Welcome to the Stay Walthy podcast. I'm your host Taylor Schulte, and today I'm wrapping up our

technology theme for the month by talking about robo-advisors. However, there's a lot more that I wanted

to share with you than I initially had thought. So I decided to break this topic up into two parts.

This week, in part one, I'm sharing what is a robo advisor in plain English, of course,

why I'd argue they've been around since the 1920s, and then who they are and aren't a good fit for.

And then next week, in part two, I'll be going through the pros and cons of robo advisors,

how to choose the right one if you think it's fitting for your needs and some of the major

pitfalls to watch out for.

So I don't want to waste any time today.

Let's dive right in in the rare chance that the term robo advisor is new to you, or you're just

still not exactly sure what a RoboAdvisor is.

Let's get you quickly caught up here.

According to Wikipedia, Robo Advisors provide digital financial advice based on mathematical rules or algorithms.

The balance, another website, says that Robo Advisors are software products that can help you manage your investments without the need to consult a financial advisor.

And then finally, Fidelity says that robo-advisors are an affordable, digital financial service that uses technology to help automate investing based on information investors provide about themselves

and their financial situation. My explanation is a little less technical. Put simply, I say that

a robo advisor is essentially a solution that sits in between managing your investments all on your

own and hiring a full service wealth

management firm. And for that reason, you'll quickly find that in general, robo advisors are more

affordable than hiring a human financial advisor and more costly than simply doing everything on

your own. And like most things in life, you'll also quickly find that

you get what you pay for. And that's not a knock on these services at all. I personally think that

...