In our Blooom review, we’ll talk about this amazing application, how it helps you invest and grow your 401(k), and whether or not its the best choice for your investment and retirement needs. More than often people tend to go with their gut when it comes to planning their investments. They have no actual idea about what their retirement package value will be and thus they carry forward investments that are not truly profitable.
Blooom allows you to easily connect your company sponsored retirement account to the app, and in turn provides you with the actual value that your account holds. Whether you own a 401k, 401a, 403b, or a TSP account, with the help of Blooom all analytical solutions will be now at your fingertip. This provides you with a far better understanding of where you will stand from an economic perspective once you finish your career.
Blooom Review Snapshot
Contents
Blooom Pros
- Easy access
- Easy integration to account
- Clear visibility into retirement account
- Multiple account type acceptance
- Investment planner
- Retirement planner
- Free to use
Blooom Cons
- Not enough analytical options
- Basic accounting features missing
What is Blooom?
Blooom is an app or robo advisor that helps you optimize your 401k to make sure you are making the best investment decisions. This is something that is traditionally done by your employer or even a financial advisor. The advanced Blooom software identifies your investment goals and helps you make the decisions where to put your retirement investments where they can grow.
Your One Click 401(k) Retirement and Investment Planner
But this is not all. You can trust Blooom to make the absolutely right investments for you. How does it work? Well, first you will be required to provide info about your investment habits such as the usual amount you are ready to invest, time gaps between each investment, etc. Blooom will take into account all your personal factors, along with your retirement account’s capability, and provide you with the best investment options at any given time.
If one tries to identify investment options on their own it can often turn out to be inaccurate. Either they are not taking into consideration all the various factors such as the size of the cap or a new industry, etc., or they are not looking through all the possible options due to the sheer number of them available. Such acts need to be left to automation technology, the kind that Blooom applies. Blooom will always look through every last option available to make a choice and since your account will be linked with the economic analysis process will also run side by side.
Furthermore, if you already have investments that are running, Blooom will provide you with a data based comparative analysis between your current investments and the future investments you could make. It will take into account the ideal allocation capabilities of your funds and also show you the diversification and fees variables as well.
Most investors who have upgraded to Blooom have noticed that their 401k account-based investments were not at all on the right track. They were either investing with large fees requirements, or they were missing out opportunities. With the help of Blooom, they were able to turn their tracks while there was still time and did not let their retirement funds be wasted. The world of investments is a tricky one, and thus one needs to be absolutely clear about the options they are choosing.
Blooom allows one to bypass the entire option choosing part. It will simply provide you with the best options in the market that you can investment on. So, not only will your investments be secured, but you will also not have to worry about your retirement funds being drained out since you will always have visibility into the matter. In short, Blooom can truly turn the economic tables in your favour through the power of visibility and the right investment selection.
Blooom vs Betterment
Blooom and Betterment are both great investment and analysis tools. Blooom is a much smaller company with only about $2B under management. Betterment is typically considered the industry leader in this place with over $13B under management. Although Blooom is much smaller, they offer most of the same features as Betterment and they were also named one of the most innovative companies of the year by Fast Company. That says something!
How Does Blooom Work?
How to Plan your Retirement Funds with Blooom?
Retirement funds for many are an invisible figure. Company based retirement funds require acute calculation to understand the exact amount they will hold. These calculations are often impossible for a layman and thus their visibility into their retirement funds becomes absolutely nil. This is perhaps a game that companies play to ensure that they control the retirement funds of their employees. But not knowing the holding amount of your retirement fund can be quite destructive in the long run. You may end up making investments or purchases based on your calculations and upon retirement you may find out that your funds have been depleted due to wrong calculations.
Deleting your investment funds can land you in serious troubled waters. But with the help of Blooom such a situation will never arise. This app can be used for free to view and control your retirement funds as per your necessities. You simply download and install the application, and you will be easily able to connect your retirement account with it. Once you have done so, Blooom will go through your retirement account calculation process and show you the exact figure that currently rests within the account. You will also be provided with analysis of how this fund can grow, how the growth rate can be affected, and other such options.
A constant visibility of your retirement fund will allow you to make smarter economic decisions in life, and it will also give you the much-needed peace of mind that you hope to achieve after the end of your career.
How to Plan your Investments with Blooom?
Once you are done calculating your 401k account details, Blooom can provide you another very important function – investing. Most professionals who enter the realm of investments are entirely dependent on their 401k account. Their primary goal through such investments is to achieve a larger retirement fund that is also self increasing. But the reality is that you will be talking to various consultants and spending long hours tracing investment data to decide whether an option is viable or not.
Enter Blooom. Firstly, Blooom will ask for your investment preferences. These will include the cap that you want to invest in – a large cap or a small cap, how soon are you likely to invest again, what sort of profit margin you expect, etc. Once Blooom has taken into account all your details it will process them against the holdings of your retirement account and make a decision on your behalf. While making this decision its highly automated bots will run across the entire range of investments available in the market and provide you the best suited investment strategy.
Blooom is not just about picking the right field to invest into. It is your investment strategist that will ensure your retirement fund becomes a self growing entity in itself. And to ensure that you are indeed making the right investments, it will present to you the current investment returns you are going to receive and compare it against what you ideally can. Since Blooom will present to you the options with the lowest investment fee and the highest return possibility, your current 401k planning will indeed look like a weak one against what you can achieve.
And lastly, Blooom will make sure that throughout this process that you have absolute visibility into your 401k accounts’ status. Not for a moment will you have to worry about your funds running out if you switch your investment process to Blooom.
Who Should Use Blooom?
If one wants to achieve the full capability of Blooom, they need to be an investor. Blooom can be used to run simple accounting tasks, but the app is designed to help you ensure your future. So, professionals who are ready to enter the investing market should actively use Blooom before choosing an investment area.
But if you already have invested in a few places and they are not making the required returns, you can use Blooom to get your investment process right on track. The pathway towards becoming a smart investor is to take into account all possible factors – a job that is best performed by Blooom.
Lastly, Blooom can also be used by non-investors who simply want to keep a tab on their retirement account. Not being able to have visibility into one’s own accounts can be quite worrying and with the help of Blooom you can know the exact amount and its growth pattern.
Blooom Review Summary
Blooom is indeed a great tool to have at the disposal of any professional who is actively planning their retirement. It can give you acute visibility into your retirement funds and help you make the best investment choices based on your personal habits and your 401k account condition. It is also absolutely easy to use so you will be able to stay on top of your account retirement account-based operations at any given time.
However, one must also keep in mind that Blooom is not an end to end accounting application. Its acute processes will help you understand your current retirement plan and ways to upgrade it. But it will need to be paired with a regular account planning application to have complete view of your professional accounts. Otherwise, Blooom is the best tool one can find to spearhead their investment plan and make the best out of retirement funds.
Blooom Review FAQs
- What personal information will I be required to present?
- Blooom will require the details of your retirement account and your investment habits.
- Does Blooom help me save money?
- Yes, Blooom can help you save money by making smart investment decisions on your behalf.
- Will I get to know my exact retirement amount?
- Yes, Blooom will be able to provide you with the exact figure that your retirement amount currently holds and the incremental capacity it has as well.