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Technology has changed drastically. Long gone are the days when saving money meant depositing coins and cash in your cookie jar. The incredible number of resources available today have made it very easy to grow financially.
Growing financially involves making smart decisions about money that can improve your financial situation in the long-term.
The resources available today have made it ridiculously easy to manage finances and achieve long-term financial goals even for the least tech-savvy people. There are number of smartphone apps today that can help you achieve your financial goals.
So what can you do to grow financially?
Here are 4 ridiculously easy ways you can grow financially using your smartphone:
1. Manage Your Money
Managing money means controlling money by analyzing income and expenses, tracking bills and subscriptions, and creating and following through a budget.
Money management is very important. It allows you to understand more about your financial situation. You can learn more about ways that your money is coming in and going out.
Cleo
Cleo makes the complicated task of managing money and finances very easy.
Cleo is an intelligent assistant that keeps your finances in check. It does that by securely linking to your bank accounts.
After you have successfully signed up and linked your bank accounts, Cleo would start to keep track of your income and expenses.
Cleo can also track your bills and recurring subscriptions.
You primarily interact with Cleo by chatting with it. You can ask Cleo questions such as where you spent your money this week or how much money you spent in a particular grocery store.
You can even create a budget within the app and Cleo will help you stick with it.
Once you have your budget amount set up, Cleo will track your spending habits and inform you if you are going to stay within or exceed your budget.
Cleo is free to use.
They do have a Cleo Plus subscription option for which they charge $5.99 a month and you get access to features such as cashback and salary advance.
Sign up with Cleo now and take control of your financial life.
Emma
Emma is another powerful tool that allows you manage your finances better and make smarter decisions about your money.
With Emma, you can track fees banks have charged you, set a budget, track your subscriptions, see where your money is going, and more.
To get started, you are required to connect your bank accounts with Emma so that it can pull your financial information.
Emma’s user interface is simple and straightforward. It tells you all about your financial information on the dashboard after you open the app.
On the dashboard of Emma, you can see your balances and the amount you owe. You can also see snapshots of your recent transactions, a 3-month average of your shopping history across different categories, where exactly you spent your money on, your subscriptions, and more.
You can even setup your monthly or payday-to-payday budget within the app.
Emma is free to download and use.
Emma has a premium service as well known as Emma Pro. Under this, you can have access to different features such as creating custom categories, renaming transactions, creating manual transactions, exporting data, and more.
Get started with your new financial advocate, Emma!
2. Cut Down Your Budget
Realize that you may have over-estimated your budget. You can grow financially by trimming your budget.
You might have set apart a specific amount for your monthly budget after factoring in all your expenses. However, there are ways you can cut down on your monthly expenses. By doing so, you can trim your budget.
By trimming your monthly budget, you can save more each month.
Truebill (Only available in the USA)
Truebill is an all-in-one app. It:
- Provides complete summary of your financial life.
- Monitors your subscriptions.
- Generates financial reports.
- Lowers bills.
- Automatically sets aside savings for you.
Truebill does have a lot of useful features. For the purpose of this discussion, I am only going to talk about how Truebill can help you cut down your budget to help you grow financially.
Every month you pay all sorts of bills. You also pay for your subscriptions. Truebill can help you lower bills including phone, internet, wireless, home security, cable and many other bills. Truebill can also help you cancel unwanted subscriptions.
Truebill can lower your bills by negotiating with your service provider. If the negotiations are successful, Truebill charges you a 40% fee of whatever they end up saving you. So 60% of the amount they save you are for you to keep.
You might also have subscriptions. Truebill automatically identifies all the recurring payments you make for subscriptions. Many people have active subscriptions that they do not even know about. You can cancel these subscriptions yourself or have Truebill (premium service) cancel it for you.
Download the Truebill app and connect your bank account to automatically sync all of your financial information with Truebill. That’s all you really need to do to get started.
Tip: Truebill is an all-in-one finance app. Click here to learn how you can take control of your financial life by only using the Truebill app.
