March 29, 2024

M1 Finance 2-Year Review (The Good, The Bad, and The Rating)



Published May 18, 2023, 11:20 p.m. by Violet Harris


M1 Finance is a great platform for anyone looking to get into the world of online investing. The platform is extremely user-friendly and offers a wide range of features that make it a great option for both beginners and experienced investors alike. One of the best things about M1 Finance is that it offers a 2-year review, which gives you a chance to see how the platform has performed over time.

The good:

M1 Finance is a great platform for anyone looking to get into the world of online investing. The platform is extremely user-friendly and offers a wide range of features that make it a great option for both beginners and experienced investors alike. One of the best things about M1 Finance is that it offers a 2-year review, which gives you a chance to see how the platform has performed over time.

The bad:

There are a few things that I don't like about M1 Finance, such as the fact that there is no customer service phone number and the fact that the platform doesn't offer a lot of guidance for beginners. However, these are relatively minor complaints and overall I think M1 Finance is a great platform.

The rating:

I would give M1 Finance a 4 out of 5 stars. It's a great platform with a lot to offer, but there are a few areas where it could be improved.

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m1 finance just might be the underdog of

investing apps

people talk a lot about robinhood weeble

acorns

public and a bunch of others while m1

finance quietly

offers amazing features no fees and

great

design let's talk about what it's been

like to use for the last two years and

what i think about it a lot of things

about the upper positive but i also have

some frustrations so stick around till

the end to see those

first let's start with the good the

design not only does it have great color

tones

it's attractive it's simple and it helps

you think long term with your investing

it actually takes a little bit of an

extra step to see

like a really short window of time like

what's happened today or in the last

week or so so i think that helps us to

make better decisions long term because

we're thinking more long term

and we're not buying and selling all the

time because statistically the people

that trade more often

most of the time do worse than the

people who trade less often and that's

just the math so don't get mad at me if

you've made a bunch of money this year

because of day trading good for you

but overall the statistics don't lie the

second positive thing

is ease of use once you get acclimated

to where everything is located in the

app it is really really easy to use

i personally think that one good test of

a user interface is if you can open an

app get done the task that you want to

get done

and then be out of the app all in a

short period of time not a lot of

distractions not a lot of wandering and

m1 finance is good for that let's try it

right now oh i got low battery let's

open it up let's pretend like i wanted

to

check my activity no let's open it up

and pretend like i wanted to invest some

more money auto invest

is turned off i'll deposit let's say 100

bucks

from my bank account and let's invest it

right now boom transfer

the money's coming in hot like that new

la cray song i don't even think it's

that new

done actually since i have auto invest

turned off let's turn it back on and

there we go so now first thing tomorrow

that money's gonna be invested thanks

for helping me invest an extra hundred

bucks by making this video with you i

also like that in that whole process

that you just saw in that screen

recording there's no distractions

there's no headlines there's no big

flashy like notification things to

distract you

it just lets you do what you want unlike

some of the other options

cough weeble cough robin hood cough

public

i'm not trying to spend all day on these

apps i'm trying to invest and move on

with my life third positive thing

no fees or commissions this is a huge

deal and there are still some people out

there today who are paying for trades

who are paying fees

and i just don't think we need to

anymore like there are some really great

premium services out there

maybe you love them maybe they help you

invest by all means keep doing what

you're doing but

if you're gonna choose between the same

features that either cost you money or

don't

it's pretty hard to justify paying money

for something the other investing app

that i've recommended the most

is called acorns and that charges

between one and five dollars per month

but it's a much more

sort of helpful design because they've

tailored everything to make things super

easy to explain it all for you

and i think it's actually worth it i

still pay the one dollar per month to

use the app myself

even though i have m1 finance and other

apps that are totally free so

don't feel bad if you're using acorns

because i still think it's a good app

but it's more like these apps that

charge you fees or charge you a

percentage of assets under management if

you've got like an

active manager working on your stuff

that's the kind of thing that makes no

sense to me the fourth good feature easy

to share pies and no this isn't

strawberry rhubarb unfortunately also

leave a comment below what's better

pies or cakes there's one right answer

