inaam is an ASIC regulated impact investing app for Australians, built for small regular contributions into a diversified, values-based portfolio. It names every holding to members in the app, across five impact themes: renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, sustainable consumption, health and wellbeing, and waste and recycling, inside one managed investment schemeA fund where your money is pooled with other investors and run to a published strategy. You hold units in the fund., the inaam Impact Investments Fund, ARSN 691 614 132, with impact tracking and a learning lab in the app.
The subscription is $10 a month, which is $120 a year, and the minimum to invest in the fund is $100. Those are two separate numbers. Sign-up happens in the app, on iOS and Android. General information only, not financial advice. Consider the PDS and TMD before investing, and never invest money you need for rent or food.
the one advantage you already have
You are probably reading this between lectures, maybe instead of an assignment. Your bank account has a number in it that does not feel like enough to do anything with. Your biggest financial asset right now is time: the forty-odd years between now and when you will need the money.
compoundingWhen the returns on your investment earn returns of their own. Over long periods it does more of the work than the size of each contribution. rewards time more than it rewards size. Somebody who starts at twenty and keeps going has a decade of it behind them before most people start at all, and that decade is the part you cannot buy back later.
Numbers on it. A contribution of $10 a month from age twenty, kept up and assuming a 7% return each year, comes to roughly $26,000 by age sixty. You would have put in $4,800 of that, so the other $21,000 is compounding doing the work. The 7% is the assumption the illustration runs on, not a forecast of what any market will do, and ASIC’s MoneySmart compound interest calculator is where you change it for your own. One thing to be clear about: the $10 there is money contributed into an investment, not the $10 a month subscription, which is a separate thing.
Start five years later and the same $10 a month reaches about $18,000 by sixty on the same assumption. Five years of waiting costs roughly $8,200, which is the argument for starting now with a small amount rather than later with a serious one.
the student advantage
you are the only one who has this
A graduate five years ahead of you earns more and has less time. Somebody ten years ahead earns more again and has less time again. Time is the one input in this that you hold more of than anybody else in the room, and it is the one that stops being available.
what ten dollars a month looks like
Ten dollars is not nothing when your income is casual shifts and Centrelink. It helps to see it beside the other things that leave your account.
| cost | how often | |
|---|---|---|
| one oat latte | $6 | Several times a week |
| a Spotify Premium subscription | $15.99 a month | Monthly |
| two Uber Eats delivery fees | $10 to $14 | The nights you cannot be bothered cooking |
| the inaam subscription | $10 a month, flat | Monthly. Separate from the $100 minimum you put into the fund itself |
Buying coffee is fine. Ten dollars a month into an investment is small enough that you would not miss it, and in the illustration above forty years turns it into an amount you would notice.
the habit
small and regular beats large and occasional
The habit is the part that matters. An amount that survives a broken laptop and exam season is worth more than a bigger amount that stops in April. Start at the size you can defend to yourself when money is tight.
the student-specific things to check
Standard investing advice does not account for student life. Four things matter more when you are at uni than they will later.
can you pause without penalty?
There will be months where you cannot contribute, like exam season or the month three textbooks land at once. If a platform charges you for pausing, or makes stopping and restarting hard, it does not suit student life. Check the terms before you sign up.
how fast can you get your money back?
Students do not have an emergency fund. If the car dies or your share of rent jumps, you might need the money. Most app-based platforms process withdrawals in a few business days. ETFs can be sold during market hours and you pay brokerage to do it. Super locks your money away until retirement. Know the timeline before it becomes urgent.
what are the tax implications?
If your taxable income for the year is under $18,200, which is common at uni, you do not pay income tax. Investment earnings, such as distributions, dividends and capital gains, are part of that taxable income and go in your tax return. Most platforms send a tax statement at the end of the financial year. Give them your TFN (Tax File Number) when you sign up. If you do not, the platform is required to withhold tax at the highest marginal rate. The ATO guide to investment income covers what you owe and what you do not.
what about hecs and help?
Having a HECS-HELP debt does not stop you investing, and investing does not change how much you owe. Compulsory repayments are worked out on your repayment income, which starts from your taxable income, so investment income such as distributions and capital gains counts towards it along with your pay. You only make a compulsory repayment in a year when your repayment income is above the minimum threshold. The ATO sets out the thresholds and how repayment income is added up.
how the platforms stack up
The apps students usually weigh up here are inaam, Raiz Invest, Spaceship, Australian Ethical and Betashares ETHI. They sit in different categories, and the category matters more than any single feature. What each one publishes, on the four things that decide it for a student:
| minimum to start | monthly cost as published | can you pause | impact focus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| inaam | $100 into the fund. The $10 a month subscription is a separate thing from the money you invest | $10 a month, flat | Check the current terms in the app before you rely on it | Five impact themes, weighted by members, every holding published by name |
| raiz invest | $5 | $2.50 on its Lite plan, $5.50 on Regular, per its published fee schedule | Yes | One socially responsible portfolio, Emerald, on Regular |
| spaceship | No minimum | Nil while each portfolio is under $100, then $3, plus 0.15% to 0.50% p.a., per its published fee schedule | Yes | Earth portfolio, picked for positive impact |
| australian ethical | $1,000, or $500 with a regular investment plan | 1.39% to 1.69% p.a. on its retail funds, per its published fund pages | Yes | Comprehensive ESG charter |
| betashares ethi | About $17 a unit, and most brokers ask for $500 on a first purchase | 0.59% p.a. per its fund page, plus brokerage each time you trade | Not applicable, you can sell while the market is open | Ethical screening of large global companies |
Those are the figures each provider published on 6 October 2026, from their own fee pages and fund pages. They move. Each product’s current PDS is the authority on its own numbers, ours included, and ours is here.
