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How do I set up a recurring investment and change my backup funding source for my recurring investments?

So you want to start automating your investments? You're in the right place! This article covers the ins and outs of creating recurring investments with Greenlight

What are recurring investments and how do I set one up?

A recurring investment is an investment that is set up one time to invest a set amount of money in a specific stock or ETF on a regularly occurring basis through automation, regardless of the current market price of the asset. Recurring investments allow for a hands-off approach to dollar-cost averaging! 

Greenlight now has the ability to set up recurring investments within the "Investing for Kids" section of the app for every account on “Greenlight + Invest”, “Greenlight Max”, "Greenlight Infinity", and “Greenlight Family Shield” plans. These can be set on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis.

To set up a recurring investment:

  1. Within the family member’s Invest account , navigate to the stock or ETF you’d like to set up a recurring investment for 
  2. Tap “Buy”
  3. Select the amount of money you would like to regularly invest on a recurring basis
  4. Tap “One Time investment” then select if you would like your investment to occur 
  5. Weekly, Every 2 Weeks, or Monthly and on what day you’d like them to occur
  6. Tap “Done”
  7. Tap “Review Order”
  8. Optionally set or edit the backup funding source by tapping the "Backup funding" module on the review screen
  1. Tap “Schedule Investment” (Parents) or “Send Request” (Kids) to send a recurring investment request to your parent

How do I change the back-up funding source for recurring investments?

How backup funding works depends on whose recurring investment it is.

For a family member's account

By default, funds for a recurring investment are pulled from your child's Cash to Invest balance first. If that balance doesn't have enough, the backup funding source automatically becomes your child's Spend Anywhere balance unless backup funding has been turned off or you've set a different backup funding source.

Important: Only the Primary Accountholder can change the backup funding source. Once changed, it becomes the new default for all recurring investments, both new and existing.

There are two ways to update it:

Setting it up when you create a recurring investment
  1. While scheduling a new recurring investment, tap the "Backup funding" module on the review screen
  2. Choose a new backup funding source, or toggle backup funding off
Changing it from Cash to Invest
  1. From the Invest dashboard, navigate to the family member's profile whose backup funding source you'd like to change
  2. Tap "Cash to Invest"
  3. Tap "Backup funding"
  4. Toggle backup funding off to prevent funds from being withdrawn from another balance, or choose a new backup funding source

For your own account

If you're the Primary setting up a recurring investment for yourself, your backup funding source is always your Greenlight Wallet, unless you toggle backup funding off entirely, following the steps above.

You'll also see the option to toggle "Autofunding" on or off. When Autofunding is on, funds are pulled directly from your Default funding source if your Greenlight Wallet doesn't have enough to cover the recurring investment. 

Autofunding can only be turned on if backup funding is toggled on. Your Default funding source is managed in the Autofunding section of your Greenlight account settings. Check out this article to set up and manage Autofunding!

Where can I see all my recurring investments?

You can see all your recurring investments in the main investing dashboard for each family member's profile! They'll be listed beneath the list of "Upcoming" investments.

How do I pause, delete, or edit a recurring investment?

  1. Tap the Invest dashboard
  2. Tap the applicable investment profile
  3. Tap into the “Upcoming” recurring investment’s details
  4. Here, you can edit the amount, the frequency, pause the recurring investment by toggling it off, or tapping "Delete investment” to completely remove it

What happens if I don’t have enough funds in my Cash to Invest or Backup funding source for my recurring investment?

If there aren't sufficient funds to cover a recurring investment in Cash to Invest, funds will be withdrawn from the backup funding source, if it's turned on. If the backup funding source is toggled off when this happens, the investment won't be placed.

If there aren't sufficient funds in either Cash to Invest or the backup funding source, no recurring investment will be placed until you add more funds to either one.

What happens if my recurring investment occurs on a market holiday?

If the scheduled occurrence of your recurring investment lands on a market holiday or a weekend (for monthly recurring investments), the investment will be made on the next open-market day. 

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