[Disclaimer: When you make purchases using some of these links, we may earn a small commission that helps support Engage Small. We never suggest or promote a product that we don’t already use or believe in. Thank you for your continued support in Engage Small!]
As we build out our finance series, we will also be highlighting the apps that we believe help support healthy finance. Today we are featuring Webull, an investing app. We think investing in stocks is the simplest way to kick start a freelancer or small business owner’s retirement account. It’s like dipping your toe in the water.
Stock investing has seen a recent boom with news around GameStop, AMC, Tesla and Robinhood. This isn’t really the stock trading we’re talking about. All of these apps and companies are doing is facilitating a brokerage account. These accounts can differ but at the end of the day, the are just ways to trade stocks, mutual funds, or some kind of money market. Some sites carry fees and some don’t. It’s important that you find the one that works best for you.
We love using Webull for a lot of reasons but the main one is the community and promotions they run. It’s a fun way to get into investing. The current promotion at the time of writing this is two free stocks (worth up to $1850 but, let’s be honest, probably a lot less than that!) when you open an account and fund it with $100. You can see that promotion here!
Funding your account is just adding money to it. It’s still yours and there are no fees to open an account or to buy stocks. You’re just positioning yourself to be able to buy stocks. When you fund your account, you are just holding cash there and you don’t have to use that money to buy stock right away. In fact, you can actually just withdraw that money back into your bank if you wanted to. So, you’ll be making money out of the gate. They also have other promotions to win bigger stocks and bonus prizes.
The community is engaging, there are a lot of learning features if you’d like to find out more about the markets and how they work. It’s an app that is easy to navigate for beginners but also is packed full of features for more advanced traders.
They currently don’t offer mutual funds or fractional shares so keep that in mind when choosing your app of choice.
When it comes to what to actually invest in, I’m not an advisor so I can’t really help you there. But we do suggest a balanced approach. Figure out if you’re investing for short-term or long-term and then purchase stocks accordingly. For great stock tips, we love doing our research at The Motley Fool. They take some serious deep dives into the market and they aren’t focused on making a quick buck. They research for long-term investing.
Overall, when it comes to investing for your retirement, just start with something. Nothing is too small. We will talk about compound interest in another post, but trust me that what looks like a little, becomes a whole lot in 30 years. And that is the way you should be thinking about stocks. Don’t try to time the markets and avoid anyone that says they can. We recommend making stock purchases that we plan to keep in the market for 3-5 years or longer.
We will talk more about stocks, retirement and other apps soon. Invest wisely and if you have any questions, contact an advisor. After all, it’s their job to make you money! Check out Webull and let us know what you think.
Brandan is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago and has worked for Method Studios, Akron Children’s Hospital and Outcome Health creating content for marketing, education, TV commercials, music videos and short films. In 2017, he created 26Made (formerly Parallel Vision Post), an independent post-production studio in Avon, OH. In 2018, he launched the Cleveland chapter of the Freelancer’s Union SPARK program which he currently Co-Leads. In 2020, he launched Engage Small to encourage engagement for small businesses and freelancers. You can see way too many pictures of his kids on instagram.
In the little free time that any parent has, he loves to write (a never-ending fiction book) and watch Cleveland sports.
Recent Comments