Best Online Sites for Building Wealth

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Managing your money has never been easier with the influx of countless online sites to help you build wealth. In the past, your options were limited to either hiring a financial planner, or going at it on your own and hoping you were on track to reach your goals.

But now there are online companies for building wealth that offer many of the services that you would receive if you hired a financial planner for a fraction of the price. After all, everyone should have the opportunity to build wealth, not just those who already have a lot of zeros in their bank account.

Betterment

Based off your age and your income, Betterment helps you dial in your financial goals and create a solid plan around those goals. The three primary goals that Betterment helps you reach are Safety (with adequate emergency fund savings), Retirement (making sure you are on target to achieve your retirement goals), and Investing (growing and preserving your capital over time). Through the use of technology and automation, Betterment can offer very low fees to manage your money, starting at $4/month for investing balances under $20,000 and 0.25% annual fee for balances over $20,000. Most traditional investment advisers would charge fees upwards of 1% a year. Saving money in fees means that you get to put more money in your pocket, and achieve all of your awesome goals much sooner.

Empower

When was the last time you took a look at your net worth? If you're like most people, you've probably never taken the time to figure out your net worth and analyze your current and future financial road map. Empower offers an all-in-one wealth dashboard with robust financial tools to keep you informed and on track. On top of their net worth planner, Empower also provides tools to analyze your investment portfolio with their Investment Checkup as well as a retirement planner and wealth management (for a fee). Signing up is free, and you can access all your information on their mobile app or desktop version. One of their most popular tools is the Cash Flow Analyzer, which gives details about your weekly, monthly, and annual spending habits so you can dive deep into what you are spending on things like eating out, entertainment, and travel.

GoldBean

GoldBean believes that investing should be easy, fun, and approachable. Geared toward the beginner investor, GoldBean uses their technology to analyze your bank statements to find investment options based around the companies that you love. They believe that you should always invest in what you know — the companies that you already love and trust. Once they've analyzed your current spending, they create a customized portfolio, provide ongoing financial advice, and offer the ability to buy funds as your experience and confidence in investing grows. Annual membership starts at $50 a year, and trading fees are low at $4.95 per trade after two month's free trading.

Sprinklebit

Stock investing can be scary for anyone, but especially a beginner. There are so many choices, and it's hard to figure out what is best for your situation. Sprinklebit believes in demystifying stock investing by using the same principles of Facebook — social sharing — and the notion that you should never trade alone. When you sign up for Sprinklebit, you have access to all the other Sprinklebit customers and their portfolios to help you make better investing decisions. You can see which stocks are performing well and which ones are the losers before you put a dime of your money into the stock. Sprinklebit doesn't just stop there. They believe in education and have created 24 chapters of in-depth material to take you through all the different steps of investing for free.

You can also set up a mock portfolio with their Market Simulator and use $5,000 free "Sprinklebucks" to give a portfolio a test drive before you pony up any of your real money. With the market simulator, you have access to real-time trading data just like you would in a real portfolio. Once you get your confidence, you can move over into a live portfolio and begin trading. Each trade costs $8, and if you're more advanced, you can move up to their premium option which gives you some advanced trading tools.

Blooom

If you're one of those set-it-and-forget-it types who chose your 401K funds years ago and has never taken a second look, Blooom is going to become your best friend. Blooom was created as an easy and affordable way to fix and manage your 401K to meet your needs. Their promise is "No more pie charts, line graphs, or nausea," but simple, easy to understand knowledge, and tips about how to maximize your 401K funds. You can use their free analysis tool to find out if your 401K is positioned properly (many aren't), and then sign up and pay $10 per month, with additional accounts at $7.50 per month. (Save 10% by paying annually.) There are no other hidden fees, and you can cancel your membership at any time. Professional advisory would cost you a lot more if you turned to an individual broker for assistance. With Blooom, you don't need to be a finance whiz create a 401K portfolio that puts you ahead of the retirement game.

What's your favorite online company for building wealth?