Want to help your teen be even more financially savvy and secure? You are going to love Bloom! Bloom is the best investing app for teens and minors that literally just hit the market this year!
Best Stock Investing App for Teens and Minors
One of the hardest things to tackle teaching your teens about can be money. Why? We, as parents, are sometimes still learning about money ourselves! Sometimes, we think that we just need more money and that will solve all our problems. But one of the bigger issues is learning how to think about money, how to handle money, AND how to invest money.
And as moms to teens, how do we simultaneously keep learning those skills AND pass along that mental know how to our kids? One of the best ways is learning from others! So I am so excited to get to share with you about a new investing app that was specifically designed for helping teens and minors learn to invest.
Note: Thank you to Bloom for sponsoring this post. While Bloom was generous enough to support this post and allow us to try their product, all the opinions are from own personal experience. This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through a link The Reluctant Cowgirl will receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you, used toward keeping this blog going. Read all my disclosure here.
What is Bloom Investing App for Minors and Teenagers?
Bloom is a free stock investing app specifically created for teenagers 13-17. Teenagers can start investing legally when parents set up a simple custodial account using Bloom. Bloom has educational modules, offers fractional investing in real stocks and allows teens to start investing with as little as a $1 a day now!
The past two years, I have challenged myself to move beyond my comfort zone when it comes to money. My natural style of handling money is saving. Picture extreme couponing. Yep, that was me holding up the check out line at the grocery store with my 35 coupons.
But I started realizing that I was holding myself back when it came to bringing in money! Learning about money felt scary. So I decided to push past my money fears and try to learn from others when it came to money. And I’m so glad I did!
Presently, I have lost count on the books and audiobooks, I have read on making money, handling money, and of course saving money. And learning more about money can actually be FUN! So I love that with Bloom, parents can now give their teens the tools to learn more about money and actually get started investing early!
Importance of Teaching Teens About Investing
Why do we need to teach our teenagers about investing now? I mean, its not like our teenagers are going to be retiring any time soon. Heck, some of them haven’t even had their first job! But there are a few SECRETS when it comes to investing early.
Teens Become More Strategic With Money
When we teach our teens and tweens about money early, we are handing them a powerful tool they will use the rest of their life! Remember, those mental money blocks I have been working on overcoming? We all have those mental stumbling blocks when it comes to money.
The more we encourage our teenagers to learn about handling money when they are young, the more we not only teach them about money, but we ALSO place the idea in their minds that one can learn about money. Money is not simply for some people. It is a renewable resource that we can ALL learn how to make, use, and invest! And money smarts will change the trajectory of our teen’s life!!
Power of Compound Interest
There is also a big SECRET called compound interest!
Basically, if your teen starts investing early the longer their money will have to start building interest. There is a tipping point where if ones starts investing earlier, like at 16, and actually stops later, a person that waits to start investing at say age 35 won’t be able to catch up. That is the power of compound interest! Checkout this chart from Join Bloom that shows the difference between a 13 year old and an 18 year old.
Now that we know that learning about money and investing as soon as one can is important, let’s look at Bloom versus the other investing apps.
Problems with the Other Investing Apps
Long term investing doesn’t feel relevant to most teenagers. That is why it is vital to allow teens opportunities to invest with real money. But parents will quickly we run into barriers when trying to give their 13-17 year old teens investing opportunities!
Most Investing Apps are Not Designed for Teenagers
While there are financial investing institutions that allow you to sign your teen up for an account, you have to do so under a parent’s existing account. But that assumes that you already have an existing financial investing account that you use and feel comfortable with inquiring about additional accounts.
While my husband and I do have investments, I can say that we are not exactly on a first name basis with our investment company so adding another account feels stressful and unknown.
And the bigger financial institution’s app for minors is an add on not an investing app specifically designed for teens and minors. So many teens, and let’s be honest some of us parents, may feel overwhelmed by the steps and underwhelmed by the ease of use.
Investing Accounts Require Large Amounts of Cash
Most investing accounts assume that you have hundreds or even thousands that you are wanting to invest. I don’t know about your teenager, but your typical teenager does not have a ton of money to open an investment account.
Investment Accounts Charge Fees
Say your teen does make a small profit, the commission fees of many investment accounts will wipe out the profits as the teen’s beginning investment is usually smaller.
How To Start Investing as a Teenager with Bloom
But Bloom stock investing app is different! The app was specifically designed with teens in mind. From the fun graphics to the clever educational modules, Bloom is on a mission to educate the next generation!
According to Join Bloom, Bloom has all these features!
✅ Custodial Account Creation & or Support
✅ $0 Commission and Fees
✅ $0 App Cost
✅ Fractional Investments
✅ $0 Account Minimum
✅ $0 Account Minimum
✅ Learn To Earn ($5 Stock Reward)
✅ Community/Live Support + Free Workshops
✅ $500k SIPC Insurance
At the moment, Bloom does offer cryptocurrencies. But due to the higher risk in investing in them, teens must first pass a module on crypto and parents must have allowed it within the parent settings. Bloom encourages a focus on long term, low risk investing for new investors, while still allowing parents to have the final say.
Bloom Investing App is Easy to Set-Up
The app is super simple to set-up. Parents or teens can initiate the stock investing app by downloading the app or starting from your laptop. If parents open the account then it will send an email invite to the teen to download the app and get started. And with Bloom, teens can start legally investing with a custodial account. And you don’t have to talk to anyone on the phone!
Bloom Investing App for Under 18 Includes Learning Modules
Bloom wants to help teens understand investing and stock investing lingo. So they have 60+ short modules that are designed like Instagram stories, something your teen is familiar with, that walk them through learning about investing. Teens will learn about stocks, EFT’s, budgeting, cryptocurrencies and more.
