What’s The Best Way to Invest and Grow $5?

Published by Brian Meiggs on

invest 5 dollars

I've been there — your friends talk about investing in Bitcoin or other growth stocks like Tesla or GameStop and you wish you could join in on the fun.

I mean — investing is a real way to grow wealth.

But what can you do if you only can invest a little amount of money?

That's what I'm here to tell you about. I've been investing for the past decade and now I have a portfolio that is made of some of the best stocks I've found.

So even if you only have $5 to invest today, you can get started and start growing your portfolio. Odds are that you can easily make $5 fast on PayPal in a day, to add to your growth.

How to Invest $5 Online

So you have 5 dollars! Yay.

Let's start investing it so you can make $10, $15, $20 and eventually $100 fast and more with micro investing apps.

But what are micro investing apps?

Dave Ramsey puts it nicely, micro investing apps are:

“Micro-investing apps allow users to save and invest money in small amounts. Usually the app makes saving easy. When you connect a debit card, a micro-investing app can round up your purchases to the dollar or make automatic transfers for you.”

So if you want to give them a shot to invest your $5 — here are the best micro investing apps right now:

Robinhood (Best Investing App Overall)

how to invest $5 online

If you are looking for a micro investing app that offers a lot more than traditional alternatives, then Robinhood is the king.

First off, Robinhood is completely free, so your $5 won't be eaten up by any fees whatsoever.

And you can invest in any stock you want, even Apple or Tesla, through fractional shares.

A fractional share is when you own less than one whole share of a company. Fractional shares allow you to purchase stocks based on the dollar amount you want to invest, so you may end up with a fraction of a share, a whole share, or more than one share.

Plus, you can buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with your 5 bucks which may be a smart play.

And the app offers a bunch of other features that can help investors like stock ratings by analysts, earnings information, and general stock market news.

What's best? If you join for free you can get a stock valued up to $200 instantly.

Robinhood: This investing app lets you trade stocks and do everything for free and takes no fees — ever. Better yet, if you join through this link you can get a free stock like Apple, Ford, or Sprint when you join (must complete signup).

Acorns (Best for Passive Investors)

how to invest $5 online

For those who really want to save every penny, you can use the Acorns app which automatically invests your spare change.

This makes it easy for anyone with a smartphone to grow wealth. Plus, you can add your $5 and invest it a smart portfolio that Acorns has set out.

Acorns portfolios are developed with help from Nobel Prize-winning economist, Dr. Harry Markowitz.

They’ve been so good, I've even taken the portfolios Acorns has created and emulated it on my own retirement accounts — smart, right?

But more to the point, Acorns won't make you rich overnight, but it can if you continue to add money to it through small round ups which can help you boost your passive income.

I should note — for balances under $5,000, they have a fee of $1 per month. Once your balance surpasses $5,000, you’ll pay 0.25% of your balance per year, divided into monthly fees.

I'd say that fee is hefty, but if you join through this link, you can get a free $10 bonus to offset 10 months of fees.

Acorns has over 704,097 positive reviews in the App Store — people love it and it's a no-brainer to start using it invest $5.

Acorns: Invest your spare change automatically. Join over 7,000,000 people saving and investing every day. Sign up in no time to save and invest more money and get a $10 bonus through this link.

Coinbase (Best Crypto Investing Option)

Now Coinbase isn't really a micro investing app but it is a great way to invest $5 in cryptocurrency.

Coinbase is a secure platform that makes it easy to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and more.

And if you have been living under a rock, you may have seen that Bitcoin has soared over $50,000 recently as the bull run continues.

I did a survey with some of my members on my Facebook investing group, and over 80% of people think Bitcoin will surpass $100,000 by 2022.

So if you invest $5 in BTC at $50,000 and it doubles to $100,000 then you can double your investment. Now imagine saving $1,000 and investing it — you can make an easy $1,000 by just having your money sitting pretty.

You can do this on Coinbase. I wouldn't recommend them if they weren't the largest and most used cryptocurrency exchange (and they're located in the US).

Plus, anyone who registers for a free account can get a free $5 in Bitcoin — how sweet is that?

