Bloom Investing App Review: A Fun and Educational Way for Teens to Learn and Invest

What is Bloom?

Bloom is an app that aims to teach teens and young adults how to invest in the stock market and grow their wealth. Bloom offers over 200 interactive financial lessons, a real investing account, and various rewards and games to make learning and investing fun and engaging.

Bloom was launched in 2021 by Contour Labs, Inc., a company founded by two Harvard graduates who wanted to democratize financial education and empower the next generation of investors. Bloom claims to have over 1 million users, mostly between the ages of 13 and 24, who have collectively invested over $100 million through the app.

How does Bloom work?

Bloom has three main features: learn, invest, and earn.

Learn

Bloom provides users with access to over 200 bite-sized, interactive financial lessons crafted by Ivy League professors and business leaders. The lessons cover topics such as investing basics, money management, credit, saving, cryptocurrency, fundamental analysis, and more. Users can test their knowledge with quick quizzes and earn stock rewards for completing lessons. Bloom also releases new lessons every week to keep users updated on the latest financial trends and concepts.

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Invest

Bloom allows users to open a real investing account in just a few minutes and invest in over 5,000 stocks and ETFs. Users can also invest in four cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bloom charges no commissions or fees for trading stocks and ETFs, and only a small fee for trading crypto. Users can start investing with as little as $1, thanks to fractional shares.

Bloom also supports custodial accounts for teens aged 13 to 17, who can start investing with parental approval. Custodial accounts automatically transfer to the teen when they reach the age of majority, depending on their state of residence.

Bloom also offers various tools and features to help users invest smarter, such as conditional and recurring orders, price alerts, portfolio analysis, and access to human financial advisors via live chat or email.

Earn

Bloom rewards users for learning and investing with Oinks, which are virtual coins that can be exchanged for real rewards such as stocks, raffle tickets, gift cards, and more. Users can earn Oinks by completing financial lessons and quizzes, playing games such as Guess the Stock and Card Game, participating in the Stock Simulator Tournament, completing quests such as buying their first stock or sharing Bloom with friends, and more.

What are the pros and cons of Bloom?

Bloom has many advantages for teen investors, such as:

• It provides a fun and engaging way to learn about personal finance and investing
• It offers a real investing account with low barriers to entry and no commissions or fees for stocks and ETFs
• It supports custodial accounts for teens aged 13 to 17
• It rewards users for learning and investing with Oinks, that can be redeemed for real rewards
• It gives users access to human financial advisors for guidance and support

However, Bloom also has some drawbacks, such as:

• It only supports IRAs held at Fidelity, so users who have IRAs at other brokers may need to transfer them or open a new account at Fidelity
• It charges a small fee for trading crypto
• It does not offer tax-loss harvesting or automatic rebalancing features that some other robo-advisors offer
• It does not support general investment accounts or other types of retirement accounts besides IRAs

Conclusion

Bloom is a great app for teens and young adults who want to learn how to invest in the stock market and grow their wealth. Bloom offers a fun and educational way to learn about personal finance and investing, a real investing account with low barriers to entry and no commissions or fees for stocks and ETFs, various rewards and games to motivate users, and access to human financial advisors for guidance and support. However, Bloom also has some limitations, such as only supporting IRAs held at Fidelity, charging a fee for trading crypto, and not offering some advanced features that other robo-advisors offer. Overall, Bloom is a good choice for beginners who want to start their investing journey with a simple and user-friendly app.