Tools To Help You Secure Your Financial Future

How do you feel when you think about your financial future? Secure? Nervous? Unsure?

When it comes to money there are three things you can do with it to help secure your financial future: make it, manage it and save it.

That’s pretty basic though. What do you do to exceed the ordinary in each of those to really excel financially? While there are no “steps” you should take to secure a sound financial future for yourself, there are plenty of tips and advice you can follow.

Helpful Tips on Securing a Financial Future

As stated above, there are basically three things you can do with money. So, how do you do each of those things in a way that helps insure financial security?
Make It.

Financial Future
Before you can manage and save your money, you’ll have to make some! If you’re looking for tips on how to secure a financial future, you probably already have at least one source of income. What many people don’t realize, however, is that you want to secure more than one source of income to be truly financially sound.

Some individuals do this by taking on a second job. That doesn’t necessarily mean waiting tables or tending bar (though it could). In fact, many people have applied to become drivers for Uber in order to make some extra cash. Uber has provided drivers everywhere with an opportunity to make some serious cash, especially if you are in a major Metropolitan area. Learn more about driving with Uber.

Speaking of relatively new ways to make extra money, online surveys have been a way for folks to generate extra income for a few years as well. Companies, like Survey Junkie, are constantly providing survey takers with new surveys and more opportunities to earn extra cash. While it won’t necessarily pay the bills, online surveys can help you earn a little more.

Last, but certainly not least, is investing. This is a way to make your money make money for you. Similar to a high-interest savings account, investing can help you grow your wealth substantially. You don’t have to have a ton of money to do it either! Apps, like Acorns, have made it easy to invest as little as a penny and start working towards a secure financial future for yourself.
Manage It.

Financial Future
Managing your money is one of the more difficult parts of finance. Just about anyone can make money but, as it turns out, not everyone is great at managing it. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools and apps that you can use to help you keep an eye on your finances.

One of the more in-depth apps for tracking your finances is Personal Capital. It is a great tool. Simply by using the app (or visiting their website) you can get snapshots of your finances. Use Personal Capital to track your spending, create a budget and examine your current finances so that you can make the changes necessary to secure a financial future. And, once you’re ready, the app’s services will even allow you to track your investments and prepare for retirement. Most of Personal Capital’s services can be accessed for free by downloading the app or visiting the site.

Mint is another great app that many people use. Powered by Intuit, Mint is one of the best (and most popular) budgeting apps out there. Like Personal Capital, Mint will give you a snapshot of your finances. Mint will also give you alerts when you’ve been spending too much, a bill is coming up or they think you can trim your budget to save more. It is free and easy to download!

Daily Budget is another great app that you can download for free and getting started only takes about three minutes (if you have your expenses on hand). What you do is enter your monthly income, monthly expenses and your savings goal. After that, a daily budget will be created for you. When you spend something, go into the app and subtract it from your daily budget. If you don’t spend anything (or have something left over) it rolls over to the next day. It is a great budgeting tool, however, it is only available on Apple.

Staying on top of your credit score is another huge part of managing your money properly. Credit Karma is a great tool to use to both monitor and improve your credit. The app and website will also give you your credit score, reasons behind your score and tips to improve it (as well as some really helpful articles). It updates your score once a week so, if you’re working on improving your score, you’ll be able to keep a close eye on it. If you’ve never used it before, it is really easy to sign up and, best of all, it is absolutely free!
Save It.

Financial Future
Last but not least, you have to save your money! When you are using the other tools to manage your cash, you have to budget for savings. Without any savings, you have no financial future. Whether it be in an IRA or 401K retirement plan, or a traditional high-yield savings account, savings is crucial. However, it can also be pretty boring, which is why these tools have been created to make saving a little more fun:

You’ve probably heard of the 52 Week Money Challenge. Well, FiftyTwo+ is an app that allows users to track their progress with the money challenge. If you’re interested in saving a little more money, check out the challenge and FiftyTwo+.

If you do a lot of shopping online you know how much money it can save you. Paribus will save you even more! Sign up for Paribus for free using the email address you use for your online shopping. Once you’ve done that, Paribus will scan your inbox for online shopping receipts and see if you are owed any money (price match guarantees, sales, etc.). It can save you quite a bit of money if you shop online frequently. Learn more with this link.

Billions of people shop at Walmart but not that many are using the Walmart Savings Catcher, which seems like a waste. The Savings Catcher will scan your Walmart receipt and offer a price match in your area. If you’re owed money, Walmart will add it to your account to be used at Walmart’s online store or cashed in for a gift card. Some items or sales may be excluded. Read more about Walmart Savings Catcher here.

No matter what your long-term goals are, securing a financial future for yourself will give you peace of mind. Knowing that you have additional income, are able to manage your cash and save it effectively will make all the difference in the world.