$2 Shares?

Hi Barefoot

You have been sitting on my bedside table for a full 12 months! Yet, after a year of my fiancée threatening to not turn up to our wedding unless I read your book, I have read it and am raring to start investing. I am a Commbank customer (have been since my mother signed me up as a Dollarmite!), and I would like to know your thoughts on Commbank’s new app ‘Pocket’. It looks pretty good, and it only charges $2 to buy $50 worth of shares.

Chris

Hi Chris,

I’m always happy to help the groom make it past the broom!

I had a play around with Commsec’s new app ‘Pocket’, and I actually think it’s pretty good.

It’s clearly aimed at first-time investors who don’t have a lot of dough. As you’ve mentioned, you can kick off your portfolio with a $50 investment and only be charged $2 a transaction (though you’d want to invest more than that, otherwise it works out to be a hefty 4% fee!).

There are seven different ‘themes’ you can choose to invest in, which sounds cool, though they’re really just regular off-the-shelf exchange traded funds (ETFs). Still, they’re a much better deal than investing in an expensive CBA-Colonial managed fund.

Okay, that’s the positive. Now for one big negative.

The only reservation I have with all these investing apps is that they can lead to you checking your balance too much. Behaviorally, the best thing you could do is to delete the app off your phone and forget about it for a few years while you focus on your fiancée. Then you could give ‘Pocket’ a try.

Scott