Here are the stock market holidays for 2024:

• New Years Day: Monday, Jan. 1st (observed)
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Monday, Jan. 15th
• President’s Day: Monday Feb. 19th
• Good Friday: Friday, March 29th
• Memorial Day: Monday, May 27th
• Juneteenth National Independence Day: Wednesday, June 19th
• Independence Day: Thursday, July 4th
• Labor Day: Monday, Sept. 2nd
• Thanksgiving Day: Thursday, Nov. 28th
• Christmas: Wednesday, Dec. 25th

Stock market holidays and early closings

In 2024, there are 10 days that the stock market closes and two days with early closings, limiting trading hours. During these holidays, traders and investors cannot buy or sell shares of companies listed on the stock exchange. The dates of these holidays are set far in advance.

Here are the U.S. stock market holidays and early closings recognized in 2024:

Bond market holidays and early closures

Similar to the stock market, the bond market observes several holidays throughout the year, during which the market is closed or has limited trading hours that affect your ability to purchase bonds. These holidays can impact trading activity, settlement dates, and other aspects of the bond market. In addition to observing the same holidays the NYSE and Nasdaq do, the bond market also closes on Columbus Day and Veterans day.

Here are the bond market holidays and early closings recognized in 2024:

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Stock market and bond market closing FAQ

What days is the stock market closed this year?

In 2024, the U.S. stock market is closed:

• Monday, Jan. 1st
• Monday, Jan. 15th
• Monday, Feb. 19th
• Friday, March 29th
• Monday, May 27th
• Wednesday, June 19th
• Thursday, July 4th
• Monday, Sept. 2nd
• Thursday, Nov. 28th
• Wednesday, Dec. 25th

Why is the stock market closed on Good Friday?

The stock market is closed on Good Friday due to both historical tradition and some practical considerations. While the initial reason for the closure was a religious observance, the lower trading volume and the desire for a long weekend break have made it a standard practice in modern times.

Is the stock market closed for Columbus Day?

No, the stock market is open on Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples Day), which is on Oct. 14th, 2024. The bond market, however, is closed on Columbus Day.

The post Stock Market Holidays 2024 appeared first on Stash Learn.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• How early direct deposit works
• The benefits of early direct deposit
• Early access to your money with Stash

How does early direct deposit work?

Employers often offer direct deposit because it can help them cut down on the risks and costs of distributing paper checks and even handle payroll more quickly. Additionally, an electronic record is created for each transaction, allowing the sender and receiver to track funds. To set up direct deposit with your employer, you’ll need to provide them with your banking information: 

• Name of your bank
• Bank’s routing number
• Your account number
• Whether you’re using a checking or savings account

From there, you can choose whether you want to deposit 100% of your paycheck into your checking account or split it between your checking and savings accounts. Your employer might provide a form for this information or ask you to bring in a form from your bank.  

So how do you get paid early? Once your employer or benefits provider process payroll, they will notify your bank of your incoming deposit in advance of your actual payday. When they do and your bank receives the deposit, the bank can fund your account immediately so you don’t have to wait for payday to access your money. Your early pay could be available up to two days before your usual payday.

The benefits of getting paid early

64% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck (Pymnts, 2022), which can make the days leading up to payday stressful if money is tight. Whether your pay period is weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or monthly, having your hard-earned money available a little sooner can help alleviate some financial stress. Early pay means you may have funds available to pay bills, avoid late or overdraft fees, and more easily cover unexpected expenses. Early direct deposit can give you some peace of mind that your money is available for your most pressing needs. And if you’re trying to save money, automatically depositing a portion of your paycheck into your savings account can make it easier to stash those funds away so you don’t accidentally spend them. 

Top benefits of early direct deposit:

• Pay bills on time
• Avoid overdraft fees
• Avoid late payment fees
• Cover unexpected expenses
• Reduce stress when money is tight
• Initiate transfers before the weekend
• Making saving automatic

Get paid early with Stash

If you have a Stash account, you can set up early direct deposit and get paid up to two days earlier.³ You can even start by allocating a just percentage of your paycheck to your Stash banking account, and increase as you choose. Once you get set up, you should receive your first early direct deposit in one to two pay periods, depending on your company’s payroll policies, and the financial institutions involved. 

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How to set up early direct deposit with Stash

There are two convenient ways to set up early direct deposit with the Stash app. Once you log in to your app, you can choose to receive a pre-filled form to give to your employer or get your routing and account numbers manually so you can fill out your employer’s form. Either way, the process is quick, getting you on the road to an earlier paycheck.

Option #1: Email a PDF. Get a pre-filled form you can send to your employer.

1. Login to the Stash app.
2. Tap Bank at the bottom of the screen. 
3. Tap Direct Deposit.
4. Tap Set up Direct Deposit.
5. Tap Email a PDF. 
6. Check your email! We sent you a form that you can give to your employer.
7. Complete the form and give it to your employer.

Option #2: Copy your account information. Get your account and routing numbers manually.

1. Login to the Stash app.
2. Tap Bank at the bottom of the screen. 
3. Tap Direct Deposit.
4. Tap Set up Direct Deposit.
5. Tap Copy Your Account Information to see your account and routing numbers. 
6. Set up direct deposit with your employer using your routing and account numbers.

Ready to get paid early?

You’ve worked hard for your money, so why not get it into your bank account sooner with early direct deposit? Stash offers banking access that helps you take control of your finances: get your paycheck up to two days early, avoid overdraft fees,² automatically save and invest, and earn stock with the Stock-Back® Card.¹ It’s all part of Stash Core, the world-class infrastructure platform powering our banking and personal brokerage accounts that empower people to build wealth for the long term.

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Get paid up to two days early.

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The post Early Direct Deposit: How You Can Get Paid Early appeared first on Stash Learn.

Instead of keeping your disposable income in a savings account that earns very little, Stash recommends that you safely invest in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that we call “U.S. Treasury Income,” more often known as iShares Treasury Floating Rate Bond ETF (ticker TFLO). As of February 10, 2023, U.S. Treasury Income pays a monthly distribution that equals 4.56% a year.

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TFLO frequently asked questions:

How does TFLO compare to rates paid by banks on savings accounts?  

As of January 17, 2023, the national average interest rate being paid on savings accounts is 0.33%. That means if you put $100 in a savings account, you would have $100.33 a year later (and possibly less if your bank charged you a monthly fee.) Many Americans have become accustomed to earning nothing on their hard-earned money. It has been commonplace for consumers to keep their cash at a bank and be paid little to nothing from their bank. But this hasn’t always been the case. 

During the 1990s, it was common for banks to pay 4-5% per year on savings accounts. In the 1980s, rates being paid on savings accounts were as high as 8%. During the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, however,  the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) cut interest rates to zero in order to stabilize the banking and financial system. The Fed uses interest rates to fuel or slow down the economy,similar to how you use  your gas pedal and brakes on your car. The Fed cuts rates to speed up the economy and raises rates to slow the economy and reign in spending. 

Last year, you may have heard people talking about inflation or you may have experienced it first hand when the prices of most everything went up. At the start of the pandemic, governments around the world, including the U.S., “printed” trillions of dollars in order to support the global economy. This decision led to excess spending by people and companies, which drove up demand (and thus prices) of many goods and services. In addition, pandemic-related shutdowns, coupled with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, led to supply chain issues which further exacerbated the inflation issue. In order to address inflation and reign in spending, the Fed began the process of raising interest rates.

Typically the rates that you earn on your cash at a bank are determined by the interest rates set by the Fed.  However, despite higher interest rates, banks have not yet increased the amount they are paying to hold your cash. The good news is that there are investment products that offer high monthly distributions with limited investment risk. 

What is an Exchange-Traded Fund? 

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment that trades like a stock. However, ETFs are funds that hold a combination of stocks, bonds and/or other securities. Generally, by holding a bucket of different investments, ETFs balance risk and are safer than investing in one asset. Some ETFs track a market sector like energy or technology, while others mirror an index like the S&P 500. U.S. Treasury Income is an ETF that invests in U.S. Treasury obligations, which are considered the safest investments available as they are backed by the U.S. Government.  

