Setting up Auto-Invest on SoFi can make regular investing much easier. Instead of remembering to buy an ETF or stock every week or month, you can create a recurring investment that automatically puts money into your chosen investment on a schedule.
The process only takes a few minutes. You choose what to buy, how often to invest, how much to invest, and which account should fund the purchases. Once everything is confirmed, your recurring investment can continue automatically until you decide to change or cancel it.
How to Start Auto-Invest on SoFi
To begin setting up Auto-Invest on SoFi, open the SoFi app and tap Invest at the bottom of the screen. This takes you to your investment dashboard.
From there:
- Tap the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner.
- Search for the stock or ETF you want to purchase regularly.
- Tap the investment to open its page.
- Tap the blue Trade button in the bottom-right corner.
- Select Recurring Buy from the available options.
You will then be taken to the frequency screen, where you can decide how often your automatic purchases should happen.
Choose Your Investment Frequency
SoFi gives you several scheduling options for Auto-Invest on SoFi:
- Every market day
- Every week
- Every two weeks
- Every month
A simple approach is to match your investment schedule to your paycheck. If you get paid every two weeks, for example, you could set your recurring investment to run every two weeks.
The advantage is that you can make investing part of your normal financial routine rather than relying on willpower or remembering to make a purchase manually.
After choosing the frequency, you’ll select the starting day. SoFi will show you the dates when future investments are scheduled to occur.
Why Recurring Investing Can Be Useful
One of the main ideas behind Auto-Invest on SoFi is consistency.
Trying to predict the perfect time to invest is extremely difficult. Markets move up and down, and it’s easy to hesitate when prices are falling or become overly confident when prices are rising.
Recurring investments take much of that decision-making out of the process. You’re investing regularly regardless of short-term market movements.
This approach is commonly associated with dollar-cost averaging. By investing a consistent amount at regular intervals, you purchase more shares when prices are lower and fewer when prices are higher.
It doesn’t guarantee a profit or protect you from losses, but it can help you avoid making every investment decision based on short-term market movements.
Decide How Much to Invest
After selecting your schedule, the next step is choosing the amount.
SoFi provides preset investment amounts such as:
- $50
- $100
- $250
- $500
- $1,000
You can also choose a custom amount.
When setting up Auto-Invest on SoFi, the most important thing is choosing an amount you can realistically maintain. There’s no benefit to setting an aggressive contribution that puts pressure on your monthly budget and causes you to cancel the plan later.
Starting with $25, $50, or $100 can be perfectly reasonable if that’s what fits your finances. You can increase the amount later as your income or budget changes.
The goal is to create a sustainable investing habit.
Choose Your Payment Method
The review screen shows which account will fund your recurring purchases.
You may be able to use your SoFi cash or a linked external bank account, depending on your setup.
Using an outside checking account can help turn recurring investing into a process where new money regularly moves into your investment account. If you use cash that is already sitting in SoFi, you’re simply using existing funds rather than continually adding fresh money.
Whichever account you choose, make sure it has enough money available when the scheduled investment runs. If you’re attempting to invest $50 but only have $12 available, the transaction could fail, and your bank could potentially charge an insufficient-funds fee.
Keeping a small buffer in the funding account can help prevent this problem.
Check the Buying Power Setting
During the review process, you’ll also see the Use buying power first setting.
When enabled, available cash in your investment account can be used before SoFi pulls additional money from your bank account.
This can be useful because there’s no reason to transfer additional money when you already have available cash that can fund the purchase.
Before confirming Auto-Invest on SoFi, review the important details:
- Investment
- Account
- Payment method
- Frequency
- Investment amount
- Starting date
If everything looks correct, tap Confirm.
Your recurring investment is now set up.
How to Edit Auto-Invest on SoFi
Your financial situation can change, so you don’t have to keep the original settings forever.
If you receive a raise, for example, you might want to increase your investment amount. If you have a tighter month, you might want to change the schedule or temporarily stop investing.
To manage Auto-Invest on SoFi, return to the stock or ETF page where you originally created the recurring purchase.
Scroll down until you reach Recent Activity. Underneath it, you’ll see tabs for All and Scheduled.
Tap Scheduled to find your recurring investment.
Select it to open the Activity Details screen. From there, choose the option to edit the investment and adjust the available settings, such as the amount, frequency, day, or payment method.
How to Cancel Auto-Invest on SoFi
If you no longer want a recurring purchase, you can cancel it from the same Activity Details screen.
Select Cancel Investment and follow the prompts to stop the recurring buy.
Canceling the recurring investment prevents future scheduled purchases from continuing. If you decide to start automatic investing again later, you can create a new recurring investment.
Make Auto-Invest Part of Your Routine
The biggest advantage of Auto-Invest on SoFi isn’t necessarily the size of each individual purchase. It’s the ability to make investing consistent.
Rather than waiting for the “perfect” time to invest or relying on yourself to remember every payday, you can establish a schedule that fits your budget and let the system handle the recurring purchases.
Start with an amount you can comfortably maintain, choose a frequency that matches your cash flow, check that your funding account has enough money, and review your settings periodically.
Once everything is configured, Auto-Invest on SoFi can make regular investing a much more hands-off part of your financial routine.
