So You Think You Can’t Save
Your parents constantly tell you should do it. You know you have to do it. You promised yourself you’ll do it. Every January first at 1:00am, you are completely convinced that this is the year you’ll do it, and yet, for the life of you, you cannot do it!
Well maybe you just need a support system: some things that can help you carry the heavy weight of getting it done. The following is a list of available technology that can make it easier for you to get to the goal. (Oh! By the way, in case we were not obvious enough, we’re talking about saving).
Meditation
To start saving, get in the right frame of mind. For this, nothing is better than meditation: training your head to stay focused, will help you keep you on the track to success! Meditation is bicep curls for the brain. Repeat it enough and you’ll be sharp and on target. Our favorite meditation app is Inscape. If you are new to meditating, it gives you three foundational guided courses to get you started.
Tracking
Do you ever wonder where did that paycheck go? Why doesn’t your hard-earned money seem to stay around long enough? If you are like most of us, you do not do a full audit of your expenses at the end of the month or consult the spent-to-date column of your budget before ordering that additional cocktail—well guess what? There are apps for that. You can define your budget, set it so it notifies you when you go over, and get live reports on how much money you’re spending and on what. Our favorite app for this is Mint. It seamlessly connects to all your financial accounts to track your bills, reminds you when a payment is coming up, and even includes free credit score monitoring.
Round up
Having the discipline to save money, track your budget and remember to transfer the funds to wherever it is that you are saving (we hope that your piggy bank days are gone) can feel overwhelming! But saving does not have to be complicated. There are plenty of apps that allow you to round up every time you shop and deposit the difference in your savings account. Maybe even your bank can do it for you. So, next time you buy those super cool shoes for $144.08, round it up to $145 and save those 92 cents. You will have that fantastic sense of accomplishment and those pennies will eventually add up. If your bank does not have this option, you might want to check out Chime.
Get Some Money Back
You have to buy your groceries, clothes, coffee and Ubers. Why not get rebates on all that spending. There are lots of rebate shopping apps, however, we like Drop because you don’t have to go through the pain of unlocking rewards or uploading receipts. You simply connect it to your credit or debit card and start accumulating “Drop Points” that you can redeem.
Discounts and Coupons
As you probably already figured out, we are not telling you to become a hermit and stay home counting your money. We are not the savings police. As long as you follow the 50/30/20 principle, there’s nothing wrong with disciplined spending. So, when you are shopping, try to use the many coupons and discounts platforms, as well as key extensions available. Our favorite for online shopping is Honey because it is a simple plug-in that searches all the offers and coupons available and adds them to your shopping cart automatically at checkout—Magic!
Clean Up
How much money do you spend on monthly subscriptions? If you don’t know the answer, you probably have money leaking from your account every month and are paying for stuff that you might not even use. It is time to do some financial spring cleaning the easy way! Our favorite platform for this is True Bill. They keep track of your subscriptions through your own user dashboard and cancel those unwanted subscriptions for you.
Make Your Money Work for You
So now you meditated yourself into being a savings machine. You have a budget that is being methodically tracked and some money saved from all the rounding up, reward collecting, discount taking and subscription cancellation; however, you see your money getting 0.5% interest in the bank. All that effort and no reward? Now it is time to effortlessly make the money work for you by saving through investing in real estate. Real estate is historically safer than stocks, with much higher annual yields than your bank. Our obvious favorite for this is School of Whales. You make your initial funding, set your recurring investment and for less than what you spend weekly on your Starbucks you can be a real estate investor letting your money grow.
Payoff Debt
If you are one of the 191 million Americans that has credit card debt, a great way to payoff it off is by consolidating what you owe at a lower interest rate. There are plenty of credit cards and companies doing this. We like Tally. They get all your credit cards in one place, offer you a line credit at a lower interest rate and create a customized payoff plan for you.
Invest In the Market
If you are feeling a bit more adventurous, you can invest in the stock market. As long as you understand the risks of investing, we like Stash. It lets you invest in portfolios of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) depending on the sector you want to invest, so you don’t have to buy a specific stock or company.
This is the year. Let’s get it done!