Investing when you have no extra money

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I'm a junkie for finances. Anything to do with investing, saving or growing money is right up my alley.

I started trading in the stock market when I was 15. My mom set up and an Ameritrade account with $500 bucks and said go for it. I never looked back, spending almost all of the time  researching and trading (yes, even during computer class).

I recently came across a mobile app called Acorns that I could not wait to tell you about. The app's tagline is "Invest the Change" because that's exactly what it does.

You download the App, hook up your bank account and this tool will automatically round up every purchase to the nearest dollar and invest the change in a diversified portfolio. I've been doing something similar with my bank to save the extra change from each transaction, but this is even better... because it doesn't just save the change, it invests it.

It's the classic dump my coins at the end of the day in a glass jar beside my bed and cash them in every 6 months. Except your money is being invested the whole time. 

If you're struggling with finding ways to get ahead through investing, this app is the perfect first Step for you. Hats off to Walter and Jeff Cruttenden for this creative approach to democratizing investing.

P.S. - Let me know if you find any other cool tools that do something similar.

Here's a snapshot of the app from my personal account.