You know you need to start saving. You want to save. It’s clear in your mind, but how can you do it? perhaps you need some pro personal finance tips.
A friend of mine recently bemoaned the rising home prices, wishing they had saved more the past few years so they could be enjoying their new house, rather than now pinching pennies as they watch prices tick higher each month.
So what to do? Pro personal finance tips
I am a big fan of using automation to make keeping good habits easy. In fact, when set up, any tool you use should make it more difficult to NOT save. Below are some apps and tools you might consider if you want to boost your savings success. (Note: This is not an endorsement of any specific tool. Some apps and tools are free; others have a fee or monthly charge)
Your Bank’s Scheduled Transfer Feature
This is simple and effective. Once you determine how much you want to save each month or each pay-period, simply schedule a recurring transfer from the account your paycheck is deposited into to your bank savings account or another outside account like an investment account. You can set it and forget it.
Mint
Not an automatic savings app, but rather an account aggregator tool with a budgeting feature. Knowing where your money is, where it is coming from, and where it is going is critical to financial success. This app shows you, in real-time, your exact Net Worth, debts, progress in your monthly budget. If you set savings goals, the app will show your progress based on the increases in your linked accounts.
Chime
bank and online app with an automatic savings program. The bank rounds up each transaction to the nearest dollar and deposits that money into a savings account. Last I looked they also add a 10% reward to the money you set aside, but the savings account interest rate is currently pretty low compared to what most online banks offer.
Qapital
An automatic money-saving app that allows you to save based on goals. You can decide what triggers a deposit, and Qapital will do the work of getting that money into a savings account. They also have a “round-up” feature.
Acorns
A hybrid savings and investing and savings app that rounds up every purchase to the nearest dollar and invests the difference. Unlike the other apps listed here, this app focuses on investing, not just saving. Acorns charge a $1 monthly fee if your balance is less than $5,000 or a .25% annual fee if your balance is more than $5,000.
Empower Finance
A budgeting and account aggregation app that also has savings built-in and personal finance tips. They also launched banking in September of 2018, so you can and also connect your accounts, track your spending, and also save money on their platform. Empower is free at the time of this writing.
