Finding money to sock away for the future can be pretty difficult. Whether you’re living paycheck to paycheck or funneling everything towards paying off your debt, how can you ever expect to get ahead?

Acorns is an app that could help you start saving for the future.

After you download the app, you connect your credit card and your bank account. For every purchase you make with your credit card, Acorns rounds up to the next dollar and subtracts the difference from your bank account. From there, the money goes into an investment account – how help your pennies grow.

I set up my account with them in October and currently have $66.01 invested, and I never even really noticed the money disappearing from my account.

While this isn’t a way to really start saving for retirement, it could be a great way to start a small emergency savings account if the possibility of actively saving for one seems like it’s beyond your means.

Do you get flustered figuring out exactly what to invest in? Acorns takes that guesswork out of the equation for you – it just asks you basic questions like your age, how long you intend to invest, what you’re saving for and how much risk you want to take – from there it sets you up with a diversified investment plan.

My plan is set up assuming a monthly contribution of about $15 and is set to Aggressive. It assumes that I’m likely to have about $1,200 in it in 5 years. Just think, with little effort on your part, you could have a decent chunk saved for an emergency in 5 years! I know that’s a while, but 5 years from now you will be happy you did it!

So what are the Acorns people getting from this? Well, there’s a $1/month fee and .50% yearly interest. They don’t take a penny if your account is at $0.

That $1/month fee should give you some pause. When you’re investing at the rate of a few dollars a month, that’s a high percentage of your return.

On the other hand – it’s $1. If spending that $1 lets you automate your savings in such an easy way, it’s $1 well spent. Until you reach $500-800 in your account, most of your investment return is going to go to fees. After you hit that point, you’ll start to reap some of the rewards of investing.

Assuming you follow the $15 model, it’ll take about three and a half years to start breaking even. However, I’m set up on the $15 model and have found I wind up investing more like $25 a month.

Serious investors will probably want to stick with their brokerage firms, but for your average everyman, this tool is probably worth the $1/month fee to help build up your savings. Personally, I’m going to let it ride and see how the experiment goes.