Sharesies have made a few tweaks...
Mar 3, 2019
Very quick blog post for you this week (every time I write this sentence I have to scrub it out later). But here goes…
Sharesies have been making a few tweaks to their system. If you already use them they will have emailed you (but if you are like me, you may have missed it) and I felt the changes are worth mentioning for those investing with them already or for those thinking about doing so. Sharesies is now “tidier” to use and I think probably less confusing for newbie investors too.
It used to be that you had to buy an entire share. For example, the NZ Property (NPF) shares I buy are currently $1.21, but I have a total of $15.11 in my wallet to invest.
I used to have to work out how many WHOLE shares the money in my wallet would allow me to buy and invariably I would receive some annoying CHANGE a day after I purchased them, such as this:
They have now stopped giving change and I can instead just invest that entire $15.11, even if that means I buy a fraction of a share. This is much better, cleaner and less confusing!
Another problem they have now solved is this:
For my daughter who is buying US 500, I would buy one share for her at the current share price but by the time they processed my order, the price had risen so they would return the ENTIRE amount to her wallet, meaning she bought NOTHING, which was frustrating! I got around this by entering a higher amount to buy and that lead to the first issue, they had to give change. Now she can invest whatever amount she has and not miss out. Good news!
Plus there is now no $5 minimum spend and because I like to log in just once a week on a Monday and invest, I can now invest whether there is $4.75 there or $47.50. The benefit I see in this is that because Sharesies is hands-on and not automated I have to create a HABIT to remind myself to invest with them. I was doing this on a Monday morning only to sometimes find there was some money to invest, but not quite enough, so I had to quit it and try next week. Now, I will always be able to invest something and this is going to help me form a more reliable habit.
However, they might solve my behavioural issue for me because the reason for these changes is because they are gearing up to remove the barrier of me having to ‘remember to invest’. They are preparing to make it automatic which is good news for an investor like myself who just wants to set and forget.
So, if you are reading this and STILL dithering about whether to try investing, the barrier to entry just got even lower, and with Sharesies it was pretty darn low already! I want people to understand that investing in the share market is not this big scary daunting thing anymore that you need to put off until next week, next month or next year. Whenever someone is asked about their biggest regret when it comes to investing it's that ‘they didn’t start sooner”.
Well, my 11-year-old daughter started investing with Sharesies in September 2018. I direct credit her $5.50 a week and we also top it up from her pocket money when she builds up an amount to invest. Here is how her portfolio is looking this week:
Not bad for an 11-year-old! Imagine what a 16-year-old getting their first after-school job could achieve or a 25-year-old uni grad starting their career, or a 35-year-old stay at home Mum….
And because they are receptive to what their users want I emailed them last week with a suggestion from my daughter. When she presses the buy button a bunch of pink love hearts appear which she really likes, but she has seen them a lot now and she felt it was time for a change. She wants more FANFARE! So, I sent that suggestion to them and they said they are working on that update as well! As long as they continue to do the basics well - like invest my money when and where I ask - I’m pleased that they are agile and dynamic enough to review and update as they evolve as a company. It’s interesting to watch.
BOOM! Shortest blog post ever! Kinda…
Happy Saving!
Ruth
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