Years ago we had what I called a 'family bank' at our house. It took many forms, but most often it was some kind of a mason jar that I dumped my spare change into at the end of each day. The money would build up into a surprisingly hefty sum after only two to three months. My children used to watch the jar filling up, and when the time seemed right they would say, 'Hey, Dad can we cash in the family bank?' When that day came, we would dump out all of the coins into a plastic bag and take them up to our grocery store and cash them in using the coin counting machine. Wow, sometimes there was as much as $70 to $80.  This represented 'fun money' that we could then use to go play mini golf and go out for ice cream (or whatever other fun plans the kids would make). 

My kids are  all grown, and these days I rarely carry cash (paying for most things using a credit or debit card). As a result, there is no spare change to throw into the family bank anymore. I still love the idea of the family savings jar, and found a new way to implement it using an app. It is an ingenious system that creates 'spare change' from credit card transactions by rounding them up to the next dollar. The 'spare change' from each transaction is not thrown into a mason jar, but put to work in an investment account. The program is called Acorns, and the average user saves $100 per month using the app!

How Is The Money Invested And what Are The Costs?

Acorns offers three investment options - conservative, moderate, and aggressive. The cost is just $1 per month to use the app. You can link an unlimited number of credit cards to your account, and withdraw your money at any time. There is also a special free option for college students. Once an account reaches $5,000 in value, the fee is one quarter of one percent per year. 

I really love this idea! I am going to implement it right away and plan to use this as my extra 'holiday' money each year. Use the comments section below and share your own thoughts and plans on using Acorns. There is even a referral program that pays you $5 for referring a friend. Use my referral link here and we both get an extra $5 in our accounts!

Helping you make the most of God’s money!

James L. Paris
Editor-In-Chief ChristianMoney.com 
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