Fun Financial App Designed for Teens by Teens
Bloom was designed by three young men that are barely out of their teens themselves, so they are definitely bringing a fresh perspective to Bloom’s graphic designs. Teens will find Bloom eye catching, appealing and less intimidating.
Bloom Investing App Uses Micro Investing
Teens can get started investing with as little as a $1! With fractional investing teens can buy a portion of a stock. They will learn the tools about investing with real money but without the risky investments of hundreds of dollars.
Bloom Keeps Your Money Secure
Bloom Uses Plaid and SIPC Insurance to keep your teen’s money safe. So you and your family can have confidence as you join over 100,000 other users.
Bloom Encourages Teens to Use Secure Stocks
Bloom rates all the stocks. Teens can start to understand that some stocks are more volatile while other stocks are more low risk. Teens will get to see that while having stock in the more trending stocks might sound fun those stocks can carry a higher risk. But Bloom still offers teens the opportunity to invest in companies that they have heard of before so investing will be appealing to teens.
Bloom Investing App is Parent Moderated
From the app or your laptop, parents can easily go in and adjust the parent controls. Bloom can be set so that teens can only invest in low risk stock. Parents have full access to see what educational modules their teen have watched and where their teen is investing their money. And parents can easily add more funds to their teen’s account if they wish.
When a teen turns 18, parents can give their teenagers full control of the account.
My Honest Review of Bloom Investing App for Teens and Minors
Overall, I was definitely wowed by Bloom! As I mentioned, I am a saver and had been taught money basics early in life. But sometimes learning more about money, especially investing, can be intimidating. However, I found Bloom’s fun app a barrier breaker when it comes to learning more about investing and being able to teach my teen the power of investing early.
Pros to Bloom Investing App for Minors
Made Just for Teens
I love that Bloom was designed just for teens! The creators wanted to fill a need in the market, and with Bloom, teens 13-17 can now easily get set up and running in less than 30 minutes! And though the app has real investing power, Bloom feels fun and way less intimidating than traditional investing.
Educational Modules
The educational modules are great and streamlined to give little bits of information over time. And teens can even win stock by completing some of the educational modules!
Bloom Set-Up Was Easy
The set-up was very easy. It did not take long at all to set up Bloom from my laptop, connect my bank accounts, send invite to my son, and deposit $5 into the account.
Customer Service Was Helpful
While opening an account, I did run into one snafu where it was not accepting my cell phone number. But I reached out to customer service and someone fixed the problem and got back to me within the hour to let me know I was good to go!
Cons to Bloom Investing App for Teens
As I mentioned, overall I really liked the Bloom app. There were only a few concerns I had.
Bloom Is Only for iPhone and Mac Users
My main con to Bloom is that it does not work on Android. As the app is brand new, hopefully that will be something that is remedied in the near future. Currently the Bloom app can only be used on a teen’s iPhone, iPad, iPod or a Mac computer. Now, if your teen has an Apple device, parents can still use a laptop of any kind to set up and monitor the account. So if a household has at least one Apple device then you will have no problem using Bloom.
I was able to set up a new account from my laptop and send link to my son, without owning an iPad or Mac.
Bloom is Not a 529 Account
Another concern I have is that Bloom is not a 529 account. With a 529 account, parents can add money to an investing account that is designated just for educational costs. When it comes to filling out school financial aid forms, a 529 does not count against a family as much as a regular savings account. But I do remember any savings that my teen had, at the time, counting against him more than I expected.
So I am not sure how the Bloom custodial account will affect a teen’s college financial aid opportunities once the teen turns 18. However, I still think it is better in the long run for teen’s to start learning to take control of their money by budgeting and learning to save and invest.
For example, our one son that did go to college ended up getting to go to the college of his choice. He used a combination of taking dual enrollment classes while in high school. He also worked during his high school and college years, applied for scholarships, and received financial aid gifts from family. He graduated with some debt, which he promptly worked off in 6 months.
Since he had a habit of saving and working, he was able to continue using those money habits he had learned as a teenager. So I would say that the money habits he created were powerful. Any financial ding he got hit with due to having money saved didn’t slow him down due to his strong budgeting and saving habits.
How To Get Your Teenager Interested in Investing
One Pro Tip to getting your teens on board. Teens will be drawn in pretty quickly once they start using Bloom. But as a fellow mom to teens, I understand that half the battle is just getting your teen to try something that was mom’s idea!
In my research, I found this great Bloom Review YouTube video (and we know teens love YouTube) that I think really explains the Bloom app well. So I suggest mentioning to your teenager that you believe that they are responsible enough to start investing a little money in the stock market. Ask them if they will watch the short YouTube video here with you and give you their opinion:)
The YouTube video will not only sell them on investing, the video will get them eager to jump in and start using Bloom today!
How To Try Bloom Investing App for Teens for Free
Trying Bloom is truly a no brainer decision! Bloom investing app for minors is free and the investment to get started is only dollars!
And with all these amazing features Bloom is a natural choice for teaching your teenager how to invest and start saving money!
- Easy Custodial Account Set-up and Support
- $0 Commission and Fees
- $0 App Cost
- Fractional Investments in Real Stocks
- $0 Account Minimum
- Educational Modules with Learn To Earn Feature ($5 Stock Reward)
- Community Support + Free Workshops
- $500k SIPC Insurance
So head here to Join Bloom or learn more! You can also head to your nearest Apple store and download the Bloom app for free!
Hi Miranda,
This is awesome. Just signed up my teens, 14 and 16. They both have jobs so this will be a perfect segway into learning the value of having their money work for them. So appreciate you and your wisdom in this parenting journey.
Yay! So glad you got your teens signed up. And congrats to them on their jobs! And you are so welcome. I also have appreciated your blog!