Since I wrote my Saving for a Rainy Day post back in August, I’ve been itching to write a little more about personal finance here and what I’ve been doing in that area lately. Now that I’m a year into my job and apartment, I really feel settled and ready to focus on my personal finances. I actually met with personal finance adviser back when I first started this job, but I still felt really overwhelmed. The adviser broke everything down for me and was so helpful, but there are always a few things I feel I need to figure out for myself. So in the past year, I’ve become a little bit of a nerd about it and started doing a few things differently. While I’ll get into that later, today I wanted to share a few of the tools that I’ve been using to help myself
1. Mint.com
Mint has seriously been life changing for me. I’ve had it for a while, but it wasn’t as accurate because I didn’t link all of my accounts (lord knows why). In the past year, I’ve finally buckled down and added ALL of my accounts into Mint. From my checking account to my student loans, it’s there for me to view at once. Plus, I’ve been able to create monthly budgets and track each individual purchase. While this sounds a little obsessive, it’s actually become really helpful to see where my money goes AND I was able to notice credit card fraud on my account and shut it down before the person went spend happy.
2. Digit
Saving is important and necessary, but it can sometimes be a pain to think about. I have an automatic savings set up within my checking account, but I needed some help taking that extra step to increase it. This is where Digit comes in. Digit links to your checking account, analyzes your spending, and decides how much to take out of your account for saving. It then takes out that amount and saves it for you in an entirely separate account. The nice thing about this is that they’re only taking out very small amounts (and not every day), but those small amounts start to add up fast. I would highly recommend Digi for anyone who needs some help saving or just wants to put away a little extra money for a splurge.
3. Podcasts and blogs
As someone who was already devoted to listening to podcasts and reading blogs, it was a no-brainer to add a few of these to my roll up. The only problem was figuring out which ones were right for me. Over the past year, here are the ones I’ve found and loved:
So Money with Farnoosh Torabi (podcast): This podcast has been a great motivational tool for helping me become more money focused. While this podcast focuses more on people who have “already made it” with their money, the interviewees and the host (Farnoosh) over amazing advice for how to get there. To sum up this podcast (as the intro says) “Looking for ways to save on gas or double your double coupons, sorry, you’re in the wrong place. Looking for ways to live a richer, happier life? Welcome to So Money.”
Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn (podcast): I was introduced to Pat Flynn thanks to Jess Lively‘s podcast (one of my overall favorite life podcasts and how I found out about Farnoosh) and he’s been great for tips for building my blog business. Why have I put this in here? Well, when it comes to money, people always talk about saving more and spending less, but they never talk about ways to make more money. While I am trying to save more and spend less, I’m also trying to focus on earning more money through my side hustles to help pay for some things. Even if you don’t currently have a side hustle, this podcast is great to listen to if you’re thinking about some ways to make some passive income.
The Financial Diet (blog): One thing has has frustrated me a little in this search is finding the right advice fit for someone in their 20s. Enter the Financial Diet. Truthfully, I have no idea how I came across this blog, but I’m SO happy that I did. A blog about personal finances and living a better life, this blog has everything from interviews with financial experts to financial confessions about mistakes. This blog is one large ongoing conversation about money and I would highly recommend it to everyone.
Budget Blonde (blog): This blog is a newer addition to my blog roll, but I’ve already started to gain some great advice from it. I came across it thanks to Farnoosh’s podcast and I was so impressed with the interview that I immediately started following it. I’ll report back more once I’ve been reading it for a little longer, but I would still recommend reading it.
Do you have any tools you use, blogs you read, or podcasts that you listen to about personal finances? Share them here, I’m always looking for more!
Original image via, with edits by Dana
