Business Tech: Technology and investing: Apps lead to creative money-making opportunities

One of the best things about technology is that it makes almost anything accessible to anyone at any time. Even things that were previously complex or required the help of a professional, can now be done on your own. This evolution carries over into the world of investing, where technology has led to some extremely creative investment opportunities.

Let’s start with an original pioneer of investing, TD Ameritrade. TD Ameritrade is a stock-trading platform designed to make you as successful as possible. The company has been around for over 40 years and has taken that experience and turned it into some great features for both mobile and web trading.

Whether you’re an active day trader or a just holding on to stocks for some long-term investing, TD Ameritrade has the tools to assist you. Each platform provides you with access to research, live financial news, market scans, heat maps, community discussions and much more. These are all great tools, but they can be somewhat overwhelming when you’re just getting started.

Sure, they offer a lot of features to assist your trading, but they also do all that without charging you to use their platforms. They also offer training and education to help turn you into the investor you want to be. All of this, combined with their own support team and the community forum, and you have access to countless resources.

Looking through the TD Ameritrade platforms may be a little overwhelming to those new to investing, and that is probably why the extremely simplified mobile investing app, Robinhood, is growing at such an impressive rate. Robinhood gives the novice investor everything they need to get started and they even offer a paid version of the app that has the more-complex investing tools and charts for the more-seasoned investor.

Robinhood, like TD Ameritrade, lets you invest your money commission-free into traditional stocks and ETFs. However, unlike TD Ameritrade, Robinhood lets you invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Etherum and others. So, if that is an area that interests you, you may want to avoid TD Ameritrade.

Robinhood has also started the option to receive daily “Snacks.” Snacks are quick and easy-to-understand doses of daily news focused on finance. If reading isn’t your thing and you would rather listen to their news updates, you can catch their daily 15-minute podcast. With Robinhood, whether you’re reading your Snack, listening to their podcast or scrolling through the app, the core of this platform is simplicity.

If you are looking for a less traditional investing opportunity, or if you’re an avid car lover, Rally Rd. is where you will want to invest. This iOS-only mobile app sells shares of premium classic vehicles to investors. Their team hand-selects which investment vehicle to purchase, then registers the vehicle’s title under an LLC and sells shares of ownership. With classic cars appreciating every year, it could be one of the safer, more conservative investments.

This is a great way to get more involved with cars if that is already a passion of yours. However, do not expect to get too hands-on. Even though you may own a portion of the vehicle, you will never be able to drive it — which is understandable, considering the number of owners and the risk that would be involved.

Another great mobile investing app is Acorns. Like an actual acorn, Acorns starts off small and grows into something great. The app automatically rounds up leftover change from your everyday purchases and sets that aside for you to either save or invest. For example, if you purchase a cup of coffee for $2.75, Acorns would round up to $3 and deposit that 25 cents into your investing account.

Acorns is the only micro-investing account that allows you to invest your spare change. When your money is invested, it is automatically distributed over 7,000 stocks and bonds, assuring a well-diversified portfolio.

The app allows you to choose between a wide range of portfolio options. Portfolios can either be Conservative, Moderately Conservative, Moderate, Moderately Aggressive and Aggressive. All of these portfolio options are created with the help of Nobel Prize-winning economist Dr. Harry Markowitz.

This Acorns app is more than just an investment app; it is a finance app designed to lead you toward financial security. It helps you track your savings and spending, not just your investments. They have even partnered with large companies like Nike, Airbnb, Expedia, Lyft and Walmart to form a cash-forward program. In this program, companies will offer a percentage of your purchase to be given back directly into your Acorns account. So for example, if you spend $200 at Nike and they have a 5 percent invested-back offer, Nike will automatically invest $10 of that purchase into your account.

Another large partnership that Acorns has formed is with Visa. They have teamed up and come out with the Acorns Visa debit card. It is now the only checking account with a debit card that invests, saves and earns you money as you use it. This investing platform is ideal for someone who wouldrather be more hands-off when it comes to their investing.

Obviously like any investment, each concept requires your own due diligence before investing your hard-earned money into it. Some returns may not be what you are looking for, or maybe the concept itself is too far out there. Maybe you’re a more-seasoned investor and would prefer a complex platform and these are all too basic for you. Whatever your investing experience or strategy is, thanks to technology there is an option out there for you.

Bahar Ferguson is president of Wasatch I.T., a Utah provider of outsourced I.T. services for small and medium-sized businesses.