What is Stash App?

Stash is a multi-purpose personal finance app striving to improve financial life for everyone.

The stash app lets you easily manage your cash and hit your financial goals. 

As a one-stop shop, Stash unites banking, investment, and advice in one place. Along with helping you manage your cash, Stash also helps beginner investors to make the process of selecting investments – especially forex and stocks – quick and easy.

How Does Stash Work?

Automatic saving and budgeting tools within Stash Bank account lets you organize cash into different categories, create financial goals and track your expenses.

Stash lets you invest in fractional shares of thousands of stocks and ETFs as low as $1. As Stash is focused on long-term investments, they only trade during four trading windows daily.

You can earn stock rewards when you spend with your Stock-back debit card. This means you will earn pieces of stock from Stash as rewards for your everyday purchases.

Is Stash Safe?

Stash app is using cutting-edge security features to keep your spendings safe and secure.

Your Stash debit account is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to the regulatory limits of up to $250,000.

Stash is also a Registered Investment Adviser regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Stash offers 3 subscription plans for different needs:

Stash Beginner

Costs $1/month and include banking Stock-Back Card, investing, budgeting and personalized advice. If you are a beginner budgeter or investor, this plan is for you. 

Stash Growth

Costs $3/month and include everything that’s included in the Stash Beginner plan, plus a Roth or traditional retirement account (IRA). This plan is the best choice if you want to build wealth for the long term.

Stash+

Costs $9/month and includes everything in the Stash Growth plan, plus banking with the metal double Stock-Back Card, custodial investment accounts, and an exclusive monthly market insights report. This plan would be best if you are a debit card spender, have kids, and want to learn more.

Stash Sign Up Bonus

You can get a Stash Invest Sign Up Bonus once you open a new Stash Invest account and add at least $5 to your financial account.

The $20 bonus will be added to your Stash Invest account within 3 business days.

Step 1 – Sign up

Type in your email address and set a strong password.

Step 2 – Create your profile

You will be asked to enter your legal name and date of birth. Make sure you enter the correct details as you will have to verify your identity later on.

Step 3 – Build your financial profile

You will be asked up to 10 simple questions regarding your current financial situation.

Step 4 – Verify your identity

Stash will mail the documents to your legal address and you will need to verify your identity.

Step 5 – Choose your Stash plan

Pick a subscription plan that works best for you – Stash Beginner, Stash Growth or Stash+.

How to Invest with Stash?

Step 1 – Think Long Term

Stash suggests that to make smart investing decisions, you don’t need to predict the market. Rather, it’s better to buy quality investments that you believe in and let it make you money. There are highs and lows all the time, but in general, markets tend to go upwards in the long term.

Step 2 – Invest Regularly

It’s not necessary to have millions to start investing. Even small amounts will add up over time. As long as you invest regularly, you can stack up against your cash.

Step 3 – Stay Diversified

Investing always contains a certain amount of risk. The best way to minimize your risks and maximize your earnings is to spread your money across different investments.


Account Minimum Investment

Stash has a $0 account minimum investment. Stash’s mission is to educate and make investing approachable for beginner investors.

Account Fees

Stash charges an annual fee of 0.25% for advisory services along with $1 minimum per month for taxable accounts and a $2 minimum for retirement accounts.

Account Types

  • Banking Account gives you an online bank together with flexible money management, early payday, and a rewarding debit card.
  • A personal Investment Account allows you to pick your investments with Stash advisor’s guidance.
  • A retirement account allows you to start investing with as little as $1. A retirement account is very similar to a Personal Investment Account. However, Retirement Account comes with more valuable tax benefits. The Retirement Account is divided into 2 types – Roth IRA and Traditional IRA.
    • Roth IRA lets you earn money and pay absolutely no taxes to the government.
    • Traditional IRA lets you deduct contributions from your taxable earned income, meaning the more you contribute in a year, the less you will have to pay in taxes. However, you will have to pay tax on the earnings in your retirement account when you retire, but usually at a much lower rate.
  • A custodial Account allows you to invest for your kid, who can take over their earnings once they come to age.

Stash Banking

Regardless of the membership level, Stash offers you its online banking and a debit card, which rewards you with Stock-backs when you make purchases.

Tools

Stash provides you with cutting-edge tools to better manage your investments. The tools offered are the following:

  • Stash Coach helps you grow your investments with guidance, challenges and trivia.
  • Retirement Calculator helps you make decisions on how much you want to invest each month.
  • Portfolio Builder serves as a list of suggested ETFs that you can invest in. Stash offers over 1,800 ETFs and stocks on the app, including Apple and Costco. Stash also offers fractional shares, meaning you can start investing with just $1 and own a piece of a company that has a much higher share price.
  • Automatic Reinvestment of Dividends (DRIP) is available for all levels of Stash accounts. It allows you to automatically reinvest any dividends that your investments payout.

How to Withdraw Money from Stash?

You can withdraw your money from Stash to your bank account at any time.

However, there are some caveats to consider, that are listed below:

  • If you have active investments, first you need to sell all of them and wait for the SEC-mandated hold period to be over.
  • Generally, it can take up to 5 business days for your balance to appear on your external account.
  • Any referral and promotional funds must remain in your Stash account for 90 days until you can withdraw them.
  • You can only transfer the balance available in your Stash Banking account or in your Portfolio Cash.

What are the Stash Pros & Cons?

Pros

  • Start investing with as little as $5.
  • Buy fractional shares of stocks in companies like Amazon or Apple.
  • Set automatic deposits on either a weekly or monthly basis into your account.
  • Only $1 monthly fee (for accounts under $5,000) or 0.25% annual fee for accounts over 5k.

Cons

  • Only a limited amount of stocks are available to purchase.
  • The app doesn’t provide fundamental analysis for stocks (Revenue, Earnings Per Share, Return on Equity, etc).
  • The percentage of assets is unfairly high. For example, an investor with a $500 balance has to pay 2.4%, while someone with a $5,000 balance will pay 0.48%.

Is Stash Worth it?

If you’re considering starting investing without risking thousands of dollars, Stash is totally a good fit for you. Stash advisor services prevent you from making costly mistakes and teach you how to manage your own portfolio.

One of the main benefits Stash offers you is access to fractional shares, allowing you to invest in stocks just as little as $1.

Overall, Stash is worth the membership fee as it’s a one-stop-shop offering you banking, money management, investing, and guidance in one app.