Money Management

Money management? There’s an app for that. Keep reading to learn why one writer is a big fan of mobile banking apps. 

It’s amazing to think about how much the everyday act of managing your money has changed thanks to the rise of the internet. Gone are the days when you had to choose a bank based on its proximity to your home or your job. While you are still certainly free to become a member at your hometown bank or credit union, you’re not required to, because a lot of banks have the tools necessary for you to access account data via your computer, tablet, and smartphone.

Banking apps in particular have become quite vital to the lives of many consumers. Earlier this year, Chase’s Digital Banking Attitudes Survey found that two-thirds of respondents reported that they couldn’t live without theirs. I’m a particular fan of my big national bank’s app, and it’s been helping me with my finances for years. Here are a few of its best features.

1. Mobile check deposit

The first time I saw a mobile check deposit in action, my mind was BLOWN. The friend who gushed over this bank feature (and gleefully showed me how she could take a photo of her check with her BlackBerry device and have the money hit her account the next day) was no longer required to physically take a paper check to her bank or an ATM to get it to her checking account. What a timesaver!

This technology still amazes me, but in my own life, paper checks have mostly gone the way of the dinosaur. I’m paid by direct deposit, so an overwhelming majority of the money I deal with doesn’t touch me in the form of a check. That said, I do occasionally still get them; I recently received some dental insurance reimbursement checks and got to snap their photos to deposit them. And it’s still such a timesaver, especially since neither bank I do business with has a local branch in my area.

2. Access to payment services

Once the money is in your account, you have to be able to access it so you can pay bills and make purchases. But in the last few years (and as more and more people use cash less and less often), it’s also become increasingly important that you can easily send money to friends and family. My banking app has me covered on this front, as it’s integrated with one of the best payment apps. I use this service to send money to people I know, as well as to transfer money to my savings account at my online-only bank every week.

3. Credit score check-ins

I’ve spent the last year getting more on top of my finances, and one of the habits I’ve cultivated along the way is checking my credit score regularly. A few of the credit card issuers I do business with have credit tools built into their apps and websites, but I far and away prefer the credit score tool in my banking app. Every month, I get a new and updated FICO® Score, and since that score is the one used by 90% of lenders to assess risk in potential borrowers, it’s particularly important to know what yours is. Thanks to my banking app, I can easily find out.

If you’re not using your banking app, or only pop in occasionally to check your balance, you’re missing out. Spend a little time with it, and see all the features you could be utilizing to make managing your money that much easier.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends JPMorgan Chase. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Shopping with a list is part of a millionaire mindset. Find out why many millionaires still watch every cent when they go to the grocery store. 

Groceries account for more than 10% of the average American’s spending, per research by The Ascent. So cutting the amount you spend at the till can be a good way to offset soaring living costs. The good news? There’s one money-saving tool used by wealthy individuals that we can all adopt: shopping with a list.

According to Ramsey Solutions research into habits of millionaires, 57% of them make a list and somewhat stick with it. A further 28% make a list and always stick to it. Just 15% of the millionaires surveyed don’t use a list at all.

Why make a list

How many of us can say we’ve never accidentally bought extras of items we already had at home? Or bought produce that ends up going bad at the back of the fridge? Or splashed out on something we didn’t need or even really want? A shopping list helps avoid all these issues. Plus, it can mean fewer trips to the store, period.

Put simply, supermarkets are designed to encourage you to spend money. From cleverly placed products to carefully curated smells, store managers are experts in getting you to part with your cash. Think of a list as a charm against supermarket wizardry.

Here are some other benefits of shopping lists:

It’s easier to manage your budget: Try estimating the costs of the items on your list. It doesn’t have to be super accurate, but enough to give you a rough idea. If you plan to spend $100 a week on groceries and your list totals over $150, you may need to make some cuts. That’s easier to do before you fill your cart or reach the checkout.You can make better use of apps and coupons: There’s no point collecting coupons if you don’t use them. Order them by date and put them on your shopping list so you buy the right items. Similarly, some cash back apps require you to activate the offer before you reach the store. Once you’ve done that, a list means you won’t forget what you’d planned to buy.It fits well with a meal plan: Whether you love or hate meal planning, it is a good way to save money and reduce food waste. If your household habits don’t fit easily with daily food plans, don’t give up on the idea completely. Stock up on staples and have a flexible schedule that you can adapt to your family’s movements.

These aren’t the only reasons so many millionaires use shopping lists. Shopping with a list is part of a saving mindset — one that cares about where each cent goes and doesn’t want to waste money on unimportant things. Building wealth is about increasing the gap between what we spend and what we earn. If you can consistently cut your grocery costs, you’ll have more money in your bank account for other financial goals.