here and

let's see if you get it right because

one dessert is definitely better than

the other but m1 finance isn't talking

about dessert

it's talking about the way they display

your portfolio so whenever you pull up

your account with m1 finance what they

do is they

show you how much of each thing you're

invested in in that account in

a percentage format just in a big pie

chart so if you were invested in two

things of equal quantity 50 50

it would just be a pie chart with a line

down the middle if you're invested in a

bunch of stuff like i am

it's going to be all fractured out and

kind of show you the percentage of each

thing

and it helps you to sort of stick to

that plan if you will long term so it's

not just like weeble

or robin hood or some other apps where

it's like a big list of your investments

without any regard to like the

proportion of each one this is sort of

assuming that you like have a plan in

mind what you want your portfolio to be

made up of

and they make these pies really easy to

share so if you want to

you can use expert pies from their

people but you can also just use pies

from somebody else so for example i'll

put the pie that i'm using right now

for my sep ira in the description

actually better than that i'll put it in

the top comment i'll pin the top comment

say this is my current pie for my sep

ira and you can click on it right there

see what i'm investing in right now in

my latest account and you can even start

investing in the same things if you

wanted to this is not financial advice

this is just for funsies from one friend

to another sharing you what i'm doing

but it makes that process super easy the

next good thing about m1 finance

is called a money weighted return a lot

of investing services show you what's

called a time

weighted return what that means is it's

a very simple version of showing you

your return

divided by the total amount you have

invested m1 finance is the only

investing service that i know of and

currently use that does something

different than that and what it does

differently

is show you your return with every

individual movement sort of frozen in

time to show you the significance of

that instead of just

overall that sounded confusing so let's

go over an example let's say

you invest a thousand dollars at the

beginning of the year over the course of

the year it grows ten percent

and now you have one thousand one

hundred dollars so now let's say you

wanna invest more and you send in

another thousand dollars at the

beginning of the next year now the total

you've invested is two thousand dollars

but your return is still that same one

hundred dollars from before

other investing apps would now say that

your return went from a ten percent

return down to a 5

return but instead of saying that m1

finance would still say

you made a 10 return so what it's doing

is kind of locking in the truth of what

your percentage was

at that time and showing you that

despite what your current overall

balance is

i'm obviously not a statistical genius

or savant or

great explaining this but to me that

makes more sense because i really did

make the 10

return even though i invested more money

now it shouldn't cut into my return

when i really think about it that's not

helping me to understand how good my

investments are doing

so all that to say i just prefer the way

that m1

communicates that another positive

feature of m1 is called spend and this

is their like checking account and debit

card that they offer

and i've been using it for a little

while now and i really like it it's

shockingly good as far as banks in 2021

go

whenever you use the m1 finance debit

card you get one percent cash back and

the balance that you have in the

checking account also gets one percent

cash back which is actually really good

for a debit card and it's not like it's

my primary form of payment or anything

but i like having it and i like having

that cash earn a higher balance than i

do at our normal bank another positive

trait is just how easy it is to open

accounts with m1 finance and i recently

tested that out by opening an sep ira

i knew i wanted to open an sap ira and

when i looked through my phone and i had

all the options of investing apps to

choose

i went right to m1 i just knew it was

going to be the easiest and smoothest

process

and it was just as easy as starting any

other account with m1 you literally just

click add account

choose an scp ira and you're off to the

races it is super fast and if you're not

familiar with an sap ira i'll go over it

really quickly it's a specific

retirement account that your employer

can contribute money to and because i'm

technically self-employed here on

youtube

i can contribute money for myself and

the whole system works so the benefit of

the scp really is that you can send in a

lot more money than you can with a

normal ira

a normal ira is limited to six thousand

dollars per year which is good but if

you really want to get serious about

retiring early or building wealth you

need to send in more than that so an

sep ira lets you contribute the lesser

of either 25

of your total income or 58 000

that's pretty amazing the next two

features are potentially positive for

you

if you're looking for it i don't think

they're mandatory i think that they're

handy if you really are looking for it

but they're completely easy to pass on

