Learn how to manage your money & planning for the future including tips on saving for emergencies and how to get an instant term life insurance quote
We’re here to help you cut through all of the uncertainty and doubt surrounding financial planning and management. Today, we’re going to be working though some of the top financial tips to help you get your finances under control. Plus, we’ll be showing you a few handy tools to help you plan for the future including an app that will give you an instant term life insurance quote. Let’s dive in and take a look at some of the top strategies to help you save money and secure your future.
- Download an App to Help You Set Goals
The Fabric app helps you manage your money—and it can even get you a term life insurance quote
Fabric is a one-stop-shop to help users manage their finances.
It can be difficult to start managing your money on your own. This is especially true if you have several credit cards or bank accounts. In order to get everything organized, we recommend trying out a financial planning app to help you take your first steps. One of the best financial management applications on the market is Fabric. Fabric is a financial management application that can help you visualize your finances and financial goals all from a single app. The Fabric app will also help you apply for life insurance online—but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
When you open the Fabric app, you will be prompted to answer a few questions about your current finances and goals. Once you answer those questions, the app will automatically come up with financial goals that you can work toward. Since you can connect Fabric to your cards and accounts, the app can track your habits and show you how close you are to reaching your financial goals. Using the app, you can start saving for major purchases—like a house or a car. Or if you are a new parent, you can start putting money away for your child’s college education. No matter how you use the app, you will find tools to help you get your finances under control.
The Fabric app can also get you a term life insurance quote in seconds. All you have to do is fill out a few simple questions about your life and your lifestyle and you’ll have a term life insurance quote instantly. Not to mention, the Fabric app is free and guards your information with the same encryption technology used by major banks.
- Get Some Help from a Financial Advisor
If you aren’t sure how to get ahold of your finances, contacting a financial advisor is a good first step to get you back on track
Finding a financial advisor isn’t as difficult as it looks.
Asking for help can be difficult, but it is sometimes necessary. If you are struggling to get a big picture idea of your finances or need some specific advice on how to get out of debt, we recommend finding a financial advisor. Finding a financial advisor is easier than ever before. In fact, there are even services designed to help you match with the best financial advisor for your needs and within your budget. Often, people assume that a financial advisor is far out of their budget when that isn’t the case. The only way to find out is to search for a financial advisor yourself. We recommend using SmartAsset to help you locate a financial advisor. When you land on the SmartAsset homepage, you will be presented with a quiz to help the site get an idea of your budget and the services you need. After you have filled out the quiz, SmartAsset will automatically present you with different options for financial advisors in your area and within your budget.
- Save Money in an Emergency Fund
You never know when the next emergency expense will come around, so make sure you and your family are prepared at all times
It is impossible to predict when the next big emergency expense will hit.
One of the most important things you can do to protect yourself and your family in the future is to establish an emergency fund. An emergency fund is money that you set aside in an account in the case of a major costly event. While we can’t predict when these events will happen, we can prepare just in case.
Calculating how much you should be saving in an emergency fund isn’t always straightforward, which is why we recommend using the handy tool developed by The Motley Fool. All you have to do is fill in some information about your personal finances and spending habits—so have those on hand before you start filling out information. You will need your monthly rent, utilities, food costs, transportation, and more to get an accurate calculation. Once you have filled out the information, the tool will spit out a number that you should be setting aside every month in case of emergency. Once you have that number, you can keep it in mind as you create your account and start adding to your emergency fund.
- Don’t Forget About Retirement!
It can be easy to forget about retirement savings when there are more pressing current financial matters
Setting aside money for retirement is one of the best ways to plan for the future.
If you are in your 20s or 30s and are getting your finances together for the first time, it can be tempting to let saving for retirement fall by the wayside. However, this is not the best plan if you want to retire in the future. If you don’t begin saving for retirement, you may end up having difficulty retiring when the time comes. So, to start setting aside money for retirement we recommend using the retirement calculator from NerdWallet. This retirement calculator not only gives you the amount you need to be saving per month and per year, it will also show you the total amount you will need to retire and how far you are from your retirement goals. For people on the younger side, expect that your results will end up in the red, which is the lower end of the savings calculator provided. After all, everyone has to start saving for retirement somewhere!
It is also very possible that you can begin saving money for retirement through your employer. If you have a retirement plan like a 401(k), then your retirement funds are automatically deducted from your payroll. If you are unsure if you are saving enough in your 401(k), you can input the amount you have saved into the NerdWallet calculator to see how much you need to contribute in the future to reach your goals
Don’t get discouraged about how much you still have to save, all that matters is that you are planning for your retirement. Trust us, your future self will be appreciative that you set aside this money for retirement.
And there you have it, the top 4 financial management strategies you need to start using now and the tools to help you get started. The key to saving money over time is to stick with it in the early stages. Saving money for the future is a process and takes years—or even decades. If you follow out tips, before you know it you’ll be feeling financially secure and prepared for the future.