Other ways to save money on groceries

The trick with any form of cost cutting is to make it sustainable. Drastic cuts often only last a few weeks before people get frustrated and splurge. Instead, look for small changes you can make to your spending habits that might consistently reduce your bills. For example:

Use a grocery credit card: If a large chunk of your money goes toward groceries, look for a card that gives decent rewards on that spending. Bear in mind that there are pros and cons to credit card spending. If you don’t pay off your balance in full each month, the interest payments will likely be more than you earn in rewards.Get an app-etite: There are several apps that can cut your grocery costs. A price comparison app can help you find the best deals. A cash back app can give you money back on your everyday spending. Use it in tandem with credit card rewards to maximize your money back. Finally, anti–food waste apps can connect you with retailers and restaurants that want to sell food before it goes bad.Buy in bulk: If you have a big family and often buy in bulk, the membership fees for warehouse stores like Costco could pay for themselves. Smaller households might be able to team up with friends or family to split the costs and savings. Sharing bulk purchases can also reduce the risk of food going bad before it gets used.Look for discounts: From in-store offers to coupons, the trick is to look for deals on items you normally buy. Watch out for offers on more expensive items such as laundry detergent. That said, don’t let discounts tempt you into impulse purchases. Let’s say you see a bottle of wine that’s reduced from $20 to $15. If you weren’t planning to buy wine, that isn’t a $5 saving — it’s a $15 expense.

Bottom line

Making a list is one of several millionaire habits that are worth adopting. Not only can it save you money, but it reduces your hassle and can save you time. Take a few minutes before you go to the store to map out what you need and what discounts you might be able to take advantage of.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Emma Newbery has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Worried about paying for car insurance? Read on for some key tips from Suze Orman. 

Owning a vehicle is hardly an inexpensive prospect. AAA says it costs $10,728 a year to own a car when you factor in expenses like maintenance and auto insurance. And the latter can be an especially large expense when you buy a new car. So if you want to spend less on auto insurance, you may want to opt for a used vehicle over a new one.

But that’s just one of several steps you can take to save on car insurance. In fact, financial guru Suze Orman has some potentially surprising advice that could result in lower auto insurance premiums

It pays to boost your credit score

It may come as a surprise to learn that most states allow car insurance companies to consider credit scores when calculating premium rates. Now at first, that might seem ridiculous. After all, you’re not asking to take out a personal loan or otherwise borrow money. Rather, you’re asking to pay money in exchange for a service. So why should your credit score matter?

But alas, it often does. The higher your credit score, the more trustworthy you might seem as a consumer. So you may be rewarded with a more competitive rate on your auto insurance.

On the flipside, if your credit is poor, auto insurance could get more expensive for you. So in that case, raising your credit score might result in a fair amount of savings.

How to boost your credit score

If your credit score is a 600, you’re probably not going to get it up to an 800 within days or weeks. But if you’re willing to put in the effort, you may find that over several months, your score is able to climb nicely.

One of the most important things you can do to boost your credit score is pay your bills on time. Of the various factors that go into calculating your credit score, your payment history carries the most weight, so being timely with bills could work to your benefit.

Another good way to raise your credit score? Pay off some existing credit card debt. That’s another big factor that goes into your score.

What’s more, you should check your credit report for errors if you’re looking to give your credit score a lift. Let’s say there’s a debt listed as delinquent on your credit report, only it’s a debt that was never yours in the first place. Settling that matter could result in a fairly quick boost to your score, but you may not know that error is working against you until you actually get a copy of your credit report (which you can do for free) and give it a read.

It may seem counterintuitive that your credit score would play a role in determining your auto insurance premium rate. But since that’s a factor many insurers consider, it’s in your best interest to work on raising your score. Incidentally, that could work to your benefit if you need an auto loan, because the higher your score, the lower an interest rate you might snag in the course of financing a car purchase.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Home gardens can be good ways to cut grocery bills, but only if you can keep costs down. Consider some of these money-saving tips. 

For most regions in the U.S., summer is the peak growing season. And with grocery prices being so high, even folks who don’t normally garden are likely considering putting some plants in the ground this summer to help their personal finances.

Unfortunately, starting a garden — or even refreshing last year’s beds — can be surprisingly expensive. So if you’re going to save money on your grocery bill with a garden, you need to keep the start-up costs as low as possible. Happily, help may be easy to find, if you look in the right places.

1. Start from seed

It is nearly always far more affordable to start plants from seed than it is to buy established plants from a nursery or home improvement store. A single $2 packet of seeds can be enough to start dozens of plants, while the nursery may charge $2 or more for a single sprout.

The downside? Time. It can take weeks to get a seed to the same point as the plants in the store, so you need to get your seeds going as soon as possible.

2. Join a gardening group

Another big perk of starting from seed is that you often end up with more plants than you can, well, plant. Don’t throw them away! Find a local gardening group and swap your excess sprouts for new varieties or plants to add to your garden. You could potentially even swap extra seedlings for other needed supplies, like a handmade trellis or nutritious (for plants) worm tea.

