If you have read my last blog about how difficult it is to move from theory to practice with new year?s resolutions, you might be feeling a little daunted. Simply deciding you wish to change something with your finances doesn?t get you there, and I know from first hand experience that budgeting for the first time is completely overwhelming. So, if you are trying to:
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- Get out of debt
- Manage your finances better this year and budget more effectively
- Save for a future home purchase or going back to school
- Move out from home and gain more financial independence
- Work out a scheme to save at least 10% of your take home pay
- Begin forming an investment portfolio
you might need a little help organizing your finances. Luckily, there are some pretty amazing tools out there that can make the process of realizing your financial goals a lot easier. I tend to make things harder on myself than I really need to, so when I started budgeting, I had a small notebook that I carried around with me everywhere to record every single expense I had. This ended up taking a lot of time and effort, especially if I wanted to try to get a big picture from all the scribbled notes at the end of each month. It left me feeling quite frustrated, that is until I learned about some other options that are available. The world of online calculators and tools can be an amazingly liberating resource!
Tools for Budgeting
This is the foundation of personal finance. If you don?t know what you spend, how much and on what, you can?t make an assessment of your finances. And without an assessment of your finances, there is no way to change them. If budgeting your money and seeing what you spend it on is something you need to figure out, you should check out Mint and Learnvest. These two sites are excellent tools for consolidating your finances if you have multiple accounts and want to track your spending. If you like a slightly more hands-on approach, BudgetsAreSexy offers a great ensemble of budgeting spreadsheets.
Tools for Saving
Perhaps you already have your budgeting down pat, but your resolution is to try to find a way to save more of your money. Setting up an emergency fund that would cover at least three months of your expenses is an excellent plan, but it takes some serious planning to accomplish this, not to mention discipline! But once again, online tools come to the rescue. Smartypig is your go-to tool in this case; it will help you to save for anything from a wedding to a rainy day (hopefully both don?t happen together!).
Tools for Investing
If we make our way to the next step in personal finance, after saving comes investing. Even when interest rates are low, it is better to be investing savings than to let it sit. But finding a good investment strategy is difficult, and the inherent risk involved in any investment you make might be enough to discourage you without a little guidance. If you are thinking about investing in the coming year, Betterment allows you to build a personal investment account that synthesizes the simplicity of an online bank account with the with the higher long-term returns associated with investing in stocks and bonds. I don?t know about you, but that makes investing sound a lot less intimidating to me.
Tools for Your Future
The team at SmartAsset has given a lot of thought to the idea of online calculators and tools. While we really appreciate what each of the above tools has to offer, we felt that there was something missing in the world of online financial calculators. If you are getting ready to make one of the biggest financial decisions of your life, such as buying a home, we think being able to see how this decision will affect your finances in the future is something you need to know before you can make your decision with confidence. So, if what you want is to buy a home but you aren?t sure what this will do to your finances down the road, SmartAsset is the tool for you. This online calculator can tell you how much house you can afford, show you a comparison of what your finances will look like if you rent or buy, and so much more. The best part is that it?s free, so sign up here and see for yourself!
While tools such as these and on-line calculators can be an amazing resource to you when trying to organize your finances and reach your goals, you can?t just use them willy-nilly. It is not so different from using a broker; you have to make sure that any tool you use is operating to suit your best interests. You don?t want to use a tool that is out to make someone else a profit by convincing you to do things you don?t need to do; you want to make your tools work for you.
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