You Are What You Spend: How Apps and Tech Can Make You Financially Healthy

It’s clear that personal finance has never been more important. That is why we are listing some of the best free financial apps and tech which can boost your financial health. Since the early 2000s, and the financial crisis that generated a swell of technological advances in financial services, the culture around how we interact with money and plan for the future, has irreversibly changed. Whether it was the sun setting on physical brick-and-mortar bank branches or the universality of the digital services that have begun to replace them, it’s clear that the regularity and level of understanding about where our paychecks go every month have become far more important as part of healthy financial behavior for the average consumer.

From visibility, control, or negotiating a better deal, we’re able to shape our financial world like never before, all from the comfort of our own smartphones. Here are some of the best, and in many cases, free finance apps, tech, and digital platforms you can make use of as part of a smarter financial strategy:

Free Financial Apps and Tech – A ‘MUST’ Try

Home Is Where the Start Is – Meet Trussle

Starting the free financial apps and tech list, mortgages are likely one of your largest expenditures in any given month. After utilities and phone bills, smaller fixed payments, we tend to spend anywhere from 20 to 40% of a paycheck on a mortgage or rental bills in a city, and potentially marginally less in a rural setting. Mortgages are also investments in themselves. The money you’re putting in is the value you now own in that property. As such, the speed and quantity you repay a mortgage (and the accrued interest) back in should match up to your needs and expectations, rather than being a financial burden that it doesn’t have to be.

A great first step is to make use of the free and highly intuitive mortgage comparison sites available online. In some cases, these mobile platforms, like Trussle, will also support remortgaging too. Whether you’re buying your first home, or simply trying to find a better mortgage rate – tackling the biggest bills first is a must.

A Bird’s Eye View – Mint & Yolt

In most cases, you won’t go a day without spending money on something. Nor will you go a day without using your mobile. Whether it’s a coffee on the way to work, your lunch, even your train fare to get to the office – outgoing payments tend to be significantly more frequent and smaller than your incoming funds. Therefore, understanding your financial behavior every month – and having easy, mobile access to the budgeting platforms you’re using – is essential to controlling a longer-term financial strategy. Platforms like Yolt and Mint are offshoots of much larger companies like IMG and Intuit, which offer robust security and compliance features, whilst allowing you to combine your bank accounts into a holistic categorization portal directly on your phone. That is why they are on our list of free financial apps and tech boosting your financial health.

Maybe you’re sick of paying for the bus every morning, seeing the cumulative monthly spend of a commute could be the trigger you needed to buy a bike. Maybe your grocery spend is surprisingly high, again, you can now seek out a more cost-effective store elsewhere. Ultimately, visibility pays dividends when you can grasp where money could be saved, especially outside of your fixed bills.

Also read: Fast Charging Phones List | Industry’s Best | 2021 Edition

Investing Ahead – Go Robinhood and More!

Savings accounts and pension pots are great ways to tuck away some spare cash. Effectively, your savings should be consistent and many people choose to simply deposit a fixed amount into a pension fund they likely have zero control over every month. However, that approach isn’t for everyone. One of the huge shifts in financial services has been the democratization of trading and investing. This movement was spearheaded by services like Robinhood – one of the best-known retail trading apps available – along with other more bespoke options like AJ Bell or Wealthify, who apply different model portfolios, offering slightly more control to the user in the style of investing, with the professional management of the fund left to the institutional investor. Thus, they are included in our list of free financial apps and tech to improve your financial health.

While savings accounts tend to carry very low-interest rates and pension pots are invested into very low-risk portfolios – typically bond-based – being able to invest your money as you see fit allows you to be more strategic in how your money works for you. From forex to commodities, the dawn of mobile trading apps is another piece of the puzzle, a segment of your financial footprint.

Certainly, it would be a misunderstanding to say that all this new technology is there to ‘do the work for you.’ In reality, healthy financial behavior is a mindset that you have to adopt. It’s about checking your spending, rather than ignoring it. It’s about knowing you’re getting the fairest deal on your mortgage repayments, not the easiest. And, it’s about knowing where your money is, not who it’s with. With that understanding in place, you can build a future that you want with your money on your terms – and who can say no to that?