Trim (Available in Canada and USA)
Trim is another tool you can use to cut down your budget. It can serve as your personal financial assistant.
Trim’s features are very similar to Truebill, except that Trim does not have a smartphone app. Trim:
- Lowers bills.
- Monitors subscriptions.
- Automates savings.
- Helps you get out of debt.
For the purpose of this discussion, I am only going to talk about how Trim can help you cut down your budget.
You can lower your budget with Trim by getting your bills lowered, your unwanted subscriptions canceled, and your APR negotiated.
Trim negotiates cable, internet, and phone bills, and can save you up to 30% of what you are paying currently. They charge you 33% of what you save. Their bill negotiation feature is available only in USA.
You can also view all your subscriptions in your dashboard. If you would like to cancel any of the subscriptions, you can always click on the option for it in your dashboard.
Trim has a premium service for which they charge $10/month. With this service, you can get some very valuable features.
With Trim Premium, you can get Trim to negotiate your interest rates with your bank. You also get unlimited access to Trim’s financial gurus who can give you advice about any questions you may have about your credit card debt, student loan, auto loan, home loan, and any other form of debt.
Sign up and lower your budget with Trim.
Tip: Here are 7 bill negotiation companies that can negotiate and help you lower your phone, internet, wireless, cable, home security, satellite TV, satellite radio, utility, software subscription and many other types of bills.
3. Save For The Long-Term
You grow financially when you save for the long-term.
Saving for the long-term is necessary to make sure that your future is secure. With the technology available today, saving is easier than ever.
You no longer need a financial adviser to guide you through this process. Today, saving is literally as simple as a few taps on your phone.
Wealthsimple
Wealthsimple is a company that lets you invest, save, and trade. For the purpose of this discussion, I will only be talking about the savings feature of Wealthsimple.
You can access Wealthsimple from a computer or from their smartphone app.
Wealthsimple offers a high-interest savings account. They are currently offering a 1.4% interest rate on your savings in Canada (1.10% in the United States), which is higher than what the big banks offer.
Wealthsimple makes it incredibly easy to set apart some money as savings. You can use this app to save money overtime for a down-payment or for your retirement.
Once you have downloaded the app, you can proceed with the registration. You can then go ahead and open your savings account.
They collect personal information from you including your Social Insurance Number (or Social Security Number in the United States). Your information is encrypted and is transmitted securely.
Next, link your bank account. They offer two simple ways to move your money from your bank account to your new Wealthsimple savings account. You can do a one-time transfer or you can set up an automated transfer.
There are no fees associated with opening a savings account on Wealthsimple. You do not pay a fee for transfers, withdrawals, or having a low balance.
You can choose to open up an individual account, joint account, or a business account.
Wealthsimple makes it really easy to save money. Start using Wealthsimple today!
4. Check Your Credit Score Often
To grow financially, maintaining a good credit score is extremely important. It increases your chances of approval when you decide to apply for a home loan or a car loan or any other form of debt.
You can get your credit report directly from one of the credit bureaus, Equifax, Transunion or Experian.
The drawback with getting credit reports directly from the credit bureaus is that you either have to pay a fee to get your credit report or you are entitled to only one free credit report every 12 months.
Credit Karma
Credit Karma is an absolute must-have app. You can also access it from a computer. What makes Credit Karma different from credit bureaus is that it is completely free to use.
Credit Karma provides you with your credit score and your credit report. This incredibly valuable information can help you take control of your financial life.
They data that you see on Credit Karma comes directly from Transunion in Canada (Transunion and Equifax in the United States).
You can (and should) log in to your Credit Karma account at any time to see if your score has changed or if you have any unrecognized credit inquiries on your file.You can also see all the accounts you have on your file such as credit cards, car loans, etc. This can provide all the details you need to know about your financial health. You can then analyze this information and take steps to improve your credit score
Checking your credit score with Credit Karma will not lower your score. Sign up with Credit Karma now!
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