Saving money in the New Year will be easier than you think!
How will saving money in the New Year be a challenge for your budget? It might not be much of one at all, considering the latest options for setting aside extra dough. Technology is quickly gaining traction in the microsavings niche. There are so many ways to save, your New Year will provide you with endless opportunities perfectly suited to you and your personality.
Microsavings Accounts Are on the Rise
Wealthy families invest and put money aside for the future while those in lower-income brackets don’t. It’s not always a matter of ability either. Different economic classes tend to have different spending habits. Whether you chalk the difference up to a “scarcity” mindset or simply feeling overwhelmed, technology is posing solutions. Startups promising to make savings and investments easier and more accessible to the masses have exploded over the past year.
Robo-advisor accounts, like eTrade and Betterment, focused on investment and retirement funds have existed for a while. Microsavings accounts have joined the trend, offering users the option to save a little at a time, often starting with a zero-dollar balance.
These accounts sometimes offer additional financial benefits as well. Acorns, for instance, rounds up your credit card purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the spare change into your account. If you shop at certain participating retailers – such as Apple, Airbnb or Macy’s – the retailer adds a few pennies to boot.
Once your account reaches $5, the Acorn system transfers your money to an investment account. You select your plan based on the potential risk. There are many ways to boost the amount you invest. You can also set automatic deposits, transfer funds from participating rewards plans and other extras.
Acorns vs. Qapital for Easy New Year Savings
Qapital is a Swedish-based banking application that offers a more traditional savings solution while still utilizing the micro-model presented by Acorns. You link your account to your credit cards, PayPal account or prepaid debit cards. The system rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar, depositing the cents into your account.
If you’re looking for fun, innovative ways to learn to save more money, this app is the perfect coach. Here are just a few of the programs you can run through the Qapital system:
- 52 Week Savings Plan: Save $1 the first week of 2019, $2 the second week and so on.
- Spend Less: Set weekly spending goals, and stash the rest of your budget into your savings account. Earmarked $50 for gas for the week? Spend $40 and Qapital automatically socks away the extra $10.
- Money Missions: Set specific savings goals, like new cars or vacations, with the option of working together toward them with your friends.
Unfortunately, Qapital costs up to $12 per month depending on which options you use. It is an effective savings training tool, although you might save more using an alternative program.
Stash Teaches Users to Invest Wisely
One of the biggest hurdles to building lifelong wealth is lowering the learning curve needed to invest. Stash takes the best of microsavings and throws in key tutorials users need to scale their investments down the road. You can start with as little as $5.
Auto Stash allows you to make regular deposits into your investment account from your bank. Smart Save is similar to Qapital’s Spend Less feature, in that it determines when you have extra spending money and moves it to your savings account.
All the while, Stash Coach presents you with simple challenges to train your brain to think like an investor. With dozens of questions to gauge the appropriate level of risk for your financial goals, you learn how to put the principles of investing into action from your first step.
Stash hosts periodical promotions where they gift new subscribers $5 to start out. Stash is free the first month and just $1 after that until your balance reaches $5,000.
Whenever you’re investing – even amounts as small as $5 – or saving using a new microsavings application, know you’ll receive additional tax forms at the end of the year. You’ll want to wait for these before filing your income tax returns, but the payoff will be worth it.
Visit your nearest Title Tree store for saving money in the New Year – or if you need a little help making ends meet right about now.