I liked M1 Finance for following reasons.
1. Allows To Invest in Portfolio / Strategy
M1Finance provides a very simple automated investing in entire portfolio. I like this feature mainly since it takes a lot to keep a portfolio balanced.
The portfolio investment strategy creation step can be very cumbersome and require a lot of research. Once a strategy is set we do not need to individually buy or sell all investments.
Since M1Finance allows buying and selling fraction of shares, it gets pretty close to allocation.
2. Automation — Easiest Way to Do Dollar-Cost-Averaging
Once strategy is set, automation helps in long run. Doing a small amount of investment periodically is very easy in this.
3. FREE
Of course this is so important for long term investors. There is no additional fees to be paid for investing via M1 finance. This makes it a better choice as compared to Wealthfront that charges fee for similar features.
I am not using M1 Plus (Paid Membership). It has fixed annual fees with features that I do not care for as of now. It is still a better choice than a percentage based fee model. Percentage based fee can be really high for bigger portfolios.
Whats The Catch?
Here are some key things to keep in mind before you jump into opening a M1 finance account.
- It is not trading platform — it allows you to do single trade in a day that is similar to a 401k plan investment.
- Not much help on investment strategy — you are on your own. Except this unofficial subreddit that I loved to use while creating my own portfolio. The weekly portfolio discussion archives are worth reading.
My Referral Link
You can earn $50 Bonus if you join M1Finance using my referral link: https://m1.finance/r8LjgTaAns1c
What investment platform are you using?
