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Here are my favorite money management resources. These are all products I’ve either personally used and love and/or have created myself and gotten rave reviews on. Some of them are completely free, too!
I’m a huge fan of automating your money management as much as possible. (While still keeping close tabs on things.) So several of these make it SUPER easy to do that.
So, here are the list of resources I believe are very helpful for money management!
(They’re broken down by topic.)
Debt Payoff Resources
Pay Off Debt by Jackie Beck – You can get my debt reduction app for iPhone/iPad. This is latest version of the app I created after paying off my student loan. It’s a great way to obsess about paying off debt, track your progress, and stay motivated! You can use it with the debt snowball or avalanche. Unlike many other apps out there, it does not sell you things and there are no recurring fees.
Debt Mindset Reset email course – This is my free email course. It’s designed to change the way you think about debt and help you head down the path of getting out. If you haven’t signed up for it already, take a second and do it now.
See AlsoHow to Invest in Index Funds - NerdWalletHow to Swing Trade ETFs - The Trade Locker‘Quit entertaining these crazy-butt ideas’: This South Carolina teacher earns $158K and is very close to retirement, paid-off home — but is considering more debt for renovations. Should she?Speed-Read SEC Filings for Hot Stock Picks– These free printable coloring pages and debt trackers will help you keep track of your progress and stay motivated! Just click on the ones you want to download them.
Savings Accounts
Capital One 360 – I love Capital One specifically for their savings accounts. (I haven’t tried their other accounts; maybe I’d love them too.) I find them ideal for setting and reaching specific savings goals, because you can create “sub accounts” of a sort and label them with what you’re saving for. So for example, I have funds there for emergencies, taxes, a future rental property, etc. It’s a great way to keep things organized and make sure you’re saving enough for each category. They allow you to set up automatic transfers and specify where they will go, so that’s really awesome. Making savings automatic is a great thing!
Digit – Digit is my favorite way to save little bits of money at a time, without even missing it. It’s a FABULOUS way to start automatically saving up money. Plus, it keeps you updated daily on your checking account balance to boot via text. I can’t rave about this enough, but I try in my detailed review of Digit. Check it the review if you want more info, or click here to sign up if you already know it’s a fit.
Miscellaneous Money Management Resources
eCredable – eCredable is a great way to make sure you get credit for paying utility bills. They’ll report your utility payments to TransUnion in order to help you build credit.
In Case of Emergency Binder – This is a great tool for making sure you have a record of everything you need to know to run your household. For example, if something happens to the person who usually pays bills or you experience a disaster. It makes things so much easier to get help, file claims, etc. if need be. I always feel like it’s better to be safe than sorry! (You can read more about why a legacy binder is so important here.)
TurboTax – I’ve used TurboTax to do our taxes for years. In the past I’ve always used gotten it on CD or via download, but this year I filed with their online version and it worked great too. I’ll be doing that again next year. Their interview-style questions are very thorough and it’s easy to follow along. Just takes some digging through paperwork sometimes, but you should be be the same first anyway no matter what. They have different versions depending on your needs: Free, Deluxe, Premier, and Self-Employed (online) or Home & Business (desktop). You can compare the TurboTax products here.
Money Making Resources
101 Ways to Make Extra Money in Your Spare Time – Sometimes we just need to make more money, but it can be tough to think of ideas. To help with that, here’s an idea book I wrote. It’s literally exactly what it says, with a brief description of each idea.
Rover – Walking dogs and doing doggy daycare can be a great way to make a little extra money fairly quickly. Of course you can do that just by offering your services in the neighborhood, but then you have to deal with collecting payments, scheduling, etc. I use Rover to walk dogs in my spare time (when it’s not hot out!) and it’s a got a lot of great features that make it easy to book clients, receive payments, and share photos with the pet owners. You can find out a whole lot more about it in my Rover review. (Plus I’ve got a referral link for you in there.)
Money Saving Resources
$5 Meal Plan – This is a monthly meal planning service that’s easy to customize. As you might guess, it’s $5 a month. The meals themselves are both appealing AND inexpensive. (They can typically be made for about $2 per person or less.) The plans use seasonal produce, frozen veggies & fruits, items you typically have on your shelves already, and more. You can even get a gluten free meal plan subscription there instead of the regular one if that’s something you want or need. There are a limited number of 2-week free trials available, so there’s nothing at all to lose if you want to check it out. You can read my full $5 Meal Plan review in this post or just sign up here.
Airbnb – If you travel a lot like we do, Airbnb is a great way to save money on lodging (and if you choose the right place, eating out.) In case you aren’t familiar, it’s a service that matches you up with folks who are renting out either whole houses/apartments, or a room in their home. We’ve always booked the entire place. It’s always been so much nicer than a hotel because we have it all to ourselves, can eat in, spread out, etc. I think they typically offer a credit toward your first trip if you sign up for free. Last time I checked it was $55, but see what it may be now here. (You can sign up to be an Airbnb host too if you like, but I’ve never done that so don’t have an opinion one way or the other on what it might be like.)
Budgeting Template – That link will take you to where you can sign up for the FREE printable budget template I created. It has TONS of budget categories on it. (Although you don’t have to use them all by any means!) You’ll need to download it to a desktop computer and open it with the free Adobe Acrobat reader in order to type into it.
Honey – Honey is a little app you add to your browser with just a click. Once it’s running, it’ll look for coupons & discount codes whenever you add something to your cart online. If you’re on Amazon, it’ll also check third-party listings for you and let you know if you’ve got the best price or not. I’ve been using Honey for a couple of years now. (Ever since Josh wrote it about it for me in this list of the best deals apps.) I love how it automatically finds those coupon codes for me that I used to spend time digging for.
Ultimate Guide to Money Saving Tips – Head on over to that page for a whole slew of money saving ideas. You can also sign up to get it in pdf form if you want to refer back to it later.
Free Savings Tracker Printables — You’ll find a whole bunch of printable savings trackers here. Just click on the ones you want to grab them :)
Investing Resources
Ally Invest – If you’re looking to do self-directed stock trades (and will be buying whole shares) this is a good place to do it. Some of my IRAs are there and I buy individual stocks within them, along with ETFs. I have had some minor customer service issues with Ally, but their online interface is easy to use and their trading fees are low or no commission, so I’d absolutely go with them again if I had to choose! I definitely like them best compared with the variety of other companies I’ve checked out for stock trades.
Vanguard – Vanguard is very well known (and rightly so!) for their low-cost index funds. Their lower expense ratios make a huge difference over time in the amount your investments earn. I highly recommend them if you’re going to be investing in index funds. (And Warren Buffet regularly recommends low cost index funds.) This is a great option, especially if you’re looking to buy and hold Vanguard index funds. I’m not a stock advisor by any means but I do hold a good amount of Vanguard index funds, both with Vanguard itself and via Ally Invest.
I hope you’ve found this list of money management resources useful!
Let me know what you think if you take advantage of any of them :)
I’ll be adding to it from time to time, so the list may grow as I incorporate additional tools or apps into my personal finance life. Bookmark or pin it now so it’s easy to come back to!
P.S. If you like these, you may also want to check out this list of best personal finance apps for mastering your money.
