Twine App Review: Saving and Investing Collaboration Tool

SmartPath occasionally reviews apps and services based on the needs of our clients. SmartPath has no affiliation with this product or service and receives no compensation or benefit from the provider. Instead, we just wanted to share our thoughts in an effort to help you get better with your money.

Getting on the same page with your spouse or significant other to achieve financial goals isn’t always easy. It can be particularly challenging for couples that don’t completely share their finances. But keeping separate checking accounts shouldn’t keep you from both saving for shared goals like vacations, a wedding or a down payment on a house.

The Twine app is a savings and investing app designed to help couples work towards joint financial goals. It can be downloaded from the iOS App Store and enables you to save in cash, or invest in customized portfolios while moving toward your mutual goals.

How Twine Works

To create a joint savings goal in Twine, you’ll simply connect your bank account to a Twine account. Then you can set up a recurring savings deposit into your Twine account. For example, you might plan to set up a deposit of $100 every week in your fund for a down payment on a house.

Once you’ve set up your account, you can “invite” your partner to join the account with you. Your partner can download the app, connect their bank account and set up a recurring payment of their own.

If you set up your savings in a cash account, you’ll earn 0.8% APY. While the rate isn’t anything too exciting, it’s probably a bit more than you’re earning in your checking account. The Twine account is FDIC-insured.

You may also choose to invest your funds in very conservative, moderate or aggressive investment portfolios which may yield high returns, but also may lose money.

Goal Setup

You may choose one of six goals: an emergency fund, general savings, children, vacation, a new home or a large purchase. There’s also a custom goal category that allows you to set your own specific reason for saving and investing.

After you select the goal, you’ll choose either Twine for One, where you make deposits and withdrawals to and from an individual account, or Twine for Two, where two people make deposits and withdrawals to and from a joint account.

Twine Pricing

You can save in cash for free! You can also deposit and withdraw money at any time, with no additional fees.

You can also invest for $0.25 per month ($3 per year) for every $500 you invest. That gives it an annual cost of $6 per thousand, or 0.60% of the amount of money you have invested.

Other fees may include transfer taxes, fees charged by exchanges on a per transaction basis, fees required by law, or any fees charged by Apex.

Should You Sign Up for Twine?

We like the joint saving and investing platform option, which is the first of its kind. The yields on the cash savings are decent but not great, and the investment management fees are still relatively high.

We think couples should consider Twine for the savings component for cash, but pass on the investing option.