Coinbase: Coinbase is the easiest to buy Bitcoin. You simply create an account and put your bank account or credit card information in. Once you do that, you can head over and purchase. In the beginning, there will be a limit on how much you can buy which is a good security measure. You can get started with a free $5 welcome bonus for new users.

SoFi Invest (Best for Active Investing)

how to invest 5 dollars

We already have 3 great options to invest your 5 dollars — do you really need any more options?

Sorry, but we do and you will agree once you learn about SoFi Invest.

SoFi Invest is a mix of social media and investing — which is great for those who want to actively invest their $5.

If you use the free app you can mimic the trades of more experienced investors by viewing the leaderboard of social sharing investors.

If you look at the leaderboards, you can see those who have crazy high returns, usually from betting on smaller penny stocks. So you can copy their trades and your $5 can actually go a long way.

If you look below, David Fuhr, a Team Lead at Wal-Mart made a 959.85% return in the last 30 days, crushing the market.

The best part? You click his name and see all of his holdings and what he buys/sells in REAL TIME. You can do this for any investor on the app.

You can start investing online with only $1 at SoFi Invest — and it's all completely free. They also allow you to invest in cryptocurrency and offer a bunch of helpful tools for new investors and even more experienced ones.

SoFI Invest: Build confidence as an investor. Trade stocks and ETFs, buy crypto or start automated investing. Do it yourself by choosing stocks, ETFs, and crypto, or let SoFi build a portfolio for you with automated investing. You can sign up through here and start investing $5 ASAP.

Best Stocks Under $5

If you decide to go rogue and want to do all the investing yourself — here are some stocks that I personally would recommend.

Eight cheap stocks under $5 to buy now:

  • Drive Shack (DS)
  • OrganiGram Holdings (OGI)
  • VOC Energy Trust (VOC)
  • LiveXLive Media (LIVX)
  • Nokia Corp. (NOK)
  • Limelight Networks (LLNW)
  • BioDelivery Sciences International (BDSI)
  • Allied Esports Entertainment (AESE)

My top 3 picks:

Nokia Corp. (NOK) – Nokia was part of the meme stocks that got pumped but it has cooled off to trading what it was before the pump. Now it is sitting under $5 and it is in a good position to be bought out. The stock is also not very volatile, so you may be not getting rich overnight. But if they are bought out, you can make a lot. Do your own research, but this is a stock that I purchased and just sitting on.

TLDR: Shares of Finnish telecom company Nokia have been on a roller coaster ride so far in 2021, pushed up by retail investors fueled by Reddit, then dropping after fourth-quarter and full-year earnings were announced on Feb. 4.

BioDelivery Sciences International (BDSI) – The investment thesis for a cheap biopharmaceutical stock is usually predicated on the success of a new drug in clinical trials. BioDelivery Sciences' focus is on patients living with chronic conditions, and its two main products Belbuca and Symproic, have proven to be strong sellers.

Allied Esports Entertainment (AESE) – The wide world of esports has only gotten bigger as the virus has kept people locked up indoors and looking for entertainment. This has pushed video game sales to unprecedented heights, while esports have been pulled along for the ride. Allied Esports Entertainment has had to quickly pivot from live events to an all-digital strategy, which isn't an easy thing to do even if all of your content is already digital. 

Source: https://money.usnews.com/investing/stock-market-news/slideshows/best-cheap-stocks-to-buy-now

Summing it up

As you can see, your 5 dollars can go a long way if you decide to invest it online.

There is an investing option out there for just about everyone if you only have a few dollars to your name.

Each of these apps also help you save money — so it's likely you will continue to earn more money by saving or actively finding new ways to earn more (maybe through investing!).

Then you can sit back and dream about quitting your job and traveling the world.

That's what I did, and I'm loving every second of it. So start by investing, even if you only have $5 — and watch it grow.

Categories: Make Money

Brian Meiggs

Brian is the founder of GigsAcademy and has tried every side hustle under the sun. He teaches people just like you how to make money in the gig economy and has been featured in Yahoo! Finance, NASDAQ, Discover and more. He normally shares the latest news, videos, and topics for gig workers so they can earn more money in the gig economy.

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