Life is busy. And keeping track of your day-to-day finances sometimes doesn’t make the top of the to-do list. How can you make sure you are on the right track when it comes to finances and retirement savings?
A 2023 Fidelity report found that the typical American household has saved just 78% of the amount necessary for retirement. Meanwhile, 52% of households may have saved so little that they won’t be able to manage their essential expenses when they stop working.1
Monitoring your spending and making savings and investment goals can help you work toward the financial future you envision. It can be challenging, but there are many tools out there that can make it a little easier.
Budgeting
Budgeting is one of the major steps you can take to make sure you know where you are now as far as spending and then what you’ll need to have saved for retirement. Most people think they have an idea of how much they spend and where it goes to, but many people spend a lot more than they think once they see it all in a budget. According to Nerd Wallet reserach2, these budgeting apps make their top eight:
- Mint, for just about everything
- YNAB, for hands-on zero-based budgeting
- Goodbudget, for hands-on envelope budgeting
- EveryDollar, for simple zero-based budgeting
- Empower Personal Wealth, for tracking wealth and spending
- PocketGuard, for a simplified budgeting snapshot
- Honeydue, for budgeting with a partner
- Fudget, for budgeting without syncing accounts
Savings
If you have a tendency to spend your paycheck as soon as it hits your account, saving money may be the last bucket to be filled in your budget. Fortunately, you can use technology to help you adjust your behavior. These apps are good options for building savings by regularly moving small amounts of money into savings. Bankrate’s favorite money saving apps are3:
Are money saving apps safe?
Most financial technology companies have high-grade data protection and encryption systems to protect your information. The safety of an app will vary by company, so review the terms and conditions to see if you’re comfortable with the ways in which the company is handling your financial data. Use good technology best practices such as unique, hard to guess passwords for every app; multi-factor authentication; don’t open budgeting apps of online banking on public Wi-Fi; and watch out for phishing or scams.4
Take Advantage of Technology
When it comes to budgeting and saving for your financial future, set up the right apps and they will do much of the work for you. Work with your financial advisor to determine the right budget and savings goals so that you can be successful and ready for retirement when the time comes. Reach out to us today to set up your complimentary financial analysis to set yourself up for success.