New: Automated dividend reinvestments

Today, we’re launching automated dividend reinvestments for members who want to redeploy dividend earnings directly back into their original investments.

Stocks can serve different purposes in an investor’s portfolio. In particular, dividend stocks, which pay out a portion of their profits as dividends, are often used to generate a little bit of income.

If your goal is to keep growing your dividend investments over time — and support this by reinvesting money earned through dividends — this new setting will automate the behavior so you don’t have to think about it.

Automation is one of the simplest ways to achieve accountability. In fact, in his New York Times bestselling book “Atomic Habits,” James Clear notes that one of the most effective ways to build behaviors that stick is to automate them.

To get started, tap the gear icon in the app and scroll down to “Dividend Reinvestment” under Account. From there, you can choose to auto-reinvest our dividends back into the companies that paid them out. If you’d like to use your dividend income for something else, tap “Save my dividends” and the money will go back into your Public account balance.

Should your goals change, you can change your dividend reinvestment preferences at any time.

We know our members represent a broad range of investor types with varying objectives and preferences, with 72% of them identifying as mostly, if not exclusively, “long-term investors.”

Earlier this month, we rolled out the Long-Term Portfolio as a way for you to organize your investments based on how long you plan to hold them. Just drag, drop, and lock your long-term positions into a dedicated section, and when you do, you can tell the community why you believe so strongly in them.

Questions or feedback? Drop us a line. We build Public for you and love hearing from our community.

Examples are for illustrative purposes only. Past performance does not guarantee future results. This is not investment advice. See Public.com/disclosures.