Similar to a stock, an investor generally can earn money from an ETF in two ways: an ETF price increases or pays dividends. For example (purely for illustrative purposes),  if an investor named Gabby purchases an ETF that costs $50 and then next year, the purchase price increases to $60, Gabby has made $10, if she chooses to sell her position. If the ETF price drops, then Gabby would lose money. Gabby could also make money through an ETF’s dividends. These are part of the fund’s earnings and capital gains. Not all ETFs pay dividends, but many do. To see if an ETF pays dividends, Gabby would want to look at the potential dividend yield, which is the amount the fund pays out compared to the current market price of the share. At Stash, we recommend looking at the 30 Day SEC yield for all ETFs, as this is a standardized number that all ETFs publish. You can find this in the dividend yield section of all ETFs on Stash.

Now, here’s what’s different about U.S. Treasury Income. Unlike the example above, because of the underlying Treasurys that this ETF holds (more on this below), the price typically does not change that much. In fact, during all of 2022, the daily price change (adjusted for monthly distributions) stayed in a range of -0.10% and +0.15%. In full disclosure, Stash can’t guarantee this level of stability going forward, but based on the ETF’s underlying holdings, it would be reasonable to assume this pattern in the future. 

Instead of making money through price changes, U.S. Treasury Income pays a monthly distribution each month that is based on the most current interest rate. As of February 10, 2023, these monthly distributions add up to over 4.56% per year.  As long as the Fed keeps interest rates at these levels, U.S. Treasury Income should pay a similar monthly distribution. The current expectation is that the Fed will continue to raise rates in 2023, so this distribution may increase. If the Fed were to cut rates, then the distribution would decrease.

What are Treasurys? 

The U.S. Treasury, established in 1789, is most well-known for its job of raising money for the government’s expenses. The Treasury primarily raises this money through taxes and borrowing money from investors in the form of various Treasury obligations such as Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds (“Treasurys”). Treasurys are loans to the U.S. government for a set period of time, in exchange for a set rate of return or yield. When an investor chooses to purchase a Treasury with cash, they loan their money to the government. In exchange, the U.S. government promises to pay back the full loan amount (principal) plus interest over the life (maturity) of the loan. These Treasurys make regularly scheduled payments throughout the loan term. Treasurys are considered to be low-risk because they are backed by the U.S. government. In fact, unlike many other borrowers, the U.S. government can just raise taxes or print more money in order to pay its obligations. Many investors purchase Treasurys to diversify their investments, especially if they want to put their idle cash to work. As cash sits in a low to-no-interest bank account, inflation chips away at its value, so many investors put their money in a Treasury as a more productive alternative. 

What is the actual ETF?

At Stash, we know that the actual names of ETFs are sometimes long and confusing which is why we put shorter names that aim to simply describe what the ETF is. In the case of U.S. Treasury Income, the actual ETF is the iShares Treasury Floating Rate Bond ETF (ticker TFLO). Learn more about the ETF here. iShares, which is owned by Blackrock, is the largest provider of ETFs based on assets under management. Stash does not have any economic relationship with iShares.  

What does U.S. Treasury Income hold?

U.S. Treasury Income holds a combination of U.S. Treasurys that have a fluctuating interest rate. These Treasurys are called floating rate notes (“FRN”) and are short-term loans to the U.S. government that pay investors an income based on current market interest rates.

The U.S. government began issuing these FRNs in 2014. The interest rate on these FRNs resets weekly to the rate paid on the most current 3-month U.S. Treasury Bills. Since the interest rate resets every week, the value of the FRNs does not change. Typically the price of a debt security moves in the opposite direction of interest rates, so when interest rates rise, the price of the debt security goes down. That is not the case with these US Treasury FRNs. Since the TFLO ETF holds these Treasury FRNs, the price of the ETF tends to be very stable. As interest rates move higher, these FRNs pay out more, thus the ETF has more income to distribute and investors can benefit from the higher yields sooner.

As an added bonus, since TFLO holds U.S. Treasurys, virtually all of the income earned from distributions is state and local tax-exempt. 

How much should I invest in U.S. Treasury Income?

While Stash always recommends investing for the long term in a diversified portfolio, we know that many people may have short-term cash needs (for example, a large planned purchase within the next year) which may have some short-term risk associated with it. In these cases, we recommend investing this idle cash in U.S. Treasury Income as it offers a nice monthly distribution, is extremely safe relative to most investments, and offers daily liquidity or access while the stock market is open.  

What are the major risks? 

No investment comes without risks; however, Treasurys are considered to be extremely low-risk. This is because an investor in Treasurys is getting a guarantee from the U.S. government that the loan will be repaid. While there is talk in the news about the U.S. hitting its debt ceiling in the coming months, investors still consider U.S. Treasurys to be the safest investment. The talk over the debt ceiling is the result of the U.S. running a budget deficit (e.g., spending more than it is raising from taxes) for many years. While the government will need to figure out how to resolve this, which will result in a lot of saber rattling by both political parties, Stash does not believe that an actual default by the U.S. government is a realistic risk. Ultimately, the U.S. government has many options, including cutting spending, raising taxes, or just agreeing to raise the debt ceiling. 

Another risk to be aware of is that U.S. Treasury Income is not an investment in actual U.S. Treasurys, rather it is an investment in an ETF that owns U.S. Treasurys. While there is some small risk of tracking error or trading errors (for example, the ETF does not perform inline with its underlying holdings), Stash believes that TFLO is one of the safer ETF investments available. Therefore, TFLO isn’t technically a risk-free investment (no investment is 100% void of risk), but it is considered by many investors as close to it. 

Start investing now.

Invest in TFLO and make your idle cash work for you.

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The post How Investing in TFLO Could Earn You Passive Income appeared first on Stash Learn.

Stash recently conducted a survey on how our financial well-being impacts our mental well-being and found: 

• Respondents said the impact their financial health has on their mental health is a 7 (on average) on a scale of 1-to-10.

• Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed said today’s inflation makes them more anxious.

• Nearly 60% of Americans planned to make a financial resolution for the new year.
  
• Nearly a third want to budget better and/or pay off debt. 

For this reason, Stash has partnered with The Class, a cathartic workout, yoga, and meditation studio, to offer free practices centered around mindfulness and finding confidence in yourself in the year ahead. The Class will help you feel empowered to achieve financial wellness while taking care of yourself and your loved ones. 

Try these practices today to help jumpstart your new year’s resolutions. All you need to do is share your email address. 

Get free trials with The Class and Stash.

These practices will be available throughout the new year to support you. You will also get one month of Stash, on us, and have access to a 30-day free trial to The Class Digital Studio ($40 value).

Should you choose to access these subscriptions you can expect: 

Stash – access to the full suite of offerings, including investing and banking tools, advice, market insights,our unique Stock-Back® Card, offering up to 1% back in stock no matter where you spend, up to $1,000¹; and a life insurance option up to $10k^‡. Stash is also giving a $50 bonus to new members who invest $5.

The Class Digital Studio – unlimited access to 50+ live-streamed workouts each week, 350+ on-demand Classes available 24/7, and 70+ on-demand yoga and meditation practices, all at varying lengths and intensities. 

Enjoy this New Year’s gift from Stash and The Class.

The post Stash partners with The Class to gift three Free Mindful Movement Practices appeared first on Stash Learn.

Building with purpose 

“What problem are we trying to solve?” was at the center of our Stash Core innovation journey. A well-designed platform requires the collective brain power of Product, Engineering, and Design sitting together and creating solutions that align with our brand and our mission. We organized ourselves into cross-functional squads focused on “value” streams. Each squad had representation from product, engineering, design, operations, data science and other critical functional areas. No matter what hat a person wore, a product manager or an operations specialist or a technical lead, the first priority was to do right by the customer. 

