When technology meets finances- manage your money the smart way

Tired of living paycheck to paycheck? You are among the 38% of employees who struggle with their finances and live paycheck to paycheck and need to get better at managing their money. This article explores how technology can help you with personal finances.

It seems that a large number of US adults are living paycheck to paycheck, according to Willis Towers Watson’s Global Benefits Attitude Survey. The survey found that although 58% of workers claim that their finances are heading in the right direction, 38% of them are actually struggling to live from payday to payday. What’s more, 39% of them could not afford to find $3000 in case of an emergency.

Another recent report from the First National Bank of Omaha also found that 53% of US adults don’t have an emergency fund, and 49% live paycheck to paycheck in 2020. What’s more, the same report found that 91% of respondents name better money habits as a goal for this year.

If you also want to get better at managing your finances, you’ve come to the right place to find out how. Here’s the good news: there’s an app or software program for every purpose these days, including for managing your money.

How can you use technology to manage your finances the smart way? Keep reading below to find out!

Use budgeting apps

Are you constantly aware of how much you spend and on what? If not, that’s why your finances aren’t doing great right now. Not having a monthly budget to keep track of your spending and earnings is a significant issue.

But the good news is that budgeting is so much easier with a mobile app. There are multiple apps available that enable you to input your monthly income and expenses to generate a budget suitable for your needs.

Such budgeting apps even allow you to split your expenses into various categories of expenses, from groceries to housing, essential utilities, transportation, and child care. Everything you may be spending your money on can fit into a category in a budgeting app. What’s more, some apps will even designate funds to different categories so that you don’t spend too much on a certain activity.

Using a budgeting app to track your earnings, spending, and savings will help you to never let your money out of your sight again.

Automate your financial tasks

You keep forgetting about paying off your monthly loan installment or paying your utility bills? This can result in expensive late fees or bad credit that might hurt your credibility to lenders in the future.

But, once again, technology can help you by allowing you to automate your financial tasks, including payments. For example, you can set up regular payments to pay your credit card monthly or your utility bills if your suppliers allow online payments.

You’ll never again have to worry about forgetting to pay or paying late because most finance and budgeting apps will automate and handle the payments for you.

Pay your bills online

Traveling all the time or struggling with an inflexible work schedule and can’t find the right moment to pay for your bills? Well, you can automate your payments, as mentioned above. Yet, if you don’t trust technology that much and prefer to handle important payments yourself, you can do so by paying online.

There was a time, not so long ago, when people were really hesitant to pay their bills online because they distrusted Internet transactions’ security. However, that’s history already because a lot of people are paying their bills online, mortgages, utility bills, loans, rent, you name it.

Over time, online payments became really secure, and even if you go online to pay the bills every month instead of automating these payments, you’re still going to save a lot of time.

Manage bank account on your phone

Mobile banking is huge these days. Today’s consumers got used to doing basically everything on their phone, from shopping to learning or getting entertained. So, lucky for us, financial players had no other choice than to adapt to these modern times and customers.

Mobile banking services allow you to see your account details, balance, and loans displayed on your screen. Not only that you can keep an eye on your account all the time, but you can also handle your loans with your phone.

In fact, some financial players renounced completely at the brick-and-mortar branches and instead focused on providing an outstanding mobile banking experience, such as Tangerine Bank did. You can do all the traditional financial tasks that you used to do before, but that required a visit to the bank. What’s more, mobile banking services also incorporate some new services you can take advantage of, such as shopping, trading, getting insurance, or donating money to charity.

Shop online

Technology can also help you shop smarter and avoid paying more than you should for certain products or services.

There are some apps out there that are explicitly designed to help you find the best deals. For example, some apps can help you compare the cost of groceries at one store against another. Knowing which store has the lowest prices for the products you need will help you save money.

Using a VPN (a virtual private network) can also help you get the best deals and save money. Like it or not, some retailers set the prices for certain products or services depending on your country. By using a VPN that is going to hide your real address, you can shop at lower prices available in other parts around the world.

Track your investments

If you’re an investor, you’ll find technology very helpful for managing your investments and diversify your portfolio. You can find a number of apps that allow you to track your preferred shares, notify you if there are any new investment opportunities, or even invest money for you when you’re not in front of the screen.