The number 5 best investing platform on today's list is TD Ameritrade which is actually the
very first platform that I ever use to invest and while it's a great tool, the other platforms
on today's list can take your investing game to the next level.
Alright let's jump right into it.
what is going on everyone I hope you are all having a fantastic day.
So like I said TD Ameritrade is going to be #5 on today's list and while some may argue
that it's a bit of an outdated platform myself included, there is something to be said for
a tried and true classic brokerage account on your computer that gives you an in depth
breakdown and analysis of everything you could possibly need to know about your investments.
Through Ameritrade you can buy stocks, options, ETFs, mutual funds, futures, forex, cryptocurrency,
annuities, and literally every form of investment you could possibly think of.
They offered traditional investment accounts but also retirement options, IRA and 401K
rollovers, joint in custodial accounts, and their incredibly robust thinkorswim trading
platform.
Now if you're just looking to dip your toe into the investing world then this is probably
not the platform for you but TD Ameritrade and especially thinkorswim is one of the most
robust investing tools that I have ever personally used and when I was more actively trading
years ago, thinkorswim was a game changer.
Plus just like the rest of the industry, standard trades are now free across the board.
But times have changed in the investing world and the handful of companies that used to
own the personal investment space have now lost market share to some much more modern
platforms like our number four tool which is going to shock a lot of you but that would
actually be SoFi invest.
I know some of you were probably appalled that this is not higher on today's list but
this is a very competitive space and while I absolutely love sofi as an all encompassing
financial tool, I wouldn't put their investing tool at number one on today's list however
it is still fantastic and getting better week after week.
So they offer a few different account options including active investing where you can trade
stocks and ETF's without any fees, automated investing where you can tell them your risk
tolerance and financial goals and they will create a diversified portfolio for you without
any management fees, retirement account options including traditional IRA's, roth IRA’s,
SEP IRA's, and all that good stuff and then lastly they have their cryptocurrency accounts
where you can trade Bitcoin, ethereum, and twenty of the most popular cryptocurrencies
currently on the market.
The app itself is incredibly simple and easy to learn plus they have some awesome community
features, fractional share options where you can purchase as little as $5 at a time, and
even more advanced features like IPO investing tools.
SoFi isn't going to give you that crazy in depth breakdown of every financial metric
and they are somewhat limited in these stocks and ETF's that are available to purchase but
if you already use this platform or you're just looking for a simple way to get started
where you can purchase a wide variety of stocks and ETF's for free then this is definitely
an option worth checking out.
Coming in at #3 we have the company who really pioneered the concept of Commission free trading
from your smartphone and that of course would be Robinhood.
I am well aware that Robinhood has had their fair share of controversy and bad publicity
over the years for a number of reasons but at its core, they really did change the way
people invest and made it much more accessible to individuals who previously had no idea
where to get started.
Whether that's a good or bad thing is up for debates but this is an incredibly sleek and
simple tool that is mostly based as a smartphone app but can be accessed via a desktop as well
where you can purchase stocks, ETF's, trade options, fractional shares, IPO investing,
and even invest in cryptocurrencies through Robinhood crypto.
They also have a pretty decent online library of educational resources and their Robin Hood
snacks newsletter that is a quick snapshot to help keep you up to date on market conditions.
There's no minimum deposit required to open your account, they have Commission free trading
which again they really pioneered that concept and helped move the entire industry in that
direction, and they currently give you a free stock when you sign up which I will leave
a link for down below the like button.
Now this is a great platform if you're looking to get started actively trading stocks but
they don't offer any sort of tax advantage IRA, and for the most part you are really
on your own with this platform and have to build your own portfolio from scratch with
little to no guidance.
Again whether or not that is a good thing is totally up to you and your investing strategy
and level of comfort but that actually brings us to the number two platform on today's list
which I think is a perfect blend between an automated investing platform and something
like Robinhood where you have to figure a lot out on your own and that would be M1 finance.
Similar to Robinhood they have an incredibly well designed mobile app that gives you enough
information to allow you to make smart investment decisions without being too overwhelming like
some other mobile platforms that I have used.
