Where It Started
I originally started this Acorns journey on April 8, 2025, but I didn’t begin tracking my progress in detail until June 25, 2026. While I wish I had documented everything from the beginning, I now have a solid baseline to share how consistent weekly contributions and automatic investing are shaping my portfolio over time. My goal is to continue posting monthly updates so readers can follow both the highs and lows of building long-term wealth through disciplined investing.
June 25, 2026
Wealth building is usually less about one big move and more about hundreds of small disciplined ones.
About 1 year and 2 months into my Acorns investing journey, I was able to save up $1,805.62 with $202 coming from pure gains, just for leaving my money in the market over the course of a year. Initially I started slow, only contributing about $15 a week and 2x round ups, but I’ve recently pushed my recurring deposit up to about $75 weekly and 3x round ups.
Overall, I would say this is a pretty realistic outcome and something many new Acorns users can expect to achieve in their first year without putting too much effort.
July 9, 2026
After a few weeks of consistent investing, the account is now approaching the $2,000 milestone, which is a huge achievement for me. One of the things I find most interesting about this account is that it is completely automated and not something I actively monitor on a daily basis. This allows the investments to continue growing in the background while I focus on other financial goals.
During this period, the account’s net gains increased from approximately $202 to $231, showing continued progress in just a short amount of time. The portfolio is also now sitting at an all-time gain of over 13% since I first started this investing journey a little over one year ago.
August 5, 2026
Fast forward about four weeks, and we can see the continued progress of the account. The portfolio has grown from approximately $1,990 to around $2,348, showing the impact that consistent contributions and market growth can have over time.
During July alone, the account saw roughly $50 in investment gains, bringing the total all-time gains to approximately $284 since starting this journey. The portfolio is now approaching a 14% overall gain since I first began investing in April 2025.
While short-term market movements will always fluctuate, seeing this steady growth reinforces the importance of staying consistent, continuing to contribute, and allowing time and compounding to work in my favor.
August 12, 2026
Another week of consistent progress has brought the portfolio to approximately $2,432, up from around $2,348 in the previous update. The account has continued to benefit from both regular contributions and investment growth, pushing the total all-time gains to approximately $300.
Since the August 5 update, my all-time return has increased from 13.75% to 14.08%, putting the portfolio just above the 14% milestone. It’s encouraging to see the account continue moving in the right direction, especially considering this is an automated investment account that I don’t actively manage on a daily basis.
The goal remains the same: keep contributing consistently, stay invested for the long term, and continue documenting the progress toward building greater wealth over time.
A Few More Key insights
As of August 12, 2026, my Acorns portfolio has generated approximately 10.23% year-to-date returns, with around $225 in year-to-date investment gains.
Currently, the portfolio remains 100% invested in stocks, which aligns with my long-term investing strategy and my focus on growth over time. At this point, I don’t see myself changing the allocation anytime soon because my goal is to continue building wealth over the long term and take advantage of the potential benefits of staying invested through market cycles.
While a stock-heavy portfolio can come with more short-term volatility, I believe consistency, patience, and continuing to contribute regularly are the most important factors for my current stage of the journey.
Portfolio Split
So the largest portion of my portfolio is currently VOO at 55% followed by IXUS at 30% and the rest is split between IJH(10%) and IJR at 5%. So far I’m not seeing the benefit for me to upgrade to acorns gold since I have other accounts for any active trading that I want to manage myself. But for anyone who is looking to simplify things and keep everything in one location I could definitely see the benefit of upgrading from the bronze plan.
One thing to keep in mind. On average to break even for the year you would need a minimum of $450 in your account to cover the $36 fees from the monthly $3 charge.
Do I Recommend Acorns?
Overall I would say that acorns could be very useful for the average person looking to start investing and I would highly encourage anyone on the fence to just get started and stop overthinking it. Honestly starting at the age of 32 had me feeling a bit late to the game, but I’m still glad I got things started eventually and would definitely recommend anyone (especially in your 20’s) to start investing your money as soon as possible.
If you want to follow the full journey, you can also explore the Acorns page and che