if not

the first is called borrow and it's

money that you can essentially borrow

from m1 to do whatever you want with it

doesn't have to just be investing

it could be to go start a business or

buy a really snazzy new camera or

refrigerator or whatever you need

it's just a line of credit from them to

do whatever you want with to be eligible

to access it you have to have at least

five thousand dollars invested with m1

because they kind of use that as

collateral for what you're borrowing

then you can borrow up to 35 of whatever

you do have invested and

use it for whatever you want pay down

that debt buy yourself a steak dinner do

whatever you like and

m1's website claims there is no extra

application

no payment schedule and it's only three

clicks to activate and since i had to

try it out for the sake of this video

it really was it was very easy to set up

i will give them that it was super quick

super easy because i already had other

accounts with them they already had all

my info

it was super simple the next feature

that's potentially positive is m1's

premium account it's called

m1 plus and it basically just gives you

a handful of more features

over and above m1 basic which is free so

you can use m1 finance

do your investing do your trading do

whatever all for free unless you want

these specific things in which case

you'd pay 125

a year but at least for right now the

first year is free so if you're like me

you're gonna take free stuff if it's

given to you hey you can even try all

these out for free to compare what you

get between the free account and the

paid account i'll put both up on the

screen right now so you can see so m1

basic is the free one

and you get zero trading commissions you

can invest you can use borrow their line

of credit thing but it's at a higher

rate it's at 3.5 percent you got to have

the 5 000

invested like i said and you can use

spend so you get a free digital checking

account

atm fee reimbursement i don't know who

uses atms anymore yadda yadda m1 plus

is here on the right side of the screen

and this is the additional features that

you get with that you get an extra trade

window which is am

or pm now you get smart transfers

custodial accounts for kids if you like

that

a cheaper borrow rate at only two

percent and with spend

you earn the one percent interest on the

money you have deposited

you get one percent cash back and you

get some fees and things reimbursed and

a cool card design

so it's not a ton of features you'd

probably have to really care about that

stuff to end up paying for it but like i

said

you get the first year for free so may

as well try it out if you have an m1

account

right now overall there are a lot of

really good things about m1 finance

but now it's time for the not so good

things for me oddly enough

the application process to get a spend

account was kind of a headache it was

not very streamlined and it actually

took me a couple of weeks to get

approved

somehow there was a problem with my

social security number and the only way

that they could verify it was with

verification of a w-2

with my full social security number on

it or a picture of my social security

card so i don't even know where my

social security card is

it's probably here somewhere and i

looked on my most recent w-2s and there

was just a partial number so it took me

a long time to track down

a really old w-2 that still had my name

on it and my full

entire social so i could send it to them

and get it approved i actually went back

and forth with customer service a little

bit on this

and they didn't budge there's no other

way for them to do this allegedly but

through one of those two forms so that

was a little frustrating especially

because i already had three accounts

with them so how do they not know who i

am like what difference does it make if

i'm investing with you versus if i want

this spend account apparently there's a

difference apparently banking and

investing have different regulations so

i accept that but the whole process was

a little bit clunky

speaking of clunky and speaking of their

spend they don't have a digital wallet

so in your phone nowadays you can have

a lot of like credit cards and stuff

just in there they can be stored and you

can do shopping without the physical

card it's super handy i like a digital

wallet i don't use it all the time but

every now and then i do

so i had recently gotten this m1 debit

card i wanted to order some pizza to

pick up on the way home full disclosure

and i couldn't there was no way for me

to use the card without physically

having the card i couldn't look up the

card numbers anywhere and it seems like

a really easy thing to just like add a

feature where you could say click

show card numbers but apparently it's

not a thing i also contacted m1 to ask

about this

and they confirmed yes there is no

digital wallet and they didn't mention

any possibility of in the future so

it's kind of odd because why wouldn't

you have that in 2021 but they also did

something else really

kind of odd to me recently which was

adding a send check

feature so if you're if you're in 2021

you have an m1 account and you've been

going man you know what i really want to

do

send a check to somebody well now you

can like as of today the day i'm filming

this june 7th

you can just send a check from your

account who was asking for this

