Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. All UK students are eligible to participate in UK Invests.

In year 1, the university will invest approximately $1 million in this initiative through private and philanthropic support. We believe this idea will garner a great deal of interest from donors, who know the importance of investing and saving as part of the trajectory of our students in leading lives of meaning and purpose.

UK’s rolling tuition average over the last several four years is now below 2 percent annually (1.6%); a decade ago, tuition and fee increases were averaging nearly six percent. Additionally, the institution has nearly tripled the amount of financial aid to students – scholarships and grants that don’t have to be re-paid – from $57m to $162m this academic year. UK Invests – the investment accounts and financial education efforts included – represents a third step, or next step, in these efforts.

We are addressing access. We are addressing affordability. Now, we are expanding on what we do to ensure students are prepared both educationally and financially when they leave UK.

We are ready to support you. Please email ukinvests@uky.edu with questions.

We have structured UK Invests so that it likely will not impact a student's financial aid package. However, each person's financial aid situation varies. If you have questions or concerns, we suggest you reach out to UK's Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships for a more specific analysis of your situation and the impact of incentives and awards through UK Invests.

International students with a Social Security Number can apply for a UK Invests account. For specific questions about eligibility, please contact us at ukinvests@uky.edu.

Fidelity Bloom® is an easy-to-use app that helps you learn how to save and invest so you can make smart money decisions now and after graduation.

Fidelity Bloom® is accessible to students at select universities. Each university has a unique QR code that gives you access to download your school’s personalized app experience. Once you download the Fidelity Bloom app, you’ll go through the process of opening two accounts: a Fidelity Bloom Save account and a Fidelity Bloom Spend account.

After you open your accounts, you’ll be able to use all the features of the app, including investing, financial lessons, and more.

Check out this Fidelity Bloom® app how to guide.

An existing Fidelity Investments customer can open a Fidelity Bloom® for UK Invests account and will be affiliated by using the UK Invests QR code. When you log into Fidelity.com you will see all your accounts with Fidelity.

In some cases, extra steps will be necessary to verify your identity before you can open your Fidelity account. You may see a message in the app or receive an email asking you to upload additional documents. If you see this message or receive the email, you will need to upload a photo of your Social Security Card and your U.S. government-issued ID (this could be a driver’s license or a passport).

If you have other Fidelity accounts and want to open a Fidelity Bloom® account, you will first need to reset your password to access your account(s) through Fidelity.com. To reset a password you will need to follow the following steps:

• You'll need to verify your identity:
  • When asked to request a security code, select the phone number where you want the code sent
  • When you get it, be sure to enter the actual 6-digit security code in the field and not the number the code comes from
• If you're asked a security question, answer it and then you'll be prompted to create a new password:
  • If you answer incorrectly, Fidelity will block access to your account until we can verify no one else is trying to access it
  • To unblock your account, please call a customer service representative at 800-343-3548
• Once your account is unblocked you can open your Fidelity Bloom account using your university QR code.

You'll open two accounts: a Fidelity Save account and a Fidelity Spend account. These are brokerage accounts, not traditional bank accounts.

A brokerage account gives you access to the stock market, which allows your cash to be automatically placed in low-risk money market mutual funds.¹

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. This means the money you deposit into these accounts can earn returns.¹

Additionally, you can choose to invest money held within your Fidelity Bloom Save account via the Fidelity Bloom app or Fidelity.com.

Fidelity Bloom accounts are brokerage accounts covered by SIPC. They are not bank accounts and therefore are not covered by FDIC insurance. Holdings in your Fidelity Bloom accounts are subject to market risk and risk of loss.

¹You could lose money by investing in a money market fund. Although the fund seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, it cannot guarantee it will do so. The fund may impose a fee upon the sale of your shares. An investment in the fund is not a bank account and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Fidelity Investments and its affiliates, the fund’s sponsor, is not required to reimburse the fund for losses, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the fund at any time, including during periods of market stress.

Students at select universities are eligible to download Fidelity Bloom® through a unique QR code specific to their school. You must be at least 18 years old and have a Social Security number to open the required accounts in the app.

Your Fidelity Bloom® accounts (and any money deposited in them) are yours. When you leave or graduate from your university, they remain yours. You can still access your accounts through the Fidelity Bloom app, the Fidelity Investments app, or Fidelity.com.

Fidelity Bloom® prompts you to open two accounts (Fidelity Bloom Save and Fidelity Bloom Spend) to separate your saving from your spending. Research shows that you’re more likely to have a greater awareness of your finances, and you’re less likely to move money when you have separate accounts with distinct purposes.