Value creation 

At Stash, we are here to help our customers build wealth. Banking is a critical part of that, which is why the first product launch built on Stash Core is our new banking experience, complete with a refreshed Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard®.¹ The Stock-Back Card has always been an industry differentiator (the tech is covered under U.S. patent 11,443,338) and now it’s even more seamless and powerful. With every purchase, a customer gets rewarded with up to 1% stock back²: for example, go on a shopping trip to Target, get Target stock; fill up at Shell for gas; get Shell stock. The shares don’t expire and become part of our customers’ personal portfolios for the long-term. It’s a financial literacy and diversification tool, and helps people get started on their investing journey.

In addition, customers will have access to more than 55K fee-free ATMs globally (that’s nearly 3x more than what’s available from institutional banks).³ Plus budgeting tools to help them to stay on top of their finances and build savings for certain expenses, like a vacation.

Overcoming challenges

To build this type of platform, we decided to re-evaluate several aspects of how we build things at Stash. We started fresh with our patterns and practices. We had already undergone a larger shift in our engineering patterns and practices—shifts such as moving from Heroku to AWS and thereby needing expertise in infrastructure management; moving from a single monolithic application to containerized services; and moving from a very synchronous system to a larger and scalable asynchronous system. We took these changes and doubled down on their direction. The main tenets always remained the same: speed, reliability, and ownership.

Speed

As Stash scaled and this project began in earnest, we focused on how to continue to deliver value at speed.

We first chose technologies that were very easy and fast to learn, and were the standard choice in our industry. No reinventing the wheel. An example of this was the choice of using Go as our primary programming language. Not only is it used to build such large-scale tools such as Terraform or Kubernetes, but it is very easy to pick up and learn. Of the 50+ engineers we hired, only a few had previous professional experience with Go. Yet our average time from start to putting up a substantial PR (pull request; basically the moment new code is integrated) was 3.4 days.

Another example of speed involved rethinking how we build features. The partnership between the engineering and product leaders on each squad is critical to their success. Gone are the days where each member of the team simply executes their specific role and throws tasks over the wall. Nearly every team member at Stash writes tickets, interfaces with vendors, and is actively involved in what is being built.

Reliability

With Stash Core, Stash now owns the real-time money movement infrastructure. For example: we read and write actual NACHA files in-house for ACH; we make real-time decisions for debit card authorizations and ATM withdrawals; we actually manage the ledgering of every customer account and general ledger in-house across dozens of processes and files everyday; and we are always the final say for a specific customer’s balance and available balance. These changes mean that uptime and reliability became our #1 priority. If our systems go down, then the customer suffers. To avoid this, we added new and specialized roles within the organization: Site Reliability Engineers (SRE) and Network Operations Center (NOC) technicians.

Today, SREs are embedded on each squad and actively engaged in the product development so they have full contextual knowledge of the system and can guide where we need more monitors or alerts. Our new NOC technicians are the frontline defense for any system outages and are also actively engaged with squads to build out remediation processes in the event of system outages. Ideally, we want a system where no engineer is on-call (a radical idea) and all failures are either caught before code reaches production or by a very well established process to be run by the NOC.

Reliability does not stop with the new roles. We also needed to rethink how we build code. To mitigate dependency on external vendors, we looked hard at buy-vs-build for nearly every single aspect of our system and selected partners that are truly top in their field. We built our system to be multi-region from the outset to help mitigate AWS outages. Testing is another process that has gone through a substantial overhaul. We adopt the mentality of deploying anytime anywhere—and this requires an extremely robust testing suite.

Ownership

The final important change to how we do business within Stash Core entails ownership. As a leadership team, we give individual squads nearly free latitude to identify and solve problems. We believe they are the closest to the work and the problems, and therefore they know the best solution. This extends not only to their individual squad roadmaps, but also to the technical architecture choices and tools they want to use.

With ownership comes accountability. Squads revamped how they ticket and track work to become much more predictable. Timeline slips are identified much sooner and solutioned. This allows freedom to explore new paths and ideas over feature shipping. Hyper focus is a huge added benefit. Features no longer span 5+ squads and need to be discussed in meetings of 40+ people. Instead, generally no more than 3 different departments are involved at any one time and meeting sizes are reduced to about 4-6 people.

With Stash Core built and launched, we have the opportunity to more completely address the needs of our customers—who trust us to help them build their wealth—and also better serve our internal teams, including our CX and operations agents. 

Establish trust

Our goal at launch was for customers and agents to experience a seamless transition. To start, we’re asking our customers to open a new banking account with Stride Bank, N.A.. Our design, content, and compliance teams have been diligently working together to provide customers with more self-service options and minimize the number of interactions–making the process seamless and easy, just like we strive to do for all Stash touchpoints. 

We also revamped all of our backend customer service agent experiences. From now and into the future, we can offer step-function improvements in our customer-service experiences that results in faster resolution times.

What’s next? Innovate with care

With the accomplishment of building and launching Stash Core in the rear-view mirror, we’re dreaming even bigger. In the future, the open system unlocks the ability for us to launch new features, such as enhanced debit offerings, new credit capabilities, lending and much more to meet our customers’ needs at every point in their life. We can innovate faster, pivot, and adjust our strategies all while keeping our platform costs manageable.

Stash Core has inspired new ways of working and thinking at Stash. We’re now considering: How can we help our customers achieve key wealth management goals with new personalized experiences? How can banking further empower investing? There’s an incredible opportunity ahead of us to serve our customers’ needs. 

The millions of people who rely on Stash to invest and bank care about the benefits. That’s why we are now designing experiences like personalization and financial mentorship across the entire product experience, all built on Stash Core and with the product, design, engineering, and operations skills we’ve expertly honed in the process.

About Stash

Stash is an investing and banking app with more than 2 million customers and nearly $3B in assets under management. Stash’s plans—starting at just $3 a month—provide easy and affordable access to a suite of products including investing, banking, education, and advice. Regular, long-term investing is the foundation of the Stash platform—in direct response to the fact that only 56% of Americans invest in stocks; more than 30% don’t have a retirement account; and 34% can’t save any money. Stash members are 18% more financially literate than the average American and grow their financial literacy over time.

About Stash Core

Stash Core, its custom-built backend technology, allows Stash to own the ledger, the money movement infrastructure, and every customer touchpoint for the millions of Americans who rely on Stash to bank like an investor and build wealth. Stash’s banking solutions, including its new banking account and refreshed Stock-Back^® Debit Mastercard^®, integrate with Stash personal brokerage accounts by design, empowering customers to follow The Stash Way: regularly invest into a diversified portfolio, over the long-term. The Stash Stock-Back patent, U.S. Patent number 11,443,338, applies to the back-end technology that allows customers to earn specific securities and ETFs that are directly invested into their portfolio when they shop at thousands of retailers, in-person and online. To learn more and sign up for Stash’s new banking product, visit Stash.com.

About Stride Bank N.A.

Originally chartered in 1913 as Central National Bank of Enid, Stride Bank N.A. has grown rapidly. OCC regulated and Oklahoma based, Stride Bank N.A. is a long-time innovator and has developed highly specialized payment solutions for some of the nation’s largest corporations, including real-time payments; consumer and commercial lending; third-party issuer services for debit, prepaid, and credit; and network sponsorship to Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. Also offering broad spectrum mobile banking, wealth management, and treasury services to numerous industries. Stride Bank has branches throughout Oklahoma in Enid, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Bartlesville, Blackwell, Woodward, and Mooreland, as well as Salt Lake City, Utah. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. Learn more at www.stridebank.com.

The post Introducing Stash Core appeared first on Stash Learn.

Your portfolio is the sum of all your stocks, bonds, ETFs, and cash. 

And diversification means not putting all of your eggs in one basket. The lesson is pretty simple: If all your eggs are in one basket and you happen to drop it, all the eggs will break. The same goes for investing. If you concentrate too much of your holdings in one stock, one fund, or even one sector of the economy, it can increase your risk substantially. 

That’s why Stash is excited to tell you about our new tool, called portfolio diversification analysis. It’s designed to help you create a portfolio to meet your financial needs and goals. 

What is your portfolio diversification analysis? 

Portfolio diversification analysis is available to any Stash customer with an invest account, and it can help you take small steps to craft a more diversified portfolio.

