Investments and Shares

[ianzunckel]

Hi Everyone, 

 

Not sure if any of you are perhaps familiar with "Easy Equities" in South Africa, basically its an investment platform allowing you to buy shares listed on the JSE. 

 

I'd like to know if Australia has something similar set up to make use to buy into the Australian Stock Markets.

[ottg]

Most of the banks in Aus has a trading platform.

You just need to do a comparison. Some will only cover ASX, others may cover some international markets, some will offer live prices at a fee while most offer delayed prices. Some will have an exit fee and others don't, while some charge a fee if you don't do a minimum number of trades per month etc.

 

I used to use ANZ for the ASX markets https://shareinvesting.anz.com/home.aspx but

recently switched to Saxo for all markets https://www.home.saxo/en-au

 

[dlmonnink]

There is an app called Acorns (make sure you get the AU one) which allows you to invest small amounts of money. It also has things like roundups so when you spend on your card it rounds up the difference to the nearest dollar and adds that to the investment account. You can set it to automatically add to your account; I've got mine doing $125 monthly. The app has a few different portfolios that you can choose from but you can't choose the stocks like you can with EE. Investing in proper ETFs here in Aus is quite expensive and to invest in the Vanguard for instance requires $5000 minimum. The strategy for many seems to be adding a small amount monthly to Acorns and then when they $5000 buying into Vanguard.

 

I hope they bring something better like low cost ETFs but it seems unlikely.

[RYLC]

The issue I've been told with Acorns app is that, by entering your banking details to connect your account, you violate the banks terms and conditions re online banking. So that's a problem.

 

As for buying Vanguard and needing $5000, that is only if you buy directly from Vanguard. If you purchase an ETF via say Commsec (Commonwealth Bank trading platform) then the minimum purchase is only $500 plus brokerage.

 

Commsec: What is the minimum amount of shares I am able to purchase?

Your initial purchase of any particular shareholding must be at least $500 worth of shares, known as a 'minimum marketable parcel of shares'. CommSec may then allow you to purchase smaller amounts of shares to top up existing shareholdings. For example, if you hold $500 worth of shares in XYZ you may be able to purchase a smaller amount of XYZ to increase your existing holding.