First, set up your account by visiting this link on your mobile device. Once you link your bank account, add money to your Save and Spend accounts using a one-time transfer or set up recurring transfers to regularly add money to your account. After your accounts are funded, you can begin investing or take Lessons to learn more.

A brokerage account allows for trading of stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds,  and gives you access to Fidelity's tools and research.

By using brokerage accounts, you're able to place your uninvested cash in low-risk money market mutual funds. Money market mutual funds are considered conservative and easy to access.

Cash in both your Save and Spend accounts have the potential to earn yield, which is a cash payout of interest earned that is added to your accounts on a monthly basis.

• After you add money to your save account, tap the save account tile on the home tab. 
• Tap the investments tile.
• Browse mutual fund collections, or learn more through lessons and tools.
• There are other investment options available through Fidelity.com

Fidelity Bloom® is an app to access two brokerage accounts. To open an account within the app, you need to be at least 18 years old. You also need to have a social security number to complete the digital account open process.

To open your accounts, you’ll need to provide your phone number, Social Security number, and a personal email address. Fidelity does not recommend providing your university email address as you may lose access to it after graduation.

In some cases, you may also be asked to provide a government-issued ID (like a driver’s license or passport) to help us verify your identity and protect your account against fraud.

You don't need to make any deposits to open your accounts.

In some cases, extra steps will be necessary to verify your identity before you can open your Fidelity Bloom® accounts.

You may see a message in the app or receive an email asking you to upload additional documents. If you see this message or receive an email, you will need to upload a photo of your Social Security card and your government-issued ID (like a driver’s license or passport).

It’s possible that you opened a Fidelity retirement account—like a 401(k)—as part of your benefits package through a current or previous employer.

If you don’t know your login credentials, you'll first need to look up your username and reset your password through Fidelity.com.

To look up your username or reset your password, follow these steps:

• Go to Fidelity.com and select "Log in"
• Select "Forgot username or password?"
• Verify your identity by entering your name, date of birth, and the last 4 digits of your Social Security number, then select “Continue.”
  • When asked to request a security code, select the phone number where you want the code sent.
• Select "Lookup username" or "Reset password" and follow the prompts.
• If you're asked a security question, answer it and you'll be prompted to create a new password.
  • If you answer incorrectly, Fidelity will block access to your account until we can verify no one else is trying to access it.
  • To unblock your account, please call 800-343-3548.
• Once you know your username and reset your password, you can open your Fidelity Bloom® accounts using these credentials.

You earn contributions to your account by completing assignments outlined in your UK Invests Canvas modules. The dollar amount for each assignment is listed with the assignment. If you have any questions, send a message via Canvas.

You may notice items labeled UK Invests on your account transactions page. You are not being charged by UK for those UK Invests items. Those items are simply a reflection of your UK Invests deposits passing through to your Fidelity Bloom® account.

UK processes payments every other Friday. Keep in mind — it takes a few business days after the payment is processed for the money to show up in your account.

UK Invests is exclusively working with Fidelity Investments. Any money earned by participating in UK Invests is deposited into your Fidelity Bloom® for UK Invests account. You may consult directly with Fidelity Investments and your other financial institution to review options for transferring money between accounts.

Depending on the amount of dollars you earn by completing incentives, you may have to pay taxes. And if you take money out of your account, it will be taxable.

• Please contact your university for more information on their incentive payment schedule.
• University incentives or athletic distributions, if available, count as qualifying deposits for Bloom in-market offers.

You can add money to your accounts by transferring funds from another account, using mobile check deposit, or using a third-party payment app like Venmo® or PayPal®.

Venmo is a service of PayPal, Inc. Fidelity Investments and PayPal are independent entities and are not legally affiliated.

To link a bank account to your Fidelity Bloom® accounts, select one of your accounts (either Fidelity Save or Fidelity Spend), tap "Link a bank account," and follow the prompts.

It may take up to 6 business days for your money to become available to spend using electronic funds transfer from an external financial institution. This delay is due to additional fraud protection.

To set up direct deposit into a Fidelity Bloom® account, you’ll need to provide your employer with the routing and account numbers of the account you want to the deposits to go into.

Routing number: Fidelity’s routing (ABA number for electronic funds transfer) is 101205681.

Account number: Your 17-digit account number is located in your Fidelity Bloom app. To find your account number, select the "Save" or "Spend" tile on your Home tab, tap the More menu (the 3 dots in the top right of the screen), then tap "View account information." It will appear as 39900000XXXXXXXXX.

Select "Checking" if your employer asks you to indicate the registration type of the direct deposit account.

To deposit checks into your Fidelity Bloom® accounts using mobile check deposit, select "Transact," then tap "Mobile check deposit," and follow the prompts.