Here’s how it works:  We take three pieces of information to analyze your portfolio and calculate a diversification score These are: your risk profile, the appropriate asset allocation given your risk level, and your current portfolio. 

Let’s break it down. 

Your risk profile determines your appetite for risk and your ability to take on risk given your time horizon, financial circumstances, and investment goals. The risk profile dictates your target asset allocation. If you are more conservative, you’ll have more bonds in your portfolio. If you have an aggressive risk profile, you’ll have more stocks. Someone with a moderate risk profile will have a mix of both bonds and stocks. 

By examining your risk profile and your appropriate mix of stocks and bonds, we then compare the target asset allocation to your current portfolio to see how much it differs. The score not only takes into account your target asset allocation compared to your current portfolio, it also takes into account your underlying investments. Having exchange traded funds (ETFs) in your portfolio, for example, increases your diversification score. ETFs are baskets of stocks or bonds, and can often hold hundreds of investments therefore naturally improving diversification.

What Does the Diversification Analysis Mean?

Think of your diversification analysis as an investing report card for your portfolio. It will show you a bar that ranges from “Not diversified” to “Diversified.” This score is dynamic, and it reveals your portfolio at the current time. If your score appears as “Not diversified,” don’t be discouraged, you can take steps to improve it. We are here to guide you, and we’ll show you how!  

Understanding your score

First, click into “View analysis breakdown.” The tool will list the four different investment categories that we think you should be invested in, plus the target percentage of assets for each, based on your risk tolerance. 

These four categories are U.S. companies, foreign companies, up and coming (emerging) markets, and bonds. The categories will remain the same for everyone, but the allocation will change based on your risk profile.

The screen will then highlight which categories need attention. Categories in green show areas where you’re on track, but red is where we think your portfolio needs attention in order to achieve diversification. You can improve your score by buying some of the ETFs recommended by the Stash investment team.

What Do I Buy? How Do I Improve?

If you click on “Get recommendations,” the tool will lead you to the investment categories that need improvement, and the corresponding suggested ETFs that can help you diversify. 

For example: If you score only 2 points out of the recommended 5 points in Up & Coming Markets (emerging markets), one of the suggestions you’ll receive is to purchase an emerging markets ETF, such as Colossal China. These incremental ETF purchases will help move the needle to further diversify your score.

In investment categories where you receive a good score, it means you are diversified, and you will not receive a recommendation to improve. For example, if the U.S. Companies category shows a score of 57 points when the suggested allocation is 57 target points, “Get recommendations” will not show you additional ETFs to purchase. However, if your allocation is less than the recommended percentage, we’ll show you U.S. ETFs such as Match the Market to purchase.

Let Stash be your financial home

Stash is always looking for ways to help you improve your financial life, and to help you make better decisions around saving and investing money. Remember, changes do not happen overnight. Take small steps to build a diversified portfolio in order to help reduce risk, and use the portfolio diversification score to help you improve. 

If you are on track, congratulations but don’t stop there! Auto-Stash can help you make regular contributions to your portfolio, so you can grow your investments over time through the power of compounding.

The post Find Out About Portfolio Diversification Analysis! appeared first on Stash Learn.

But how does Stock-Back®¹ stack up to a rewards credit card? Let’s compare.

Stock-Back in a nutshell

Here’s how it works: If you make a purchase with your Stash Stock-Back® Card card¹, at more than 11 million businesses in the U.S, and you can get rewarded in the form of a fractional share of stock for every qualifying purchase. Pretty simple. You can get a small percentage of stock for every dollar you spend—and you can get stock in well-known brands..

Note: You’ll need a Stash account that you’ve added money to in order to earn Stock-Back® rewards¹.

Rewards credit cards are cards that earn users—you guessed it—rewards. Those rewards are typically doled out in the form of proprietary “points” or “miles,” which can be redeemed for cash, prizes, airfare, etc.

In practice, earning credit card rewards is similar to earning Stock-Back®¹—you swipe your card, and you can watch the rewards points pile up.

Stock-Back® Rewards vs. credit card rewards

You can earn Stock-Back® and credit card rewards in virtually the same way. So, when it comes down to it, consumers are choosing between what they’d rather accumulate: stock, or points/miles.

Here are a few things to consider, and or ways to compare them:

1. Stock-Back® Rewards are fractional shares.

It’s important to remember that Stock-Back® rewards are fractional shares of ownership in a company, and they can fluctuate in value. Remember, that there is an inherent risk when owning stock—but with Stock-Back®, you can truly own what you buy and build a portfolio that reflects your individual spending habits.

2. Expiration dates

One big drawback to rewards points or miles is that they often have expiration dates—if you don’t use or redeem them within a certain time period, you lose them.

Stock, on the other hand, is an asset. It doesn’t expire, and you own it until you sell it. Studies have shown that there are approximately $100 billion of loyalty points that sit unused. And the Covid-19 pandemic has kept more people at home, giving them more reason not to spend points.  Further, about 30% of credit card users never redeem their points—so, for many, rewards points are ultimately wasted.

3. Appreciation

Another thing to consider is whether or not your rewards, stock or otherwise, will appreciate with time. In the case of rewards points or miles, the answer is no; they will not gain value over time, and will likely depreciate as rewards systems evolve.

Here’s something else to think about: The average consumer had credit card debt of more than $6,500 as of 2021. In other words, most people don’t pay off their credit card balances each month. And the interest they have to pay on those balances can quickly erase the value of any points or rewards they may earn for credit card purchases. (Stash wants to help you get out of debt, and you can earn Stock-Back® based on debit card purchases², with funds that come directly from your banking account.)

And again, stock won’t expire—so, buy (or earn) and hold it!

4. Rewards that reward

Finally, think about what your rewards are doing for you. Are airline miles or reward points earning you dividends or interest payments?

Probably not. Stock can and usually does, though. That’s effectively using wealth to build more wealth.

And it’s smart.

You can start building your investment portfolio whenever you spend. Sign up for Stash to kick things off.

The post Credit Card Points vs. Stock-Back® Rewards appeared first on Stash Learn.

A diversified portfolio will hold a variety of investments that are not all subject to the same market risks, including stocks, bonds, and cash, as well as ETFs. It’s also important to invest in different markets globally, not just in the United States.

With that in mind, Stash is excited to launch something called Smart Portfolios, a new type of account that can help take the guesswork out of building a diversified portfolio. Here’s how it works. A Smart Portfolio¹ is a personalized portfolio that Stash’s Investment Team of financial experts has created for you based on your risk profile. Stash actively monitors and manages the account for you, and rebalances when necessary. (We’ll explain more about rebalancing later.) All you have to do is put money—a minimum of $5— into the account, and Stash does the rest.

What’s a risk profile?

When you signed up for Stash, we asked you a few questions about your investment style, and financial circumstances. We used this information to place you into one of three risk profiles–conservative, moderate, and aggressive. The information you provided also helps us calculate your risk tolerance and investment time horizon. 

Here’s what that means:

• Conservative risk profile investors prefer stability, even if that means smaller gains—but may still want some growth potential for their portfolio. These investors might have more bonds in their portfolios than aggressive or even moderate investors. They may need their money sooner rather than later and cannot endure additional risks.
• Moderate risk profile investors are looking to build stable portfolios, but may also have the capacity to take on a little more risk in exchange for potentially higher long-term growth. Their portfolios might be balanced between bonds and equities, or stocks.
• Aggressive risk profile investors may be looking to maximize the long-term growth potential of their portfolio, even if that means sacrificing some stability and incurring greater risk.These investors have the ability to own more stocks in their portfolios than bonds. They probably will not need their money for a while, meaning they have a longer time horizon.

We’ll use these risk profiles to create a diversified mix of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for you, calculating the correct allocation based investing risk level, which can act as guardrails for your investing.

What’s in a Smart Portfolio?

