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Last Updated on October 27, 2018
Only 30% of American adults have a reliable and long-term financial plan that includes savings and investment goals, according to recent personal finance statistics on Debt.com. While most households are doing their best to embrace better personal finance strategies, the majority of them are struggling to manage their funds. In fact, the lack of effective planning for retirement is one of the biggest concerns, with more people closer to retirement experiencing higher levels of stress and anxiety. Luckily, today’s younger generation is quick to adopt innovative technologies that help them manage their finances better. For older generations, this doesn’t mean being left behind in adopting new tools that can help you manage money.
Whether you’re a millennial planning for your financial future or a baby boomer looking for better ways to manage your retirement money, here’s how you can embrace technology to make your work easier:
Start With Online Budgeting Software
With an online budgeting tool, you can securely import your financial transactions and get the insights you need to set up a budget and track your spending automatically down to every penny you use each month. Online budgeting software can help you identify excess spending and opportunities to save more. Some popular tools like Mint come with features that help you calculate your net worth, bill payments, set goals and budget for anything you have in mind. Other tools are specifically designed to help you deal with different personal finance goals. For instance, if you’re looking to better manage your debt portfolio, you can use an online tool to manage your money and get you out of debt. Such tools help you identify loopholes in your lifestyle spending so you can direct that extra cash in your hands to retirement savings or other worthy investments that can secure your financial future.
Consider Using Robo Advisors and Online Retirement Calculators
For many years, people seeking financial advice have relied on traditional advisors. But today there is a new breed of technology-driven advisors on the rise: robo advisors. Relying on innovations like artificial intelligence and machine learning, robo advisors can help you make smarter personal finance decisions. Using algorithms, they can help you compare interest rates for loan products, build smarter asset allocations, identify suitable investment opportunities and help you build a better savings, investment portfolio and retirement plan. Some of the most popular robo advisors in the market are Wealthfront and Betterment. Free online calculators can be used to aggregate all your financial accounts so you can analyze your investment performance and allocations. Features like the retirement planner and retirement fee analyzer help you determine if you have enough money to retire and how you can save more.
Go the Online Banking Way
Online banking is by far today’s most accessible technology for money management. Most banks are offering this service for free, with up to two-thirds of Americans using digital banking channels to manage all their banking needs. You can set up bill payments, transact more conveniently and make regular transfers between accounts. Online banking is all about simplifying your banking needs, and larger national banks are doing their best to ensure that their online banking platforms are easy to use and robust. Using online banking to manage your retirement money helps you get hands-on insights into your progress towards achieving your goals. There is no doubt that online banking, driven by the ever-growing use of smartphones, will be the future of personal finance.
More people are embracing mobile technology because they fit today’s on-the-go lifestyle. With older users getting more comfortable with the massive mobile influence and disruptive financial technologies, you can be sure that technology will continue to play a huge role in helping people across all ages manage their money in a less intrusive way.