Grow Your Dough Challenge – 2019

What happens if you invest $1000 for one year in any investment of your choice? Will you gain money or lose money? What if a group of people were all doing the same thing? After a year passes, you can discover which investment was the best one. You benefit by learning what works well and what doesn’t from a large sample group, without having to take on all the risk yourself. This will allow you to make more informed investing decisions in the future. Welcome to the 2019 Grow Your Dough Challenge!

Giving credit where it is due, the Grow Your Dough Challenge was created by Certified Financial Planner, blogger (Good Financial Cents), and YouTuber (Wealth Hacker) Jeff Rose. When I first saw his video about the challenge, I knew immediately that I wanted to take part. The idea really appealed to me as someone who loves to research and test options out in a practical way. There are also a few different platforms that I’ve been curious to try and the challenge has given me the impetus to get started.

You can join in the challenge too! Pick a platform you want to use to invest your money and chose your investments within your account. In some cases, the platforms will choose them for you. I’m going to be using 6 different platforms for my investments and writing about each one, so follow this blog to see my progress! Here’s where I’ll be investing:

• E*Trade. I have $1000 in my E*Trade brokerage account that I will split across three different investments: one ETF, one REIT, and one large-cap company. This mirrors how I typically invest my money, in fairly stable investments, which earn reasonable dividend yields.

• Acorns. Yesterday I opened my Acorns Account, which allows for incremental investing. You can start small (deposit $10) or you can deposit more, as well as set up an automatic transfer of money from your bank into the Acorns account monthly. The money in the account is invested in ETFs. The “Acorns” part comes in through their Round-Up strategy, where the amounts you spend on purchases on your credit card are rounded up to the nearest dollar and deposited in the Acorns account. I am not starting this account with the full $1000, but I want to see if I can reach $1000 by the end of one year. A future post all about my Acorns account will go into further detail on how I am depositing money and investing there. If you plan on opening an Acorns account, please use this Refer-a-Friend link.

• Robinhood. The ubiquitous Robinhood — it seems like so many of the investing articles I’ve been reading lately, especially those geared toward those people new to investing, have included a description about this mobile platform. Decided it was time to check it out, so I’m jumping on the bandwagon and opening an account. I’m unsure how I’ll invest on this platform, but I will definitely describe it in a future post as soon as I figure it out. If you open a Robinhood account, please use this Refer-A-Friend link and both of us will receive one extra stock in our accounts for free!

• Fundrise. This is a platform for investing in private real estate. I’m fond of REITs for my investment portfolio, so this seems like a natural next step. I’m excited to learn how this works and get signed up for an account.

• Lending Club. I am a firm believer in helping others reach their goals, so Lending Club will not just be another investment to me, but will feel fulfilling to assist others. Loan amounts start at $25, so there is a fairly low barrier to entry on this platform. I’m wondering how I will be spreading out my $1000 when I get started with the program. I can’t wait to share the details with you.

• Certificate of Deposit. A variety of platforms and investments make up my first five choices, some new, some well established. I felt like I needed a control group in this experiment. How will my other investments compare to the old standby — a Certificate of Deposit (CD)? I’ll be depositing $1000 in a 12 month CD at the best rate I can find this week.

• BONUS: This Blog and My YouTube Channel. I’m going to be spending $1000 over the next year on myself by purchasing the tools, books, courses, etc., that will help me learn more to improve the Squintillions blog and Youtube channel. My goal is that by February 1, 2020, they will have generated enough income to re-pay me for my investment (and I will have an amazing-looking blog and channel with lots of subscribers)!

If you decide to join in the challenge, keep in mind that everyone’s investment profile is different based on age, income, net worth, and risk tolerance. What works for me might be too conservative for one person and too aggressive for another. If you like any of my choices, please remember to follow up with your own research before making an investment.