Stash’s Investment Team believes that a well-diversified portfolio should consist of a mix of stocks and bonds. Within stocks, you can invest in different regions such as the U.S., developed economies such as Western Europe, and emerging markets like China. Similarly, you can invest in different types of bonds, such as corporate bonds, which are issued by companies, or U.S. Treasuries, issued by the federal government. You want to consider spreading your investments across various asset types, because different assets will respond differently to different market conditions, potentially reducing volatility in your portfolio.

With that in mind, the Investment Team has picked the following ETFs, with low expense ratios, that represent each of these categories.

The funds represent a diversified group of stocks in the U.S. and internationally, as well as bonds. While the three risk profiles will be invested in the same funds, how much money goes into each fund will vary based on the allocation that was initially recommended for you.

Here’s what that means. Let’s say you are assigned to the aggressive risk profile. Our Smart Portfolios may place a greater percentage of your money in stocks versus bonds. Whereas if you have a conservative risk profile, a greater percentage of your money might be placed in bonds. Stash’s Investment Team will help make sure your portfolio stays diversified according to your risk profile as your investments grow and as markets change.

Smart Portfolios and the Stash Way

Smart Portfolios also align with the Stash Way, our investing philosophy, which includes investing regularly, thinking long term, and diversification. With Smart Portfolios, you can invest regularly without having to make decisions about where your money should go. Smart Portfolios can also free you from the worry of short-term volatility by making sure you stick to your long-term financial goals.

Diversification and rebalancing

From time to time, we will rebalance your Smart Portfolio. Rebalancing can help you stay properly diversified, and it can ensure you are exposed to the appropriate amount of risk.

Stash designed each Smart Portfolio with a different target allocation of investment categories based on an investor’s risk profile. Based on how the underlying investments move over time, it’s possible an investor’s actual portfolio allocation may drift away from its target. In that case, the portfolio may need to be rebalanced by selling some investments that are overweight and buying others that are underweight in order to get back on track.

Here’s a hypothetical example. Let’s say that based on an investor’s risk profile, his or her portfolio has a target of 80% stocks and 20% bonds. For example, let’s say you invest $100 in this portfolio—$80 in stocks and $20 in bonds. Now imagine that the stock market declines, but bond prices go up. As a result, the investor’s portfolio would look a little different. Maybe the investor’s stock portion shrinks to 75% and the bond portion grows to 25%. In other words, you’d have $75 in stocks, and $25 in bonds. The investor’s portfolio has “drifted away” from its target. In order to get it back on track, the portfolio would need to be rebalanced. By selling some of the bond position and buying more stocks, the investor’s portfolio can be reset to the target allocation.In this case, the portfolio would sell $5 worth of bonds and purchase $5 of stocks to get back on track. 

The good news is that Smart Portfolios automatically rebalance. Stash takes care of all of the hard-work. Stash sets the targets and regularly monitors market moves. If a Smart Portfolio account drifts too far away from its target goal, Stash will automatically sell some of the positions that have grown too fast and buy more of the positions that may have decreased in value. Rebalancing will occur when a portfolio increases or decreases by 5% or more from its target in a quarter. Stash will reset all portfolios by rebalancing at the end of the year.

Dividend reinvestment

Stash believes in investing regularly in order to increase your growth potential. Reinvesting dividends is an easy way to do this. Instead of receiving dividends in cash, we will reinvest in additional shares of your Smart Portfolio investments.

Withdrawals and deposits

Stash will automatically invest your deposits in your Smart Portfolio. Your deposits will be invested in securities that are underweight, or have decreased in value, in an effort to bring you closer to the target allocation appropriate for your risk profile. Similarly, if you need to withdraw money, Stash will manage this in an efficient way, trimming your overweight positions to raise cash. 

With market movement, the weight of your portfolio holdings will deviate over time. The way we deposit and withdraw your money within your investments allows us to “buy low and sell high,” and presents us with the opportunity to realign your portfolio to the appropriate risk outside of a rebalance period.

More about Smart Portfolio Investing

Any customer who subscribes to the Stash Growth and Stash+ tiers is eligible for a Smart Portfolio account. It is included in your growth and premium tier subscriptions. There are no additional subscription fees. Customers may add or withdraw money to and from their Smart Portfolio accounts to and from their external bank account, but they will not be able to trade individual stocks from these accounts. 

Good to know: All investing involves risk, and you can lose money on your investments. While no one can predict the future, diversifying your portfolio with Smart Portfolio can help protect you against the uncertainty of the market, and can help you reduce your risk. Smart Portfolio investing is a resource for you to help achieve your financial goals.

The post Smart Portfolios: Investing Made Even Easier! appeared first on Stash Learn.

Having coverage from health insurance can ease your cost worries, whether you need to go to a routine appointment, or you have a more serious, unexpected health expense. That can be especially true if you work part time, or for yourself. If you’re a freelance worker, or your employer doesn’t offer you insurance, you can have access to health insurance too, and the following guide can help you navigate the open enrollment period.

Why do you need health insurance?

Health insurance can pay for your care and your dependents’ care in the event of emergencies, and also provide for routine care. 

Having health insurance can protect you from incurring massive, unplanned costs. For example, without health insurance a three-day stay in the hospital costs $30,000 on average and treating a broken arm can cost up to $7,500, and while the average annual premium for one person is $7,188 and $20,576 for a family. Having healthcare can defray those costs.

When you have health insurance, you’ll pay a monthly premium. In exchange, depending on your policy, you can typically get preventative care like annual physicals, cancer screenings, and vaccines without any additional cost. And, again, depending on your policy, you can go see doctors, typically at a fixed copay, or fee, for the visit. You may want to make sure that you go to doctors that are in your network to keep your costs down. (More on that below.)

What could your costs be? 

In addition to paying a monthly premium, many plans will have something called a deductible, which is the amount of money you’re responsible for in healthcare costs before your insurance provider takes on the remaining costs. For example, you might have a $2,000 deductible. As a hypothetical example, let’s say you need to get surgery that costs $20,000. You might have to pay up to that $2,000 before your insurer will cover the remaining cost. (But keep in mind that some things might be covered by your insurance whether you’ve met the deductible or not. This is typically true of something like annual physicals.)

Your plan might also require you to pay coinsurance, or a percentage of your healthcare costs, after you’ve hit your deductible. Typically plans have an out-of-pocket maximum for your coinsurance, which is the most you’ll pay for health coverage in a given year.

Your health insurance can also help you avoid paying the full ticket price for some prescription drugs, which can be very expensive upfront. Some prescription drugs are entirely covered by your insurance, so you may not have out-of-pocket costs for them.

Good to know: Some plans may offer only in-network coverage, which means you must use a pre-approved network of providers, otherwise your care may not be covered and you may have to pay the full cost for treatment. Some plans may also allow you to seek out-of-the network care in addition to in-network care, but at a higher cost to you.  

What’s an open enrollment period?

Health care insurance isn’t like car insurance, which you can purchase at any time.  You generally have to apply for it during something called an open enrollment period (OEP), which is the annual period of time during which you can sign up for major healthcare plan coverage. Remember though, you have to re-enroll for coverage every year, whether you want to make changes to your plan or not. 

If your employer offers you health insurance, you’ll probably hear from your human resources department. But if you’re unemployed, a contractor or freelancer, or your employer doesn’t offer you health insurance, you should be aware of the general deadlines for the Health Insurance Marketplace established by the Affordable Care Act, where anyone can get a plan.

Open enrollment for the 2021 Health Insurance Marketplace starts on November 1, 2020, and runs through December 15, 2020. (Some states may extend the deadline, though. You can learn more about deadlines here.)

What is a qualifying life event?

You can often adjust your coverage outside of the OEP if you experience a qualifying life event. Qualifying life events include life changes that can make you eligible for a special enrollment period outside of the OEP. 

Losing your health coverage, or experiencing a change in residence or household might qualify you for a special enrollment period. For example, if you turn 26 and are no longer on your parent’s insurance, or you get married, you may need to enroll outside of the OEP.

What to look for when signing up for health insurance

It’s important to know what to look for in a health insurance policy if you need to shop for a plan on your own. If you already have a doctor or doctors that you like, you may want to check if those doctors would be in-network or covered under certain plans. This is also true of any specialists you might visit. For example, if you go to therapy, you should check that your plan has mental health coverage. Additionally, if you take certain prescriptions, you should check if the plan covers those prescriptions, and how much of the cost it covers. 

