Tinder for investors: Apps help build the porfolio of your dreams
To "make it rain" means a variety of different things on Urban Dictionary. The most enjoyable is almost biblical in expression: "to have a fat wad of cash and thusly throw it in the air and let it fall from above them as if it was raining". The definer then added, "it's funny to watch non-ballers do this in the club".
If you are a non-baller, money can be a tricky subject. And in and of itself, budgeting can be a boring subject. Which is why allowing technology to take care of some of the mundane aspects of keeping one's fat wad of cash still fat, is perhaps a baller move.
There are plenty of budgeting apps to keep track of your spending, but most of them require you to log each purchase, perhaps categorise it and then the app will create some kind of chart so you can monitor inflows and outflow. That kind of topline view is helpful when you're looking to save, but what about using those funds to invest and make a mint?
The Acorns app rounds-up each purchase you make and stores it in an investment portfolio for you.
Acorns has just arrived in Australia and it's a really simple investing platform. It basically rounds-up each purchase you make. A $7.70 bill becomes $8.00 and once you've linked Acorn to your bank accounts, it pulls that extra 30¢ and stores it in an investment portfolio for you.
You can select from one of five portfolios, depending on your risk tolerance and your investment goals. There's no minimum account balance you need when opening an account but you do need at least $5 in it to keep investing.
Acorn charges around $1.25 a month for accounts holding below $5000 and 0.275 per cent per year on accounts over $5000. It's also handy because you can pull your money out at any time.
I've never been terribly good at maths, which Urban Dictionary defines as "the lesbian sister of biology", so I really like Acorn because it keeps things at nice round numbers. And like a time-honoured saver will tell you, it's hard to miss what you've never had.
Get in on an IPO
Another good one is the free OnMarket Bookbuilds app which launched late last year, ably assisted by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
This app is designed to allow retail investors to bid on IPO stock, which has traditionally been the realm of institutional bankers and stock brokers. They usually get the first slice of any company coming on the market.
OnMarket BookBuilds is designed to allow retail investors to bid on IPO stock.
OnMarket BookBuilds is plugged into the Australian Stock Exchange's infrastructure and companies coming online allocate OnMarket a percentage of the shares on offer. If you've got the app, you're sent an alert and you can go in and see if that company is worth some of your dosh.
It's like a Tinder for investing, you swipe through the companies and if one interests you, you can see the prospectus and any independent research conducted on the company. In fact it's got quite a good database of stories from your favourite business publication.
They also have a Campaign feature, which show articles on future placements. If the app gets enough interest from its members, it will put together a campaign to have more stock allocated to retail investors.
Initial Public Offerings more available to the public. What a novel idea. That said, IPOs could also mean "Ideal Pulling Opportunity" or "Instant Peace Out".
Fat Joe and Lil Wayne making it rain thanks to a solid budgeting strategy. Youtube
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