Create a Betterment Account
The first step to managing your money with Betterment is to create an account. You can do that in just a few simple steps by visiting Betterment’s Sign Up page here. Once landing on the sign-up page, it will ask what type of account you would like to create. Don’t stress over this too much. You can always change or add accounts later. For this example, we’ll select the “Invest for a long-term goal” option.
After selecting an option from the choices above, it will ask you to enter your email, account password, name and phone number.
Next you will be directed to your account home page (similar to what is shown below). From your account home page, you can finish setting up your investing account.
Click on ‘Finish Setup’ and the page will redirect to finish setting up your basic information, financial profile, and goals.
Basic Information
Under the basic information area, you are asked to complete your account by entering your address, date of birth and social security number. If you are worried about providing your SSN, remember that Betterment is a financial institute and is required to collect this for tax reporting purposes. Your personal information will be safe and protected. The final step in this section is to create your security questions as an additional layer to keep your account safe.
Financial Profile
You are asked about your employment, tax status, and annual income under the financial profile area.
Goal Setup
Under the goal set-up area, there are questions to help personalize your financial goal.
The first question is pretty straight forward: What are you saving for? Some examples include education, safety net, general investing and major purchases (house, car or vacation).
An additional question is: What type of investing account would you like to create? The options are: individual, joint or trust.
This next area is the fun part where you get to personalize your goal by entering your goal details. Goal details include the goal name, target amount and target date.
After that the next step is to pick a goal image. My personal favorite is to upload a photo of my own. It creates that extra level of personalization and motivation to keep saving.
The next screen asks you how you would like to invest. The options are either with Betterment’s core portfolio or a socially responsible investing portfolio. Betterment provides an explanation of each portfolio to help you select.
The final step is to review and confirm your goal details. Betterment creates your investment portfolio based on the goal details you provide. So as you can see, Betterment makes custom investing recommendations based on my investment goals, timeline and risk tolerance.
And there you have it! In just a few simple steps you are on your way to saving for your future.
The next step (and arguably most important) is to fund your new goal. Betterment gives you many different options and flexibility to save at a pace that works for you.
I hope you found this step-by-step guide helpful and are on your way to using betterment.
Learn more about investing with Betterment and how to set yourself up for long-term financial success.
Until next time, happy investing!