When comparing different plans that meet your needs, you can also compare costs. Find out the monthly premium for each plan. Make sure there’s room in your budget for monthly costs. And know what you’re getting with each plan. For example, a lower premium might give you less coverage than you want, and cost you more in the end if you need care. 

Take a look at the deductibles and the coinsurance of the plans you’re considering. Remember, the deductible is the amount of money that you’ll be obligated to pay before your insurer starts paying, and coinsurance can also add another layer of cost. You’ll also want to see what your copays will be for in-network and out-of-network doctors. You may want to find a policy with extra coverage if you go to the doctors, or to specialists, often. If you have dependents who’ll also rely on your health coverage, make sure you find a plan that works for your entire family. 

Stash and Stride

Stash partners with Stride* to help you find health insurance coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace. Stride works with major health insurance providers, and can help you navigate the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace, providing you with competitively-priced options for health care coverage. If you work part-time for a company such as Uber or Etsy, your company might even work with Stride to make insurance more accessible. 

The deadline to enroll in health coverage is December 15th** and your coverage will start as soon as January 1, 2021. 

Get started with Stride and enroll today.

The post If You Don’t Have Health Coverage, Stride Can Help appeared first on Stash Learn.

If someone’s going through the day without life insurance, they may be just like the person in the scary movie who goes into the dark basement alone. Leave those financial nightmares to Hollywood producers. You can help protect your loved ones from the financial headaches they can encounter should something happen to you. 

Protect the people you love against all things spooky

Life insurance can shield your loved ones from a sudden loss of income if you die, by offering a payout to the person, or people, that you designated in your policy. These people are called beneficiaries. 

This year changed the way we do everything, including how we celebrate Halloween, it can be especially important to reflect on how your beneficiaries rely on you. Think of the many expenses your loved ones may need to face alone if you’re not around: 

• Funeral expenses. Funerals can be expensive. In fact, the average burial in North America costs between $7,000 and $10,000. If your loved ones aren’t prepared to cover the costs of your funeral, life insurance can help them afford to give you a proper ceremony.
• Day-to-day costs. Think of the people who depend on you and your income. Or the people who count on your spouse’s income. Even after you’re gone, they’ll still need to pay for groceries, clothes, medical care, and more. Life insurance can allow your beneficiaries to maintain their way of life. 
• Unexpected emergencies. Think of how you react when someone you love gets hurt or experiences another emergency. If you’re not around to take care of them, you want to help ensure that they’re still getting the help they need. A life insurance policy can do just that. A payout after you’re gone can help beneficiaries when they’re in a jam. 

If you purchase term life insurance, you can pick a certain time period of coverage, such as 10 or 20 years, and our beneficiaries can receive a payout from your policy if you pass away during that time. 

No tricks, just treats with Bestow life insurance

This Halloween, get ahead of the scary things that go bump in the night. With Stash’s partner Bestow,* you can apply for a term life insurance policy quickly online. 

With Bestow, you can get a quote for life insurance right from your home. Before you start handing out candy this Halloween, grab your own treat: a quote from Bestow.*

The post Don’t Let Life Creep Up on You. Help Protect Your Loved Ones with Life Insurance. appeared first on Stash Learn.

That’s why we’ve boiled down our investing philosophy into three basic steps that we call the Stash Way:

• Invest regularly
• Diversify
• Invest for the long-term

We’ll explain more about each one. But here’s a short explanation.

Invest regularly

After you’ve set aside savings for your rainy day and emergency funds, consider investing in the market, and making regular investments a part of your savings plan. Even if you take small amounts and invest them every week or every month, that can add up through the power of something called compounding.

Compounding is when the interest on the assets you own also earns interest, which can magnify your savings and your wealth.

Regular investing like this also has a name. It’s called dollar-cost averaging. But you don’t have to concern yourself with the name so much. We’ll give you an example of how it can help you have a better investing experience if you invest regularly. 

Let’s assume you put $20 each week into the market in a conservative fund that tracks a broad market index, such as the S&P 500. 

In some weeks, the market will be up, and the share price for the fund will also go up. During other weeks, the market will go down, and so the share price of the fund will also go down. On the up weeks, you’ll be paying more for the fund, and on the down weeks, you’ll be paying less.

Over time, the highs and lows should result in a better purchasing experience for investors.

Regular investment with Auto-Stash

One way to Stash can help you invest regularly is through Auto-Stash. It’s an easy-to-use tool available on the app that can help you save or invest small amounts of money consistently over time, regardless of market conditions. You won’t have to worry about trying to pick the right time to invest or “timing the market” which we don’t recommend.

Auto-Stash boasts a few key features that can help you supercharge your saving and investing, including Set Schedule, which allows you to set up automatic transfers.

You select the amount you want to set aside, when and how often you want to set it aside, and whether you’d like Stash to automatically invest it in your ETFs and stocks, or simply place the money in your cash account. It’s an easy way to save and invest regularly, on a schedule that works for you.

Diversify

You’ve heard the term, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. If you drop the basket, you’ll break all the eggs.

Diversification means you’re not putting all of your eggs in one basket, so you can better weather the stock market’s ups and downs. That means you won’t put all of your money in too few stocks, bonds, or funds.

When you’ve diversified your portfolio, it will hold a variety of investments that are not all subject to the same market risks, including stocks, bonds, and cash, as well as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

By diversifying, you’ll be choosing investments in numerous economic sectors—not just the hot industry of the moment—as well as in different geographies around the globe.

More about diversification

Here’s an example of what that means. If you buy only technology stocks or stocks in the energy industry, you’d be putting all of your eggs in one basket. If tech stocks experience trouble, or the energy industry suddenly must deal with a natural disaster, it’s likely the stocks in those industries will decline together, and you’d lose more money than if you were diversified.

A diversified portfolio might have stocks in technology and defense, but they also might include consumer staples, energy stocks, and possibly commodities, such as metals, to name just a few possibilities. It’s also likely to include bonds and some cash.

One way to start diversifying is by purchasing an exchange-traded fund, or ETF. ETFs are investment funds that are traded on an exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or NASDAQ. They invest in numerous companies at once.

ETFs often correspond to a particular size company, industrial sector, market, or even social goal. So, you could own shares in an ETF that owns blue-chip stocks of large companies, or the stocks of less well-known, smaller companies.

You could also purchase shares of ETFs that specialize in emerging markets, commodities, or consumer products, to name a few different options. An ETF might also invest in companies that are helping the environment or working to increase the number of women in leadership positions at large companies.

Think long term

We know that markets are always changing, they can go up one day and down the next, and that volatility can be scary. But we also know that if you follow Stash Way’s investing philosophy, it can smooth out some of the bumps and help you to grow savings and wealth.

Investing in the stock market always carries risk. There is no guarantee that what you’ve invested in will make money. But we think if you follow the three basic principles of the Stash Way, you can minimize risk and set yourself on a path to realizing your financial goals.

Over the past two decades, there have been turbulent periods in the stock market. The chart below reflects how the S&P 500, a key index that measures the broader market, has fluctuated over that time. You’ll see gains and declines through the dot-com bust, 9/11, the Great Recession, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and four separate presidential administrations. You’ll see how staying the course can help you achieve your financial goals. Over time, markets have trended upward.

Disclosure: This is not a prediction or projection of performance of an investment or investment strategy. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Any historical returns, expected returns or probability projections are hypothetical in nature and may not reflect actual future performance. The rate of return on investments can vary widely over time, especially for long term investments including the potential loss of principal. For example, the S&P 500® for the 10 years ending 1/1/2014, had an annual compounded rate of return of 8.06%, including reinvestment of dividends (source: www.standardandpoors.com). Since 1970, the highest 12-month return was 61% (June 1982 through June 1983). The lowest 12-month return was -43% (March 2008 to March 2009). The S&P 500® is an index of 500 stocks seen as a leading indicator of U.S. equities and a reflection of the performance of the large cap universe, made up of companies selected by economists. The S&P 500 is a market value weighted index and one of the common benchmarks for the U.S. stock market.

