SoFi Automated Investing: A Platform Designed for the Uninitiated

You have a lot of options available to you as a newbie investor, and while this may seem overwhelming at first, over time you will come to realise that it is actually a benefit. The days are long gone when you had to go into the musty chambers of a stock brokerage to do business. You now have access to the entire world of financial investing.

But this is a large universe, full of a peculiar vocabulary and a variety of options. When it comes to retirement planning, there is a bewildering variety of options available, including stocks, bonds, options, and annuities. Where do you even begin? Thank goodness, auto-investors, sometimes known as robo-investors, had already made this first step a lot simpler.

You may have heard of SoFi before; first promoted as a way to refinance student loans, it has since moved into the realms of mortgages, mortgage refinancing, and auto investing. SoFi was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

SoFi is a very young firm, having been established in 2011 by a group of Stanford University alumni. But don’t be fooled by their lack of expertise; SoFi is swiftly establishing pedigree in the industry, and it has become the company of choice for beginning investors.

What makes it such a wonderful opportunity for people who are just getting started? In this piece, we are going to focus on SoFi’s automated platform; however, it is important to keep in mind that they also provide the more advanced “SoFi Active Investing” option for users who have more experience in the financial market or who are perhaps just looking to gain some “clout” among their friends who are more knowledgeable about the market.

SoFi Automated Investing

To begin, the cost of using SoFi Automated Investing is really reasonable. Getting started with investing will only cost you $5, there are no account minimums, and there are no management fees. It also has a wide range of account kinds, from individual taxable accounts to rollover IRAs, so it may be used for a variety of purposes. There are a lot of simple methods that can be used to make money, but one of the simplest ways is to invest with a company such as SoFi.

Perks of SoFi Automated Investing (especially for beginners)

There are no account minimums, and there are no management fees.
Automatic rebalancing performed every four weeks in addition to manual adjustments every five percent of drift
A complete “target planning” approach that gives you the ability to locate the portfolio that best meets your specific requirements
Free financial planning and investing guidance from industry professionals.
With their selection of 10 distinct portfolios spanning 13 asset classes, SoFi makes it possible for practically any investor to choose an asset allocation that is suitable for them. SoFi is not in the business of helping people get rich quick – this is ethical investment that is done in a smart way. These portfolios are stable, and they have been built by specialists for solid growth.

In addition to this, they segment their portfolios according to “risk class,” so that you are aware of what you are getting yourself into. Take, for instance, the scenario in which you are still relatively young but want to start investing for your retirement. Because of this, you are in a position to select an investment portfolio that is somewhat more precarious because you have the time to weather temporary setbacks. A person who is getting closer and closer to their retirement age would likely lean in the opposite direction.

Having said that, using the SoFi Automated Investing platform does come with a few limitations. Although these are presumably of more concern to moderately advanced investors, we believe that it is important to provide a breakdown of the disadvantages nonetheless.

Cons of SoFi Automated Investing

The Downsides of Automated Investing Through SoFi
There is no opportunity to “harvest” tax losses.
Their investment portfolios are made up of a wide selection of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and each ETF has its own unique fee structure.
The auto invest feature of SoFi limits you to a particular investment approach. SoFi is more difficult to manipulate than M1 Finance, which lets you include their “expert pies” in an existing portfolio of investments. SoFi does not allow this. You decide which portfolio to use, and that’s the end of what she wrote.
Given that the service is provided completely free of charge, SoFi must generate revenue in some other way. What they do is sell the order flows of their users, which means that they sell your personal information as well as your investing habits. This is comparable to the functionality of many different social networking websites. Although at first glance this might not appear to be particularly problematic, there are a number of profound existential questions that are raised by it.
The inability to “harvest” tax losses is most likely the biggest drawback of using SoFi. Even if at first glance it might not seem like much, this is actually something that could end up costing you some cash in the long run. Here you may get additional information about tax-loss harvesting.

SoFi’s Customer Service

It is extremely beneficial for novice investors to have access to dependable customer care. This is one of SoFi Invest’s strong suits. You have access to customer service via live chat, email, or by calling the number listed on the website if you are a member.

It is important to keep in mind that the stock advisors at SoFi will not provide you with specific stock recommendations; rather, they will assist you in making the most of the investment services that they offer. Part of this assistance involves matching your particular investment requirements with the portfolios that they have already compiled.

Why SoFi?

You could be questioning why SoFi rather than one of the many well-known automated financial advisors or robo-advisors currently available. M1 Finance and the Digital Advisor offered by Vanguard are only two of the many excellent ones that are currently available. However, the response is fairly straightforward: it is entirely predicated on the requirements that you have for a digital car adviser platform.

To tell you the truth, SoFi shines when working with novices. If you are interested in trading or even just considering it as an option, it is difficult to find a better platform than SoFi. It is a paradise for beginners because there is only a $5 minimum to start, there are no minimum balance requirements, and the service is almost completely free.

Don’t let your money go to waste by putting it in a savings account that doesn’t offer much return. Get your “piece of the pie” by beginning to invest as soon as possible.