Generally, mobile check deposits in Fidelity Bloom® are available for withdrawal within 4 business days if submitted on a business day prior to 4 p.m. ET and determined to be in good order.

Check deposits are not processed on Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays.

You can easily transfer money between your Fidelity Bloom® Spend and Save accounts. In the app, tap "Transact" and then select "Transfer." From there, you can use the drop-down option to choose the Fidelity account you’d like to transfer money from and where you want it to go.

Fidelity Bloom® doesn’t charge overdraft fees. Your bank might, though, so be sure to check their policy. If a transfer is scheduled while your balance is low or overdrawn, we’ll pause it until your balance is restored.

You can earn a $10 cash reward for completing each level of financial lessons available in Fidelity. There are 3 levels, allowing you to earn up to $30 in total. Each level consists of lessons covering saving, spending, and investing. (Terms and conditions apply.)

You can expect to receive your Learn & Earn reward within 2 to 6 calendar days of completing each of the 3 levels.

Fidelity Bloom® Challenges are not eligible for the Learn & Earn reward. You can only earn the Learn & Earn reward by completing Lessons in the app.

*Annual savings match offer expires on December 31, 2024.

Fidelity Bloom® offers an annual match of 10% on up to $300 in eligible deposits made to your Fidelity Bloom Save account. Therefore, you can earn up to a maximum of $30 each year.

Match rewards are added to your Save account each month until you reach $30. They are based on eligible deposits into your Save account each calendar year and reset annually on January 1. Eligible deposits into your Fidelity Bloom Save account include transfers from outside accounts or other Fidelity accounts.

Generally, any deposits you make in your Fidelity Bloom® Save account from an external account are eligible, whereas any deposits made by Fidelity are ineligible.

Eligible deposit types: recurring deposits and one-time transfers (not recurring transfers) to your Save account from your Spend account, any other Fidelity account, or outside accounts.

Ineligible deposit types: Cents-per- swipe rewards, cash offers from Fidelity, Fidelity savings match deposits, and any deposits into your Spend account.

Eligible deposits must be made into your Fidelity Bloom® Save account to apply toward your annual savings match reward earnings.

Yes, you can make multiple deposits over the course of the calendar year to get the full annual savings match.

Savings match rewards are automatically added to your Fidelity Bloom® Save account at the beginning of the month based on your settled deposits at the end of the prior month.

Please note that it may take up to 5 business days for your deposits to settle, depending on how you deposited the money.

Investing is when you buy something in hopes that it’ll appreciate (aka increase in value). People can invest in many ways, but in the financial world, investing most often refers to buying an asset, like a mutual fund, that you expect will help you grow your money over time.

Investing is a way to make your money work for you—and give it a chance to potentially grow more than it could if it were sitting in a savings account.

Keep in mind that there are no guarantees with investing.

You can start investing in Fidelity Bloom® with as little as $1.

When you deposit money into either of your Fidelity Bloom® accounts, it is placed in a low-risk money market mutual fund that allows it to earn returns. This is also referred to as your “core position.”

The money you deposit into your Fidelity Bloom Save account will remain there unless you decide to transfer it or buy other investments with it using the Fidelity Bloom app, the Fidelity Investments app, or Fidelity.com.

The money you deposit into your Fidelity Bloom Spend account cannot be used to purchase investments within the Fidelity Bloom app, but you may purchase investments within this account using the Fidelity Investments app or Fidelity.com.

In Fidelity Bloom®, the money you have available to invest is in your Fidelity Bloom Save account. Once you transfer money into your Save account, you can buy investments in this account.

• Once you’ve added money to your Save account, tap the "Save" account tile on the Home tab.
• Tap the "Investments" tile.
• Browse mutual fund collections directly or learn more through lessons and tools.
• Use the Browse tab to find investments, then tap the individual investment you want to buy.
• Tap “Buy” and confirm the amount and price of your trade.
• Tap “Buy” again to complete your trade.

Fidelity Bloom® allows you to invest your money in a specific set of low-cost mutual funds.

This means all the mutual funds offered by Fidelity Bloom have expense ratios of 1% or less. An expense ratio is an annual fee that covers the costs of operating the mutual fund you're investing in.

Here's a simplified example: Let's say you invest $10 in a mutual fund with a 1% expense ratio. 10 cents would be taken out to cover the fee and the other $9.90 would be invested.

A mutual fund pools together money from many investors to purchase a collection of stocks, bonds, and other investments. Mutual funds can help you spread your risk out across multiple investments all at once, instead of putting all your money into a single stock or bond.

Investing within the Fidelity Bloom® app is limited to mutual funds, but you may use the Fidelity Investments app or Fidelity.com to trade stocks and ETFs in either of your Fidelity Bloom accounts.