Become a More Experienced Investor with Stockpile < financiALLI focused (2024)

For years I have said I would learn about the stock market and start investing. I was extremely intrigued when I heard about Stockpile. You can buy fractional shares of stock instead of having to buy an entire share. This is perfect for someone like me who wants to learn about the stock market without investing a lot of money. The coolest part is you can also give gift cards. You don’t need to worry about the value of a share, you just buy a gift card for the dollar amount you want. What a great graduation, birthday, or holiday gift!

How to Get Started

The process is super easy. First you sign up and create an profile.You can set one up for yourself or for a child. How cool would it be to put a little money away each year and then give the account to your child when they are 18. You can even get your kids involved. They can create a list of their favorite stocks and save up money to buy more. Then they can watch their investments grow! If you just want to buy a gift card you don’t even need to create an account. Just click “Buy” in the top right corner to get started.

Once your account is set up, you are ready to go! You can choose between buying stock, sharing a wish list, or giving a gift of stock to someone else.

You need to transfer money from your bank account to Stockpile so you have cash to buy stock. It is free to link a bank account. If you go to Account and Profile, there you can click “add bank account”. You can choose your bank and enter your information. This is how you transfer money from your bank account to your stockpile account so you can buy stocks. Once your bank is approved (which for me took a few hours), you can transfer cash to your account.

I transferred $25 at first just to try it. You can choose if you want to transfer for free (takes 3 business days) or instantly for 25¢.

While you are waiting you can look at the stocks available. They have over 1,000 companies to choose fromincluding every stock in the S&P 500 and many other popular consumer brands. In addition to U.S. stocks, they offer ADRs (American depositary receipts) so you can give foreign companies like BMW, Prada, or Porsche. You can even give a gift of gold or shares in a market index like the Nasdaq, Dow, or S&P 500 by choosing an ETF (exchange traded fund).They sort them by category or you can take a look at which companies are trending. I spent like 30 minutes just going through the list of companies.

I chose Amazon because I am a loyal (way too loyal) Amazon Prime customer so I feel like I should only at least a very small part of the company. I bought $20 worth of Amazon stock which is not much at all but it is a good start. I will definitely increase it and buy others when I get some extra spending money. Amazon was trading at $995 when I bought it so clearly I do not own much at all but I also cannot afford to buy a full share. There is a 99¢ trading fee but seriously this is one of the only fees. For the rest of the fees you can click here.

You can log into your account or download the app and check how your stock is doing. This graph is from the same day I bought the stock but my value did go up a little bit!

I am excited tobuy more stock and watch it grow! Stockpile also has investing tools and resources on their website. This is absolutely perfect for rookies investors. I also downloaded the phone app so I can check it on my phone.

Pros

1. Perfect for Rookie Investors: This is such a wonderful way to learn about the stock market and investing. Especially for people (like me) who cannot afford full shares and want to try it out. You don’t need to know much about the stock market to understand Stockpile. The process is very simple for rookie investors.
2. Can Buy Fractional Shares: The stock market can be scary. Buying fractional shares is the perfect way to buy stock without spending a lot of money. It also reduces the risk (also the reward) for beginning investors.
3. Very Few Fees: There is no minimum balance, no monthly fees, redeeming a gift card is free, linking your bank account is free, outgoing transfers is free. There are some fees but you can view them here. The fees are relatively low compared to other companies.
4. Perfect Gifts: I cannot wait to give stock gift cards for graduations and even first birthdays or births. They even have gift packages with 4 different stocks totally a certain amount and it comes with a rookie’s guide to investing. HOW CUTE?! You don’t even have to worry about giving them a stock they won’t like. You can switch to another stock when you redeem your gift card FOR FREE! There is no expiration date on the gift card as well so it really is perfect.

Cons

1. Won’t Get Rich Fast:This is a great supplement to a retirement fund and aperfect way to make a little extra money.This is not something to replace your current investments but is a way to test the market and buy fractionalshares.

If this is something you want to try (or give as a gift) make sure to use my code. You automatically get $5 in your account (no strings attached). This is the real deal. I would not recommend a product or company unless I tried it and believed it is actually helpful. I am so glad I found Stockpile and I cannot wait to update y’all on my portfolio. If you have any other questions about Stockpile please let me know in the comments. I know you will love it as much as I do!

Are you a rookie investor? If not, what are your stock market tips?

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