feature.

Like Qapital, Digit also offers goal-based savings, for building an emergency fund, or saving for a vacation. As always, when we have a clear goal, doing the work required to get there becomes simpler.       

After a free trial period, Digit charges $5.00 per month. This is perhaps one of the bigger downsides of Digit, since it charges more than Acorn, and around as much as Qapital’s cheapest plan, without offering any investment products. However, we do like that Digit has made saving simple, and has placed a focus on credit card debt, since this is such a huge issue.

The Final Word

Saving and investing shouldn’t be difficult. Qapital, Acorns and Digit are all good options for saving (and in the case of Qapital and Acorn, investing) your money, and growing long-term wealth. 

As you build up a larger portfolio of investments, you can also make use of other investing platforms, investing either passively, or actively (where you choose stocks that you believe will perform well). As the years go by, you will find that you’ve built up a nice nest egg, which will serve you well, whether for a rainy day, or as you move towards other milestones, such as retirement, or helping your children pay for their college education.

Every great journey starts with a single step. It is never too early for you to get started. Start saving and investing today.