i don't know but now you have it another

slightly negative thing about m1 is

initially just getting used to the

design because for me somehow i was

thinking that whenever you open an

account

that all of the sort of actions you

would take in that account would be on

that primary screen but what you have to

do is click on that kind of hamburger on

the top left corner and go back to

portfolio

activity holdings or funding history to

be able to get into some of some of

those other actions and so to me that

was a little bit illogical at first

because i kept thinking well i'm in the

account

why am i clicking manage pi and i can't

find the things that i'm trying to look

for here so

that's just me that was a problem that i

had that took me some getting used to oh

yeah i have to go back to that little

hamburger kind of settings thing and

find what i'm looking for there

not a huge deal but initially because m1

is so unique in the way they've designed

their pies and the app in general it

does take some getting used to another

quirk that i know a lot of people really

don't like because i've had people

comment hey i really don't like this

about m1 finance is those trade windows

so i mentioned that before

what this means is that you're under no

illusions that whenever you hit buy

it's actually going to do that right now

it's only during a little portion of

time that they actually do your trades

so it kind of reminds me like whenever

you go to the post office and there's

like the little sticker that says when

they come and pick up the mail

it's sort of like that with m1 you say

like hey i want to invest this like put

your envelope in the slot and then

they're going to come by tomorrow

morning and they're going to pick up the

mail and they're gonna go invest it for

you it's like it's not as immediate as

some of the other apps so i assume

some other people think like they're

missing out somehow because they really

wanted to invest right now like now is

the perfect time i've decided i want to

do it lock it in baby and they just

don't lock it in

they're a little more relaxed about it i

think more than anything it's just sort

of annoying and it shouldn't impact your

overall investment strategy

because if you're day trading this is

not the app for you this is a long-term

perspective

much more mellow kind of styled app and

so day trading belongs elsewhere so it

really shouldn't matter to us

but if i'm honest i'm a little annoyed

by it too if i hit by

just buy it just do it right now but it

doesn't really work like that so i'm

okay with it i'm gonna still use it it's

just a little bit annoying i was

inspired in making this video to kind of

create a spreadsheet where i assess

an investing app and i have these

different categories to tell whether or

not i think it's good

and kind of give it an overall score i

do this with a buddy right now whenever

we go to a bagel place and we

literally rate bagels in a spreadsheet

based on like the cream cheese texture

and

how good the bite on the outside of the

bagel is and stuff like that doug demuro

does it here on youtube whenever he

assesses a car he gives it a dug score

so i'm a nerd like that i like an extra

spreadsheet so i made kind of a brendon

score

for m1 finance and the categories that

i'll use to kind of assess

the app are cost ease of use features

and services

thoughtful or helpful design beauty

extra or paid services

i'll deduct points for any glaring

faults or negativities

and then finally an overall score so

let's rate m1 finance

on this new app rating spreadsheet that

i made i've used it now for two years

for cost i gave it a 20 out of 20

because it's free

and even their paid service is free for

the first year so there's nothing to pay

for here for at least a year of use

which is great

for ease of use i gave it a 17 out of

20. for features and services i gave it

a 19 out of 20. it's almost perfect

i don't have anything else i'm looking

for that i would like to have here

personally thoughtful or helpful design

is a 7 out of 10. very good for beauty i

gave it an 8 out of 10. i really love

the color tones of this app and the way

that the kind of animations work it

looks really nice

for extra or paid services over and

above anything for free i gave it an 8

because it's got some decent features

here that i could see being really

appealing they're competitively priced

overall

it's very good i don't see any big

glaring terrible faults here to give any

negative scores and overall

i gave the app an 8 out of 10. and the

total is an 87. so with a lot of time

spent with a lot of different apps

two years spent with m1 over 30 000

invested

is m1 number one yes thank you so much

for being here

thanks to all my new subscribers if

you're not yet subscribed

please do me a favor and hit that

subscribe button so you don't miss

future uploads that helps me out a ton

along with the like button so i

appreciate

that so much if you want to get started

with m1 today i've got links in the

description for that and i've also got a

link to a video right here all about

acorns so if you just watch this about

m1 and you want to see the differences

and kind of compare my review

with acorns here it is and also here's

another video that youtube thinks you

would like alright see you guys thanks

for watching

bye

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