5 Lazy Ways to Start Investing — Even If You Only Have $1

Investing sounds exhausting. You have to follow the stock market and read The Wall Street Journal and watch CNBC and pretend like you care who Warren Buffett is. You have to nod knowingly when people use terms like “capital gains” and “liquidity.”

It’s all so much work. Better to blow your extra cash on new shoes or mixed drinks instead, am I right?

Wrong.

Here’s a secret the stockbrokers won’t tell you: Investing doesn’t have to be that much work at all. You don’t actually have to know anything — or do much at all.

5 Lazy Ways to Invest

Here’s how to invest like a pro with minimal effort: Use apps and tools that will do all the heavy lifting for you. Basically, put your investments on autopilot.

It’s not scary at all.

Here are some of our favorite lazy ways to invest…

1. Invest Fee-Free

The Robinhood app is best known for having no trading fees. You can buy and sell stocks on U.S. exchanges without paying a commission, and you’ll pay no account maintenance fees.

Plus, Robinhood gives you a free share of stock when you sign up (you’ll randomly be given a share of Walmart, Ford, Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway or similar companies). 

In keeping with its stripped-down approach, Robinhood doesn’t offer investment research or advice on your portfolio.

This is the least lazy way to invest that’s included on this list — but probably the easiest way to invest if you want to choose the stocks yourself.

If you want to try out investing in specific stocks, you can learn through the app, avoid paying fees and never leave the house.

2. Invest in Real Estate (No, You Don’t Need Millions)

Financial experts diversify their portfolios. Besides stocks and bonds, they invest in tangible assets like real estate that can produce income and grow in value over time.

You can get started investing in real estate with as little as $500. Through the Fundrise Starter Portfolio, your money gets invested in private real estate around the United States. The company does all the heavy lifting for you.

“I invested a couple grand, and I’ve been really pleased with the results,” said Katie Smith, a 21-year-old, who recently graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Fundrise had an average annualized return of 11.44% in 2017. Investors pay 1% in annual fees — a 0.85% asset-management fee and a 0.15% investment advisory fee.

“I can go into my Fundrise account and see what I actually own,” Smith says. “I own a piece of an apartment complex in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Property on the West Coast. Bits and pieces of apartment complexes in Texas and Denver, a construction loan, a mixed-use property.”

3. Invest Your Digital Change (and a Free $5)

Stash, lets you start investing with as little as $5 and for just a $1 monthly fee for balances under $5,000.

You can set it up to pull a specific sum of money from your bank account at regular intervals, so you can grow your investments over time.

Stash curates investments from professional fund managers and investors and lets you choose where to put your money. But it leaves the complicated investment terms out of it. You just choose from a set of simple portfolios reflecting your beliefs, interests and goals.

Plus, Penny Hoarders get a $5 bonus to get started!

4. Invest Like a Hedge Fund (You Can Start with $500)

Hedge funds are considered to be an elite, aggressive, strategic and sophisticated way to invest — and out of reach for most of us. Because you have to invest at least $250,000 to join most hedge funds, they act as exclusive clubs for the wealthy, with a velvet rope keeping out everyday investors

Titan says you can still get in on the action, even if you don’t have a spare quarter-million dollars sitting around. In fact, all you need to get started is $500.

Titan is a simple, user-friendly investment app that mirrors the financial moves of top hedge funds. It puts its investors’ money into a portfolio of the top 20 stocks, based on what all those hedge funds have been buying. Titan believes these stocks have the best prospects for long-term growth.

All three of Titan’s co-founders are former hedge fund guys who are now heavily invested in their Titan portfolios — the same stocks they’d be investing your savings in.

The company earns a 1% annual fee on what you invest.

5. Invest for Retirement Like a Pro

The biggest investment of your life is your retirement fund.

If your employer offers a 401(k) plan, you should make the most of it.

However, most of us pretty much ignore our 401(k) accounts after setting them up, studies show. You should actually make periodic adjustments as your retirement funds grow.

To make that easier, we recommend checking out a robo-adviser called Blooom, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm that’ll optimize and monitor your 401(k) for you.

It just takes a few minutes to get a free 401(k) analysis that will show you whether your investments are allocated properly and whether you’re losing money paying hidden investment fees. It’ll even tell you just how much more money your account could earn by the time you want to retire.

After that, if you sign up, it’s as low as $10 per month to have Blooom monitor and maximize your 401(k). Bonus: Penny Hoarders get a special rate of $99 per year with the code REEETIRE.

Let Laziness Work Its Powers

See? Investing doesn’t have to be that hard.

Because I’m lazy, I have learned to do all these things. What little I need to do I can do from my phone.

It’s that easy. With a few clicks of a mouse or a few swipes on your phone, you’re done!

You’re an investor now.

Mike Brassfield ([email protected]) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He’s lazy.