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Over the years, I've used my fair share of finance apps and tools, both for myself and clients. I tend to like specialized tools because that means they have to be really good at the thing they do. I look for great design when it comes to form, function, and keeping the end-user in mind. And every valuable tool has to be pretty easy to use. The tool should let you focus on your finances, not on trying to use the tool.
Here are the tools that meet all the criteria above and that I use to manage my money.
To create my spending plan, I use Tiller HQ.
I don't usually keep track of my spending through regular budgeting. Instead, I create a spending plan at the beginning of each year.
My spending plan helps me understand how much I spent in three main categories: bills & life (essential expenses), fun & b.s. (non-essential expenses) and future & goals (savings and investments). When I see what I spent, I can see if and where I might need to make adjustments. A spending plan helps keep my spending in check by knowing the broad strokes without getting too deep into the details.
I use Tiller HQ for a few reasons. It pulls all your transactions into a feed, so when you do go to make a budget or a spending plan, you're using data based on what really happened, not what I think might have happened. So you're setting up a realistic plan.
Another reason why I like Tiller HQ is that it uses Google Sheets. I prefer using spreadsheets because it's something I'm already fluent in how they work. I don't have to learn how to use a new application or program, the way you do with a budgeting app.
To track my net worth, I use Personal Capital.
Personal Capital is a free app that connects all of your investment, cash, savings, credit card, and debt accounts so you can glance at your net worth at any time. Your personal net worth is the value of what you have minus what you owe.
"What you have" are your assets. Assets are cash, investments, or things that are valuable and can be turned into money, like a very valuable violin or your business.
"What you owe" are your liabilities. Liabilities are your debts. Things like your student loans, a credit balance, and a car loan are all liabilities.
Net worth is an important thing to track because it's a measure that can gauge where you are financially relative to your goals. For example, if you're trying to go from negative net worth to a zero net worth, using an app like Personal Capital makes it easy.
Net worth is also significant because it's a measure of wealth, and wealth is the thing that will allow you to stop doing work for money. When you have wealth, you have a pile of assets that you can use to generate income or can spend to live. That's basically what a retirement account is and how it works. It's a big pile of assets that you can live off or use to generate income to live off of.
User beware: Personal Capital is a "free" tool. Generally, when an app is "free" to the user, it means the user is the product. But unlike Instagram and Facebook, Personal Capital does not sell your data to advertisers. As of January 2020, here's what their privacy policy stated regarding selling your data: "Personal Capital's core business is wealth management. This means that our objective is to win you over as a Personal Capital Advisory Client. We do not rent, sell or trade your Personal Information."
To come up with a plan to get out of debt, I've used Unbury.me.
I've been in and out of credit card debt a couple of times. Unbury.me is an excellent tool to help you make a plan to get out of debt.
Using it is pretty simple and straight-forward. Here's how you use it:
First, load all your info into Unbury.me to begin analyzing what repayment options you have.
Use this sliding lever at the bottom of the payment plan section to choose how much you are paying each month towards all your debt. The tool will give you payment plan options based on whether you want to pay back the highest interest first or lowest balance first.
I like this tool because it's so simple and easy. It shows you different payment scenarios. It gives you payment plans that show you how much to pay towards various debts each month until you have none. Again, it's a free tool and that usually makes me skeptical, so read their privacy policy. But it doesn't seem like the project was created to collect and sell data.
Of course, the tool is not going to be what magically gets you out of debt. Your earnings (or your ability and access to borrowing the money) will magically get you out of debt. It's like buying a camera or a guitar. The equipment (the tool) will help, but it's what you do with the tool that matters.
To invest, I use Betterment and Aspiration.
I worked at a firm that managed investments. Which means I learned about all the stacks of paperwork that was involved in opening up an account. I also saw the fee structure that most advisors charged: 1% of the total balance you invested with them. I learned that many financial advisors worth their salt had a minimum account requirement of like a million dollars. I also observed that most people like me just needed a way to access low-cost index funds.
Betterment, founded in 2010, was, at the time, pretty revolutionary because they only charged a fee of 0.25%, there were no accountant minimums, and they were able to do almost everything online, which eliminated virtually all of the paperwork. It's easy to set up your account, link accounts, and make changes to your automatic transfers. And it's not an ugly interface.
Even though Betterment offers Socially Responsible investment options now, I started investing with Aspiration because Betterment didn't have that fund at the time. Aspiration's fee structure was also pretty radical at the time: pay what you think is fair.
While most finance nerds might recommend that it's slightly cheaper "just to buy the Vanguard Total Market Index fund (ticker symbol VTI), which will give you a near-optimal ownership of hundreds of companies and will outperform over 90% of financial advisers and other funds in the long run." The truth is platforms like Betterment and Aspiration are a lot easier to and efficient to navigate for people. If you feel like there are a lot of barriers between you and getting started with investing, Betterment and Aspiration take away those barriers.
To keep an eye on my credit score, I use Credit Wise by Capital One.
I use Capital One for my savings accounts, so I'm already in their ecosystem. You automatically get access to Credit Wise if you're a Capital One customer, but everyone else can sign up for free. I used to use Credit Karma, but which is also a free app, but Capital One seems to be the lesser of two evils in my mind when it comes to who has access to my data.
To draft and execute a will, I use Willing.
Before same-sex couples were treated like regular human beings, many needed to have estate planning and legal documents drafted as a way to get around not having the same rights heterosexual couples had. Estate planning would ensure that they could legally do normal things like visiting their partner in the hospital or not getting screwed out of their wealth because it got automatically inherited by a disapproving parent.
That might be a significant factor in why I think I may have been more mindful of wills (a product of estate planning) than most young(ish) people.
Even if you're young, you still might consider confronting your mortality and preparing your end of life paperwork. Your estate plan or your will answers the following questions:
Who gets you stuff?
Who will take care of your last financial affairs, like paying your bills and debt on your behalf?
Who will take care of your kids?
What your medical decisions are, how you'd like medical decisions to be made or who will make medical decisions on your behalf?
Willing is a really accessible way to make sure you get these documents drafted and in place. The hardest part is having to think about this stuff and have the conversation with your partner.
All these tech tools are great for helping you manage the nitty-gritty and practical aspects of your finances. But they won't help you manage your anxiety, stress, mindset, or unhealed money trauma.
For these pesky things, here are some tools that I use or have used that have helped me cope with my experience as a human being who also has to care about money: therapy, coaching, daily meditation, yoga, box breathing, rigorous exercise, running, walking, journaling, gardening, drawing, writing, playing music, feeling my feelings, and sometimes, drugs and alcohol.