When I stumbled across this little (not so) secret way to easily save and grow a stack of money , I was curious and willing to give it a go but I was a little skeptical about how it could make a real difference, but it was something I could do passively and so I let it run in the background of my life and forgot about it until I checked one day and was shocked to see I had $1000!!!!!!
What? How? I had only been putting literally chump change into this thing. As in, if I spent $29.90 at lunch out with friends then I would automatically put the change from $30 towards this thing – yep , just 10 cents. Automatically. I did not lift a finger.

So how the heck did I end up with a grand after what seemed like I had done absolutely nothing? How does that even work? What is this sorcery?

It’s called micro-investing. Now before I hear you groan and run away or click off in boredom because you have absolutely no experience in investing  – let me reassure you, neither did I. I have absolutely no skill at all in it.  But I soon learned that I could easily do it.

Let me explain how it works. Micro investing is where you take a small amount of money and invest it through an App like Raiz (formerly Acorns). Raiz purchases stocks and invests the money from its members and pays a proportion of the profits even though you may not have enough in your account to own a full share (and this is where the term micro-investing comes in). Basically you can set it up with as little as $5 to get started, which you just link to your bank account. You can set it up to take out a regular amount every month to invest, invest a lump sum, or do what I did, and switch on the ‘round up’ feature. This means for every transaction that I spend, it will be rounded up to the nearest dollar and the difference goes into my Raiz account to invest. Sound simple? It really is! Because by rounding up my small change, it did not have an impact on my every day spending yet the results after 6 months were amazing!

You can use micro-investing to save for a goal or to save long term. I’ve personally used my micro-investing account to save for things like Christmas and holidays. In the future, I will use it for bigger goals.

There are some handy features in the Raiz App which also shows you how much you can earn long term with your current investment patterns. There is also a handy tool that let’s you track exactly how you are currently spending your money which is definitely an eye opener. For example, this handy feature helped me identify that I was spending more on transportation each month than I had budgeted for.

Even better, there is now a handy shop back feature so that when you click though your Raiz account  to your favourite online store and make a purchase , a portion of that purchase is paid back to your Raiz account as a bonus! This is making your dollar work harder for you, as you are already spending the money anyway!

Another bonus that you can receive (and so will friends) is when you share the App with your friends and loved ones. Full disclosure, by using my link here then both you and I will receive a benefit if you sign up and invest. $5 bonus for each of us at the time of this article being written!  Click on my link HERE to get started.

You will have the option to choose how aggressively you want to invest. Due to my age and time away from retirement , I have personally chosen to be Moderately Aggressive but if you are reading this and are retired or are preparing to retire soon then generally it is recommended that people in those age brackets choose a more conservative approach **NB I am no financial expert, I am just speaking from all of the wealth of information I have gleaned in my journey to get more financially fit! Please read the disclosure statement on the App regarding risk and performance – as per any financial product.

When it’s time to take your money out, the process is very simple and you just withdraw it from your App and transfer it to your linked bank account. Note that there is an account fee on your Raiz Micro-investing account and at the time of writing this article is $2.50 per month for balances under $10,000.00 and while I absolutely hate fees, I found this to be worth it for the money I have earned and I have the reassurance of knowing I am never locked in and can withdraw my money at any time that I wish.

I hope you love it just as much as I do, and would love to hear your experience with it so drop me a line and say hello! Happy Micro-investing! Melissa xx