3. Hit your local library

I’ll happily wax poetic about the virtues of libraries at any opportunity, but this one is particularly awesome. You see, many public libraries aren’t just for books — they also have seeds! You can get free seeds of all kinds, from fruits and vegetables to ornamental flowers. Your local library may even offer a variety of tools you can check out, too. (Don’t forget to take a peek at the shelves for useful gardening books while you’re there.)

4. Find free compost (or make your own)

Despite the prevalence of the phrase “dirt cheap,” garden soil can be downright expensive. And this goes double for the organic compost that most experts will tell you to use. But you may not need to fork over $5 a bag at the hardware store to fill your beds. Many cities have community compost programs that let you pick up dirt by the truckful. If your city doesn’t have such a program, see if any local colleges have an agriculture program or extension office that provides a similar service.

Alternatively, start your own compost pile. You don’t need a ton of space to get some good compost going, and it’s a great way to use up extra kitchen scraps so they won’t wind up in landfills.

5. Check out the dollar stores

I’ll be the first to admit that a whole lot of the stuff in the dollar store is plastic junk that isn’t worth the pennies you pay for it. That said, you can actually find some remarkably useful gardening gear in amongst the nonsense. My local dollar store, for instance, sells a variety of seeds for $0.50 a packet. And the weed barriers I picked up a few years ago are still effective today.

6. Upcycle your trash

Some of the best-looking gardens I’ve ever seen weren’t made up of row after row of store-bought beds and trellises. No, they had handmade structures upcycled from all manner of items. Avoid treated wood, but pretty much anything else is fair game for building raised beds or structures for your vining plants to climb. And nearly anything with a hole in it can be used as a planter. (I have an old rusted watering can that has been a great herb planter for years.)

7. Haunt the hardware store

Home improvement stores and nurseries know very well that a good chunk of their trade happens in the summer, so they have various sales going all season long. Follow your local nursery on social media, sign up for its sales flyers or newsletters, and keep your eyes peeled while shopping to score the best deals. (Get yourself a credit card with bonus rewards for home improvement purchases to save a little on every purchase, too.)

Bonus tip: Ditch the gym membership

Between the setup and maintenance, growing a garden is hard work. If you’re going to get serious about your gardening, you could consider ditching the gym membership, at least for the summer. Flipping compost, weeding, and other garden maintenance will likely give you all the exercise you can handle, saving you money in this way too.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Looking at a community bank? Read on to see if your money is secure there. 

If you’re looking to find a home for your savings, you have choices. You could go with a major bank, or you could stick with a smaller, community bank instead.

The Federal Reserve defines community banks as those with less than $10 billion in assets. Now that may seem like a lot of money, but for context, Wells Fargo has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets. So in the world of banking, $10 billion is actually a pretty small amount, even though that’s sort of hard to believe.

You may be worried that if you opt for a community bank, your money will be at risk, since these banks don’t have the same vast financial resources as larger banks. But actually, keeping your money at a community bank is generally a perfectly safe option. And doing so could really work to your benefit.

It’s all about FDIC insurance

As of 2019, there were 4,750 community banks across the U.S. with more than 29,000 branches. So chances are, this type of bank exists in your very own neighborhood.

Community banks tend to invest their assets more conservatively than larger banks, so they may be less likely to fail in the first place. But even so, as long as you opt for a community bank that’s FDIC-insured, you won’t have to worry about losing the money you’ve no doubt worked hard to save.

With an FDIC-insured bank, your deposits of up to $250,000 are protected. And if you open a joint account at an FDIC-insured bank, you get a total of $500,000 in protection.

Now, perhaps you have a lot of money you want to sock away. So if you’re looking to save more than $250,000 individually, then it’s a good idea to spread your cash across a few banks. But in that case, choosing several community banks is a perfectly safe option as long as each one holds FDIC insurance, which, rest assured, is a common feature of community banks. You can look up a bank you’re considering using the FDIC’s BankFind Suite tool, to see if it’s insured.

The upside of choosing a community bank

Community banks, as the name suggests, generally aim to support communities and local businesses. Establishing a relationship with a community bank could be beneficial to you in the event that you wind up needing to apply for a loan or line of credit, whether individually or as a small business owner. A community bank could also be a good resource should you decide you’re ready to start a business for the first time and need funding to get it off the ground.

Plus, community banks often pride themselves on offering outstanding customer service. Granted, that’s something you should really expect from any bank. But a community bank might go the extra mile.

All told, choosing a community bank could work to your advantage. And if you pick one that’s FDIC-insured, you won’t have to lose sleep over the idea of losing your hard-earned savings in the event of a bank failure.

These savings accounts are FDIC insured and could earn you 12x your bank

Many people are missing out on guaranteed returns as their money languishes in a big bank savings account earning next to no interest. Our picks of the best online savings accounts can earn you 12x the national average savings account rate. Click here to uncover the best-in-class picks that landed a spot on our shortlist of the best savings accounts for 2023.

We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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