The table is a starting point. These are the questions worth putting to any platform on it, us included.
| what inaam does | what to ask any other platform | |
|---|---|---|
| what type it is | One managed investment schemeA fund where your money is pooled with other investors and run to a published strategy. You hold units in the fund., bought inside the app. There is no brokerage account to open or stock to pick. | Managed fund, micro-investing app with round-ups, super, or a listed ETF you buy through a broker? |
| what it costs | $10 a month, flat, which is $120 a year whatever the balance does. The fund carries its own costs, in the PDSProduct Disclosure Statement. What you are investing in, what it costs, and what can go wrong.. | Flat fee or a share of your balance? What else sits on top: platform fees, brokerage, account fees? |
| what it takes to start | $100 into the fund. The $10 a month subscription is a separate thing from the money you invest. | What is the minimum, and is the number quoted a minimum investment or a subscription? |
| can you pause | Check the current terms in the app before you rely on it. | Can you stop and restart contributions freely, and does pausing cost anything? |
| impact depth | Impact is the whole product. Five themes, weighted by members, every holding published by name with its impact data. | Is impact the whole product or one portfolio option among several? Screening, active selection, or a tilt? |
| who regulates it | ASIC. Primary Securities Ltd (AFSL 224107) is the responsible entity of the fund. inaam Impact Investments Pty Ltd is a Corporate Authorised Representative (CAR No. 1318254) of Non Correlated Advisors Pty Ltd (AFSL 430126). | What is the AFSL number, who is the responsible entity, and is there a current PDS and TMD? |
Fees, features and terms change, ours included. Always check the current PDS before you invest, and do not invest money you need for essentials. inaam is not affiliated with any other platform named here, and nothing on this page is a recommendation about anybody else’s product.
the fee problem on small balances
Any flat monthly fee is expensive in percentage terms while the balance is small, and that includes ours.
The inaam subscription is $10 a month, $120 a year. On a few hundred dollars that is a large share of the balance, and our own fee calculator says so rather than hiding it. From about $8,000 up the flat fee sits below the typical 1.5% all-in cost of fund, platform and advice. Below that balance a percentage-based fee costs you less.
The 1.5% comparison is fund, platform and advice combined: ASIC Moneysmart, June 2026, the low end of REP 702’s 1.45% to 2.3% range. Typical published ranges, not a quote from any named provider. The fund carries its own costs, set out in the PDS.
The arithmetic at the bottom of the range is worth seeing written down. A flat $2.50 a month is 30% of a $100 balance over a year. That is the monthly fee Raiz published for its smallest plan on 6 October 2026, and its current fee schedule is the authority. The same arithmetic applies to any flat fee, ours included, because a flat fee does not shrink when the balance does. A percentage fee scales with the balance instead: Spaceship publishes 0.15% to 0.50% p.a. with no monthly fee while each portfolio is under $100, and the Betashares ETHI fund page publishes 0.59% p.a., so on a small balance those cost cents rather than dollars.
Which type of fee costs less depends on where your balance is. If you are starting with a small amount and building slowly, a percentage fee costs less in year one. If you are building past a few thousand quickly, the flat fee becomes the better deal and stays that way. Our low minimum funds guide has the fee comparison across balance levels.
reading a fee
the fee you can see beats the fee you cannot
A flat subscription is a number you can hold in your head. A percentage is a number that quietly grows with your balance, and it is charged whether the year went well or badly. Neither is dishonest, but the flat one is easier to check.
the rules for investing on a student budget
These come from being twenty and broke.
- Never invest money you need for rent, food or transport. If investing creates financial stress, stop. You can start again later.
- Start with the smallest amount the platform allows. Not a hundred dollars. A small amount is enough to feel what it is like to have money invested and to get comfortable with the fact that it goes down sometimes.
- Automate it. Set the recurring contribution for the day after you get paid, whether that is Centrelink, casual shifts or a part-time job. If you have to transfer it manually each month, you will stop within three.
- Do not check it daily. Markets move. When your balance is small, a normal wobble feels like losing money, but what you are seeing is volatility. Check quarterly at most.
- Increase it when your income increases. When you graduate and start earning properly, raise the contribution. You will barely feel it in your spending.
what to do right now
If you have read this far and you are still thinking about it, pick the platform that fits your budget, download it today and read the PDS. Set up a recurring contribution at a size you will not miss, then close the app and check back in three months.
If you are not sure which values matter most to you, the money values quiz takes two minutes. If you want to know what you would be invested in, how it works shows how inaam picks companies across health and wellbeing, renewable energy, waste and recycling, sustainable agriculture and sustainable consumption, and investment areas sets out the five themes.
where inaam fits
inaam is a managed impact fund inside an app. The subscription is $10 a month, $120 a year, and it is separate from the money you invest. The minimum to invest in the fund is $100. You rank the five themes and member weights shape how the fund leans. Every company is published by name with the reason it is held, and there is no brokerage account to open or stock to pick.
Sign-up happens in the app, on iOS and Android, not on this website. Every company clears the same three pillars: financial robustness, purposeful impact and leadership calibre. If you want to see how we sit beside the other options, compare puts the criteria side by side, and the beginner guide to choosing an app runs the same five questions across any platform you are looking at.