For example, if you had invested $10 per week in a diversified portfolio, using Stash’s Set Schedule from 2008 to now, you could have more than doubled your investment of $6,400 dollars. Through all the market dips, including the most recent one that started in February, 2020 related to the Covid-19 pandemic, you could have almost $14,000 in your portfolio.

Disclosure: Past Performance does not guarantee future results. The rate of return on investments can vary widely over time, especially for long term investments including the potential loss of principal. The S&P 500® is an index of 500 stocks seen as a leading indicator of U.S. equities and a reflection of the performance of the large cap universe, made up of companies selected by economists. The S&P 500 is a market value weighted index and one of the common benchmarks for the U.S. stock market. Calculations do not reflect the deduction of advisory fees and does not take taxes or withdrawals into consideration. The hypothetical assumes individual was invested in the S&P 500 index (assuming a 100.68% cumulative growth rate for this time period) from the time period of 11/30/2007 – 3/6/2020 with a $10.00 weekly investment contribution. This example assumes No other account account deposits, investments, fees, or dividend reinvestment. Through the power of compounded growth, assuming a cumulative growth rate of 100.68% the hypothetical value would be $13,824 on a $6,400 total contribution for the time period. Data source: FactSet.

Stash on

With Stash, you can easily invest in dozens of funds and individual stocks.

You can also start investing with small amounts, even $5 a month can add up. For those who are looking to invest in the market but worry they don’t have enough to begin, Stash lets you purchase fractional shares, which is a great way to get started.

Fractional shares allow you to invest in exciting, innovative, and interesting companies without having to pay full share price. Think of them in terms of a pizza. If the whole pie is a share, then a fractional share is a slice. Except this pizza may earn interest, dividends, and grow over time. And you get a taste of the company’s success.

Stash can help you meet your long-term financial goals with a variety of products, including Stock-Back, which rewards you with fractional shares of stock every time you spend with your debit card¹, and portfolio diversification analysis, designed to help you create a diversified portfolio, so your investments don’t grow out of sync with your goals.

Stash is on a financial journey with you, and that includes helping you make smart decisions about investing.

The post The Stash Way: Our Investing Philosophy appeared first on Stash Learn.

That’s why it’s important to have money set aside, in the event we need to pay for unplanned costs and expenses, whether that’s a broken muffler on the highway, a job layoff, or a sudden illness.

But saving to repair your car and saving for a life-changing event can require different savings strategies, with either a rainy-day fund or an emergency fund.

At Stash we encourage users to create two different kinds of funds. One is called your rainy day fund, and it can be used for short-term unexpected things as they arise. The other is your emergency fund, and it’s for bigger unexpected expenses, such as loss of a job, large medical expenses, or something else of that nature. 

Rainy day fund

Your rainy day fund should have between $500 and $1,000 in it, and it should be a liquid account, meaning it should be easily accessible, for example in a bank account. That way, when your dishwasher starts spewing suds on the kitchen floor unexpectedly and you need a few hundred dollars to fix it,  it’s there.

Your rainy day fund is liquid (meaning it’s cash). The best place for it is likely in a bank account, such as a savings account, where you can access the money quickly.

Once it’s spent, you can start saving again for the next time because well, life happens.

Emergency fund

An emergency fund, on the other hand,  is for when life throws you a major curveball, so you have money to fall back on. Your emergency fund should have enough money to cover your expenses for three to six months. You’ll use this money in the event of a more serious setback, such as a layoff or an illness that prevents you from working.

How much should be in this fund? That all depends on you, your fixed expenses, and what you’ll need to keep yourself going in a really tough time. Is your monthly spending $2,000 or maybe $4,000? Whatever the amount for your monthly expenses is, multiply it by three or by six. That’s how much you should try to put away.

Since this fund is for longer-term planning, you may want to keep it in a place where it can earn some interest. That’s because your money could sit in this account for years, and the typical bank account pays very low interest, which may wear away at your savings due to inflation.

You can keep it in a money market fund or maybe in a certificate of deposit (CD). You may also consider putting the money in an exchange-traded fund (ETF ) based on short-term U.S. Treasuries.

Important note: Any time you invest in a security such as a stock, bond, or ETF, it involves risk. You can lose money on your investments. The same may not be true for a standard bank account or CD.

Here’s one very important thing to keep in mind: Since you may be keeping your backup fund money in an investment vs. a savings account, it may take you a few days to access it.

Life is just generally much more stressful when you know you’re one emergency away from financial ruin. By saving up an emergency fund, you’ll sleep more easily knowing that you can handle the unexpected costs life will inevitably throw at you.

Start saving small amounts, and then try increasing those amounts over time. It may take a while, but pretty soon you can have both your rainy day and emergency funds flush with cash. 

Once both accounts are fully funded, you may have the financial freedom to pursue other goals, like investing, saving for retirement, your child’s education, a house, and more. And more importantly, you’ll know that if things go wrong, you’re covered.

Remember, your paycheck has a lot of demands placed on it. There are always bills to pay, temptations to buy. So think about assigning every dollar you earn a purpose, which can help you stay in the lanes you’ve set for yourself on your financial journey.

Consider Auto-Stash

Stash’s financial tool Auto-Stash is a powerful suite of tools that can help you put your saving strategy on automatic. That way you won’t even have to think about it. In fact, during 2019 Stash customers who used Auto-Stash saved twice as much as customers who did not turn auto-Stash on¹, and you can use Stash’s partitions² to set up both an emergency and a rainy day fund.

Using automated saving strategies removes the decision making needed every time you see your paycheck. You’ll be able to plan for anticipated expenses and save for the unexpected expenses.

The post Save For the Unexpected. It’s a Key Part of the Stash Way. appeared first on Stash Learn.

Life hands us daily challenges that require spending our hard-earned cash. Meanwhile, the financial world is filled with so many confusing terms and concepts. And today, more than ever, there’s a lot of uncertainty about the future. Nearly 140 million people in the U.S. struggle with at least some of the financial basics, meaning they may not have access to the education, resources, and planning tools that can make them financially healthy.

That’s why we’ve created something called the Stash Way. It’s our guide to helping you achieve financial wellness, encompassing smarter budgeting and saving, a diversified approach to investing, as well as planning for the future with retirement accounts and insurance. 

It translates into six financial objectives :  

Spend less than you earn.

Pay bills on time.

Save cash for emergencies.

Invest regularly.

Diversify and think long-term.

Insure your assets and yourself.

Each step of the Stash Way is designed to help you manage some of the biggest pain points that consumers face when it comes to their finances, based on research from the Financial Health Network (FHN). FHN, a not-for-profit association of more than 160 financial services, policy, and consumer advocacy organizations, including Stash, is dedicated to helping ordinary and underserved people build a strong financial foundation and achieve financial wellness.

We’ll do a deeper dive into each topic in other articles, but briefly here’s a bit more about each component of the Stash Way: 

Spend less than you earn

At Stash, we believe the first step to taking control of your finances is having a clear picture of how much money you have coming in as income, and what you have going out as expenses each month. A budget can help you make sure you’re not spending more than you earn. There are numerous types of budget you can try, or you can feel free to create your own. 

And you need to get a handle on what you spend, because probably the most important financial goal for everyone when they start planning their financial lives is saving. 

Pay your bills on time

Paying your bills on time goes hand-in-hand with building a budget. Make sure you include your bills as part of your monthly essential expenses so that you’ll pay them on time each month and not get behind on payments.

Staying on top of your bills can insure that you maintain a good credit score, which measures how well you manage your debt. 

Save for the unexpected

You’ve probably heard the expression, “pay yourself first.” That simply means saving a portion of your income as you receive it. For most of us, that’s through weekly or bi-weekly paychecks. For many others, for example those who work in the gig economy, pay may be more sporadic, but you can still think about taking a portion of each paycheck and devoting it to savings. 

