January 2021 Financial Minute: What Is In Your Budgeting Toolbox Volume. 1

With so much talk about stimulus checks, unemployment, and job security due to the pandemic, money is on everyone’s mind. As I have stated before in a previous a financial minute, “not spending is not saving”, and the most valuable action you can take with your money is to be intentional with it. A major part of being intentional with your money is to budget and track your money. In a digital age there are so many tools to utilize in order to  budget, track, and invest your money!  Here are my top financial applications to add to your life to be intentional about your money.

  Mint

1.     Mint is a great application to quickly set and track your budget. It automatically connects to your account and shows you where and when you exceeded your budget. The Mint application breaks your expenses down by category, this function of the application allows you the insight to adjust your expenditures as you go. Another great function of this application is your ability to add multiple accounts into the application. This allows you to track multiple lines of accounts in one hub, providing you with the ability to track savings, deductions, and long-term goals all in one space. 

 Acorns

2.      Acorns allows you to be intentional without much effort. Unlike Mint, Acorns does not track your funding, instead it allows you to invest your money effortlessly through a systematic round-up approach. This round-up approach rounds your debit card purchase totals to the nearest dollar.  Once you set up your profile, which includes your monthly baseline contribution, you are able to set multipliers to your round up total. These funds are then invested in to the market by acorn. At one point, when I first started using Acorns, my account totaled over $4,000 without my knowledge. 

 

Robinhood 

3.      Robinhood is a great application for those individuals who are looking to become investors. One great benefit to Robinhood is their free stock incentives. These incentives kick in when you invite other individuals to join the application. Not only do you get a free stock, but the individual you invite also receives a free stock. Another great benefit to Robinhood is the free trading. The application takes no fees for your trades, allowing you to trade as little or as much volume as you want daily.  One downfall is that the application will not allow you to do mass day trading options without certain account minimums. Robinhood has two options, a free one that I use and a premium application, which provides a plethora of trading information at your fingertip. Even if you are a low volume trader or don’t want to actively trade at all, just using the Robinhood referral system can net you a significant profit over the course of a year. 

Join Robinhood with my link and we'll both get a free stock 🤝 https://join.robinhood.com/gilberc152

I hope these applications can add benefit to your life. I am not a financial advisory, these are just tools and tips that work for me. Next month we will look at uncommon ways to save and invest your money, including Gold and Bitcoin!