Saving money is important. Other things may change around us, but the basic value of saving a percentage of your income is still essential to future wealth. Charles Givens once said, “Wealth is not about how much you make. It’s about how much you save.” In other words, you are wealthy when you have money set aside. But it’s not enough to save money. You need to consider what the money is being saved for, as well as what means you will use to save the money. Young millennials often start with a meager income as they are getting started so it’s vital for them to save, too. Many of these say, “I don’t have enough to save,” but there are some tools available that can help these young people develop a savings habit.
Mint.com
Mint.com is a great money app that streamlines your spending and helps you put aside some money for the future. One of the best things about this app is that it shows you exactly how you are spending your money. One of the reasons people don’t save is that they do not know where their money is going. With this app on your smartphone, you’ll know what you are spending your money on, and you’ll be better able to manage it, too.
Simple.com
This is a banking app that is connected to BVCompass Bank in Atlanta. They are FDIC insured, and it has all of the conveniences of any other bank, but without expensive overdraft fees. If you have a transaction that takes you over your balance, the item is just returned to the vendor, and you can work it out with them or issue another payment. Often, the vendor will make a few other attempts to deduct the money, so you have some time to replenish your funds if an oversight occurs. Additionally, this app lets you set goals for saving, and you can categorize the areas you want to save for such as vacations, retirement accounts, and other areas. Lots of graphs and analytics to keep up with your spending and savings goals. The line graph shows you how you are spending your money so you can learn to control your spending to go to the things that are most important to you. There is no monthly fee for having an account with Simple.com. You can download the app from the iOS/Apple Store or Google Play for Android.
Acorns
Acorns is a great investment app that allows you to invest small amounts of extra change into a stock portfolio, mutual funds, and other investment properties. The investment amount is so low that it is like trading penny stocks, but the result can pay off big over time. With the stock market being the best it has been in decades, now might be the time to try out this nifty investment app. Note that this app is based on years of study in economics and the company takes the guesswork out of choosing the stocks for you by distributing your investment where it will make you the best profit.
Stockpile.com
Stockpile is another great app for young investors who want to get started slowly in the stock market. Unlike Acorns though, you can see the individual stocks, look at their history, and decide which one you want to invest in. Put as much money into it as you want, buy, sell, and transfer money to your bank with ease.