There's only so much information that can be displayed on a small smartphone screen
and while this platform and every other platform we've talked about today does have a desktop
option, the mobile platform is more important in my opinion since that is the direction
the world is headed in.
So M1 finance offers a standard M1 invest account where you can either build a custom
portfolio of stocks and funds, use their automation tools where you can schedule contributions,
automatically invest, and easily rebalance your portfolio to manage risk, and you can
even use their fractional shares feature to buy as little as $1.00 worth of stock at a
time regardless of the price to again help fine tune that portfolio balance and manage
your risk as much as possible.
They also have custodial account options that allow you to create an account for your child,
smart transfer tools that can help automate all of your investments, and robust retirement
tools for both traditional and Roth IRAs and 401(K) rollover all with no Commission or
management fees.
similar to SoFi, M1 finance also offers a number of other financial tools including
their spending accounts credit card lending services and a bunch of other great stuff
so if you're looking for that Alden One Financial tool then M1 finance might be the best option
for you.
Alright and coming in at number one for the best investing tool in 2022 is one that I've
talked about at length and probably won't come as a surprise to a lot of you and that
of course would be wealthfront.
Now I want to be clear from the start that this is not going to be the best tool for
everyone and that's because this is a fully automated platform meaning you are not able
to hand pick individual stocks and build your own portfolio with this platform so if that
is what you are looking to do then you'll definitely want to go with M1 finance or one
of the previous options.
However as i’ve said many times before I am really lazy when it comes to my investing
and despite the fact that I talk about the stuff for a living and have a bachelors degree
in finance, I just don't want to spend all day looking at charts and financial data and
I'd rather just hold my money in a portfolio and not have to worry about it.
And if you're the same way then well front can literally change your life.
With wealthfront you're able to open an individual account, joint account, trust accounts, traditional,
roth, and SEP IRA’s, 529 college savings plans and pretty much every account option
that you could possibly need.
From there you're simply going to move money into your wealthfront accounts, take a short
quiz on your risk tolerance and financial goals and wealthfront is then going to recommend
to you a risk score.
You don't have to go with the risk score that they recommend but this is a number between
0.5 and 10 and shows how aggressively your money is being invested.
So you can see that the 0.5 risk score portfolio is highly invested in municipal bonds and
what is traditionally considered lower risk investments and as you increase that risk
score, the portfolio becomes more heavily invested in stocks and more volatile investments
that offer a higher potential return.
but once you set this up, it is completely hands off and you can even utilize automated
transfers your bank accounts and without you having to do anything you'll be invested in
U.S. stocks, foreign stocks, emerging markets, dividends, bonds, real estate, and so many
different asset classes that would take you a lot of time to replicate yourself.
On top of that they also utilize automatic portfolio rebalancing and tax loss harvesting
where they will strategically sell off certain assets that are at a loss in order to offset
the taxes that you owe on your gains and on average, this boosts their users portfolios
by nearly 2% which more than covers these small 0.25% fee that they currently charge.
And you can even add a cryptocurrency ETF to your portfolio if you'd like to passively
make crypto part of your long term investing.
Now Wealthfront is not sponsoring this video nor have they ever sponsored a video on my
channel but I do love this tool it's what I personally use so if you do want to sign
up for wealthfront and to get your first $5,000 of investments managed for completely free
then I will leave a link for that down below the like button along with some of the other
tools that we talked about in today's video.
wealthfront does also offer a cash account again if you want to have everything under
one platform and recently they just increased the APY on that account to 1.4% which is really
competitive right now.
So because I'm super lazy I'll be sticking with wealthfront but I have used every single
platform that we talked about on today's list and any of them would be a fantastic option
for you depending on your financial goals going forward.
I'd love to know what your favorite investing platform currently is down in the comment
section below and why you feel that is the best option for you.
Be sure to check out some of the tools we've talked about today using those links down
below the like button many of which will give you some free cash and rewards when you sign
up.
As always thank you so much for your time I really do appreciate it so much take it
easy and I'll see you in the next one!