Saving for the unexpected requires different saving strategies and different plans for your money. At Stash we encourage users to create two different kinds of funds. One is called your rainy day fund, and it can be used for short-term unexpected things as they arise. The other is your emergency fund, and it’s for bigger unexpected expenses, such as loss of a job, large medical expenses, or something else of that nature.

Invest regularly, diversify, and invest for the long-term

If you can, start to invest in the stock market. Investing for the long term can help you take advantage of something called compounding, which is an echo effect that saving and investment earnings can both have. And regular investing can help you get a better price experience when purchasing securities such as stocks and bonds. 

Diversification means you’re not putting all of your eggs in one basket, so you can better weather the stock market’s ups and downs. That means you won’t put all of your money in too few stocks, bonds, or funds.

When thinking about long-term investing, it’s also important to consider retirement planning, which can include putting money into accounts such as a Roth or traditional IRA.

Insure your yourself and your assets

Budgeting, saving, and investing are building blocks that let you tackle the final goal of the Stash Way, which is insuring yourself and your family. 

Having the right insurance can help you stay on track financially, and it can be crucial to making sure you, your loved ones, and your property are protected from the impact of unexpected events like death, an accident, or an injury.

The post The Stash Way: Stash’s Complete Framework to Help You Achieve Financial Wellness appeared first on Stash Learn.

In this article, we’ll be talking about how investing regularly is a key part of The Stash Way.

Investing regularly is a better idea than trying to time the market

By investing regularly over time, adding more money when you can, you can avoid the perils of trying to time the market.

Timing the market is when you make guesses about which way the market will head, and buying or selling stocks based on those guesses, and it’s almost never a good idea.

No one has a crystal ball. By investing regularly, you can take your eye off the day-to-day noise of the market while feeling confident that you’ll be capturing the highs of the market, as well as the lows.

Why are the lows important? You can buy more of the investments you want at a cheaper price. That’s called “buying the dip.”

It’s important to note that investing regularly and dollar-cost averaging is not a protection against market volatility. It’s possible that during a serious market correction, dollar-cost averaging may not protect you.

Nervous? You can invest regularly in bonds and stocks

Not everyone has the same appetite for risk. And you may not want to keep adding to your stock holdings when the market goes down. (In fact, there’s a definite danger to having too much of your portfolio invested in stocks.)

If that’s the case for you, you might consider investing regularly in bonds.

Here’s the thing about the bond market: it doesn’t necessarily correlate with stocks. So, when the stock market falls, or even enters a correction or bear territory, bond prices may rise, or increase in value. There are also many different types of bonds, which can help you diversify.

Treasury bonds, issued by the U.S. federal government, are some of the safest bonds around since they are backed by the federal government. Investment grade corporate bonds, often issued by companies with a long history of profits and sales, can also be a good addition to your bond portfolio.

Defense, defense!

Something else to keep in mind: You can also invest regularly in something called defensive sector stocks. These are stocks in sectors such as consumer staples, health care, and utilities, that tend to be less volatile than other sectors.

That means, regardless of what’s going on in the economy, that consumer demand for the products and services produced by companies in defensive sectors is likely to remain stable.

Think about it: you will always need toothpaste and toilet paper from consumer products companies; similarly, consumers will always need to go to the doctor, or purchase prescriptions from health-care providers, and they’ll always need electricity and water from utility companies.

Stash has a tool called portfolio diversification analysis. This tool is available to any Stash customer with an invest account, and it can help you take small steps to craft a more diversified portfolio.

Turn on Recurring Transactions

One way to Stash can help you invest regularly is through Recurring Transactions. It’s an easy-to-use tool available on the app that can help you save or invest small amounts of money consistently over time, regardless of market conditions. You won’t have to worry about trying to pick the right time to invest or “timing the market” which we don’t recommend.

Recurring Transactions boasts a few key features that can help you supercharge your saving and investing, including Set Schedule, which allows you to set up automatic transfers.

You select the amount you want to set aside, when and how often you want to set it aside, and whether you’d like Stash to automatically invest it in your ETFs and stocks, or simply place the money in your cash account. It’s an easy way to save and invest regularly, on a schedule that works for you.

Follow the Stash Way

You can invest in a diversified portfolio that’s tailor-made to you. You can start small, adding more money over time. Investing regularly in a diversified portfolio with the long-term in mind is part of the Stash Way, our guide to financial wellness.

The best time to start investing is today. And you can start with just any dollar amount.²

The post The Stash Way: Invest Regularly appeared first on Stash Learn.

I wrote to you a few days ago about the coronavirus and its impact on the markets. The markets are continuing their slide again today, with indexes entering what’s known as a correction, as fears about the spread of the virus have grown.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. It’s important not to focus on the short-term noise. The only guarantee I’ll ever give you is that markets will go up and they’ll go down, and nobody can say with certainty where they will be tomorrow. However, over time markets tends to go up.

What should you do now?

When markets go down, you should stay the course. Specifically, we think it’s best for everyone to invest in their Mix and turn on Auto-Stash.  Auto-Stash can be your best friend right now. I want you to look back at this time in a few years knowing you picked up investments during all the market cycles. Your Mix is a diversified grouping of bonds and stocks that are global. (There are three types of mix: conservative, moderate, and aggressive.) You can find the mix investments by searching “mix” in the app or in the balance section of investments. If you already own the mix, bravo—keep adding to it on a regular basis.

The Stash Way is the best guidance we can give for up markets and down markets. Simply, consider investing small amounts in your Mix and other investments, on a regular basis.  We make this easy with Auto-Stash. Now, more than ever, is a time to set it and let Auto-Stash work it’s magic.

Market performance over time

We’ve shared this graph with you before, but it’s essential to keep top of mind. The following shows the performance of the S&P 500 for the last 25 years. The S&P 500 is an index that reflects the earnings of the 500 biggest companies in the U.S., and it’s considered a benchmark for the entire stock market. Over time, you’ll see that the price of stocks tends to go up. You’ll notice this chart includes some pretty steep sell-offs in the past, such as the Dotcom bust, and the mortgage crisis that led to the recession in 2009.

Source: Yahoo Finance, February, 2020¹

There are a couple of things that I want to say. First of all, when the markets fall, it can be a great buying opportunity, just like when the markets go up. Here’s the thing: We’ve been in a bull market for about ten years with stock prices basically going straight up. Some may say the price of equities, or stocks, is perhaps even too high.

And when stock prices fall, as they have for the past few days, it’s a chance for you to add to your Mix and other investments at lower prices. (As a reminder Investing involves risk. You should always take your personal circumstances into consideration when making investment decisions.) 

Follow the Stash Way

So what is the Stash Way? We’re glad you asked! It’s a fundamental part of our investing strategy, which has three pillars.

• Invest regularly: Even if you take small amounts and invest them every week or every month, that can add up through the power of something called compounding.

• Invest for the long term: Over the years, market gains have outpaced standard savings rates in bank accounts. Looking ahead, experts expect markets to return about 5%. With the power of compounding and regular investing, you have the ability to build wealth for the financial future you want.

• Diversify: Diversification means you’re not putting all of your eggs in one basket, so you can better weather the stock market’s ups and downs. That means you won’t put all of your money in too few stocks, bonds, or funds.

In addition to buying one of the Mixes and sticking to the Stash Way, here are some other tactics to consider.

• People often flock to gold and other precious metals, in what’s called a flight to safety. Why? Gold is gold–it’s a hard metal that always has value. (A word of warning though, gold prices can also be very volatile.)
• You can also consider bonds. Did you know that a generation ago, when people talked about investing in the stock market, that mostly meant they were investing in bonds. Believe it or not, the bond market is much larger than the equities markets, and can provide a measure of stability, acting as a counterweight to stocks. In fact, bond yields often stay stable when the stock market drops.
• Park My Cash (search for it in the Stash app) is an option if you want less “ups and downs” and a lower risk investment.

We are in this all together. Stash is your financial home and your financial partner, and we are here for you.

Stash on!

Brandon Krieg
Founder and CEO

The post Stash’s CEO on Weathering the Storm appeared first on Stash Learn.