We are on to the next entry in my Investing Journey Series!

So far I have shared my 401(k) Story and Robinhood Adventures.

After the Robinhood debacle, I wanted to remain invested but understood picking and trading stocks was not my forte.

I am not sure where I first learned of Wealthfront - either from a finance major friend in college or read about it in the Morning Brew. Either way, I decided to check it out since it would "automatically" invest for me. Sounded like exactly what I needed. In August of 2017 I decided to open an account.

The sign up process was very fast (I recently helped my brother set up a Roth IRA through Welathfront and the process has not changed). Complete a survey about goals and risk tolerance. Just like that, I was signed up. Only one problem... I intended to create a Roth IRA and created a Taxable account or vice versa. I intended to set up one type of account and ended up creating the other. I had to go back and create the other and contribute to it as well. At the time this felt like a major mistake. Looking back, it was not that big of a deal and has only contributed to where I am now.

I made contributions as I could and Wealthfront handled the ETF buying and selling according to my initial surveys.

I watched my accounts slowly compound and grow. Over the course of 4 years, my $500 initial contribution to my Roth IRA grew to more than $5,500 and my $1,000 contribution to my Taxable grew to more than $6,000. Not much, by any standards, but started to build the habits and understanding of being an investor.

I ended up transferring my Wealthfront Roth IRA to my self directed Roth IRA in May of 2021 and my Welathfront Taxable account to my self directed Taxable account in June of 2021. The ETFs from these accounts still make a large percentage of my holdings in my current portfolios. I am thankful that this can serve as an ETF "core" that I can build other positions around.

Have you ever had experience with a Roboadivsor?