Many people reevaluate their financial situations in the new year, and many now turn to mobile personal finance apps for their ease, convenience, and expediency. Mobile apps, by their very nature, are designed to help you do something quickly and efficiently. The Stash Invest iPhone app specializes in helping mobile users get started investing. From the app, you can buy, sell, and monitor investment funds, with as little as $5 to start. It's a rather simple app that would benefit from additional features and notification options, but it does succeed in helping you get started investing quickly. If your personal finance goals are less about investing and more about getting a handle on your money, analyzing your spending habits, creating budgets, and so forth, Stash Invest is not the app you need—Editors' Choice Mint is.

Costs
Stash Invest is free to download, and the minimum investment is only $5. But, as with most investing services, there are fees for using the service. For users with less than $5,000 in the app, Stash Invest gives you the first three months free and then charges $1 per month. That subscription fee comes out of your connected bank account, not your investments. Account holders with $5,000 or more invested pay 0.25 percent of their account balance per year.

Using Stash Invest
I walked through the setup process with Stash Invest, but I didn't actually want to open a new investment account, so I asked the company to set me up with a test account. During setup, you will need to divulge a little bit of personal information, as you are opening an actual financial account.

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