Managing your investment portfolio can be quite a challenge, especially as it grows and diversifies into different assets. Having an app that monitors your portfolio activity can serve as the key differentiator for long-term growth and success. Scroll down to learn about the best apps for managing your investments:
4 Common Investing Mistakes
Before you jump right into getting an app to help with your investments, it’s best to have some prior knowledge on investing. Here are some surefire ways to make your money disappear that you should avoid at all costs.
1. Getting hoop dreams
I’m sure we’ve all thought at one point, “Man, if I had only invested in [Microsoft, Google, Furbies] before they took off, I could be retired right now, sippin’ on daiquiris in Cancun right now.” And while that’s true, for every tiny company that becomes one of the world’s largest corporations (in the case of Microsoft or Google) or creates a weirdly-creepy fad (Furbies) there are many, many more that fail. It’s no secret or lie that the key to good investing is diversification. Putting all of your money in a small company that you think is going to explode soon is no better than instead putting all your money on a horse with a cute name. So while putting some money behind high-risk startups isn’t a bad idea, you need to spread your money around in order to safely make your money grow.
2. Getting bored
Investing is for the long-term. The idea is to protect the money you’ve earned and make it grow faster than it would in a savings account at your bank. So jumping from investment to investment or security to security is not the way to do it. Trends are constantly coming and going in the investment world, just like in any other sector of society. Just because ____ stocks are jumping up this week doesn’t mean you should switch. Stick to your plans and keep your eye on the long term, not just this month, this year, etc.
3. Getting personal
You need to be able to separate your personal feelings and connections from your investing to a certain extent. Don’t want to invest in a company that drills in nature reserves or operates factories in third-world companies? By all means, you don’t have to. But don’t invest all your money in a company because you work there, or they have giveaways at their stores every Friday that you just love. Your personal feelings won’t make a company gain or lose money, only that company’s finances will. So go with your brain rather than your gut.
4. Getting romantic feelings for an underdog
So you’ve been hanging on to a stock that just keeps losing. You know you should get out, but if you sell that means that loss becomes real, and can’t be undone. So you hold on, hoping the company will recover, and you will be the best friend that stuck it out and just knew that it would make it back to glory. Don’t do this. It’s not a personal insult for you to take your money out of a falling company. When investing, you’ll lose sometimes. You have to accept that and move on, finding the new company that is primed for growth. The average person well sell a stock soon after it gains (to lock in the profit) and hold onto losing stocks unusually long, hoping for a rebound. You should be able to see that this will cost you money both ways in the long run, and should be avoided.
Investment Apps to Check Out
CNN Money Portfolio
Aside from money management, apps designed for investment tracking and management have also proliferated the market. CNN Money Portfolio is one of the prominent investing apps that’s completely free. It is compatible with iOS and Android platforms, which is basically 90 percent of what people are using today. CNN Money Portfolio automatically syncs into your brokerage, IRA, and/or 401K accounts. It supports over 60 of America’s brokerage firms including ETrade, Scottrade, and TD Ameritrade.
SigFig
Another free to use investing app is SigFig. The company’s Investment Optimizer feature enables users to track all investment accounts. Furthermore, they have an automated ETF Portfolio investing feature wherein the user allows SigFig to invest in their behalf. Using SigFig Investment Optimizer, you also get automated analysis of your investment portfolio to search for hidden fees, overexposure to a single financial asset or market, and the relative risk to reward levels you are taking.
USA Today
The app allows users to condense multiple investment accounts into one place, making it more convenient for investors to check, analyze, and adjust their portfolio. You will receive real-time quotes, live news feeds, and detailed analysis of asset allocation, dividend yields, and risk to reward levels. For security purposes, the app uses a 256-bit SSL encryption protocol, which is what banks use. In addition, your account is password-protected and all information are in read-only format.
Ticker
Young investors will love the colorful charting, graphs, and in-depth analytics provided by Ticker’s Stock Portfolio Manager app. You can input multiple portfolios, from low-risk utility stocks to retirement accounts. You can even manually enter trade orders for different assets, such as stocks, currencies, and mutual funds. This on-the-go accessibility to your existing and future trade positions makes it a dynamic tool for young entrepreneurs and investors.
Using these apps will give you more control over investment decisions and simplify how you view your portfolio. The best part about it is that most of the tools are free to use and takes minutes to download.