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Hello and here’s wishing you all good health, wealth, peace of mind and success with your financial goals in 2012.
I thought I’d start the year with a few trends; Especially in technology that can help you better meet your personal financial goals, as there are many personal finance services and applications, or apps as they are called, that help us Americans invest, bank, track going to change the way of Finance, shop, get coupons and so on.
Some of these apps use the web, but increasingly, many are available on mobile devices as more than a third of all US adults now carry “smartphones” that use processors as powerful as those in your laptop.
In fact, if you’re like many of my clients who hold back against the onslaught of technology, you might want to reconsider your decision in 2012. Better control over your finances.
Maybe it’s time to stop using pen to write checks, paper to track your expenses, and scissors to clip coupons, and let technology ease the process for you. streamline, and in doing so, add to your savings and profits. , Because, let’s face it, your best coupon deals or hotel and airfare discounts no longer come in the form of inserts or ads in your newspaper but go to people who use the Internet.
So here are some ideas for you to consider and open yourself up to, and while I encourage you to listen to these with an open mind, only pursue the ones you are 100% comfortable with. Knowing full well that you can always return to paper and pen if it’s not your cup of tea, here are some new ways of thinking:
1. Think of “mobile money”, how does it sound? OK, here’s the lowdown. With technology where it is today, you can now wave your smartphone in front of an intelligent device to make all kinds of payments, and this trend is really catching on as it becomes more popular with retailers, mass transit operators, and others. It helps in selling more while cutting down on costs. Cost. With Mobile Money, your smartphone is securely linked to your bank or credit card account and saves you the hassle of carrying a card, swiping it, receiving bills, signing it, etc. also saves. In addition, I suspect that merchants and service providers, such as Google Wallet, are going to make this mobile payment technology more attractive by offering promotions and discounts to adopters, just as they did in the early days of the Internet. Incentives were offered.
2. Think: Person-to-person payments. Remember how, when you’re at a restaurant with friends and it’s time to split the bill, you either ask for separate bills or fumble for cash to pay your share of the bill. Well, how about just clicking your smartphones against each other and you’re done? Companies such as American Express, MasterCard, Visa and PayPal now offer a range of services that let you easily transfer money between friends using verified bank or credit card accounts. It’s fast, easy and inexpensive to send money across the street, neighborhood or country, and remember, you’re always the carrier of any costs incurred by your bank or credit card company for all transactions you make So if this technology reduces costs, chances are some of these savings will flow through to you as well.
3. Think: Money Management. There are newer web sites that have turned into apps on your smart phone, like Manila.com which I mentioned in my interview with Terry Savage a few weeks ago, and PageOnes which lets you bill, pay, subscribe, coupon and more. help manage. , to free! So you never have to worry about missed payments, late fees, post office visits, stamps, missed deals where you could have used coupons to save big, and more. What’s more, many of these services actually have an eco-friendly agenda and want to help replace paper clutter with electronic account statements. Other, more specialized sites like savvymoney.com help customers manage their debt: credit card payments, mortgages, car loans, and automatically advise you when to refinance to reduce your overall interest outlay. Or have to pay extra, and so on. Others like Betterment.com are designed to make investing easier and finally there is Mint.com, whose CEO I interviewed about a year ago was the first such site. And it’s a good site to bring all your financial accounts together. So, with an open mind, check them out and sign up for the ones that matter to you. And remember, you can always opt out if you don’t like them.
Now, before I go any further, I want to emphasize that I am not recommending these specific sites or validating what they offer, but merely citing examples of technology developments in personal finance. I am citing which are worth exploring further.
4. Think: personalized deals. We’ve all heard of the promise of personalization, and while it has happened to some degree with the Internet, it wasn’t fully implemented in the personal finance space until now. To really understand personalization, consider trying this experiment. Take your laptop to a friend’s house and type in the same search phrase: “top 10 deals in miami” on google.com or another search engine: your friend on your computer and you on your laptop over your friend’s internet connection Sitting right next to what you’re using, I’m almost 100% certain that your search results will differ because search engines personalize search results to your browsing history. The good news is that with smartphones and location-based services, stores can now know what your shopping history and profile are when you walk into them, and entice you with special offers just for you: personalized discounts and On-the-spot deals for customers willing to attend these events. And frankly, for the most part, you have very little personal information to lose that you haven’t lost at home using only the Internet, Facebook, email, search engines, or smartphones!
I know it sounds a little creepy: like an Orwellian universe, but it’s not that bad. You have the right to opt in or opt out of any of these services.
5. And finally, think: social commerce. The Internet produces such strange words, but what a nonsense! Apps now let you borrow or borrow money legally from individuals around the world: May be they want to give you a loan where they trust you more than a bank, Help you in a crisis, Kitchen Lend you money to build or a bathroom, or simply invest in a brilliant idea: private individuals reaching out to each other and opening their wallets in what’s called social commerce without borders. If you have an idea that you think others might want to fund, check out sites like weemba.com or Kickstarter.com. It’s really great to think that banks will no longer control what you can and can’t do financially. I love free markets.
But don’t think that the big banks and corporations aren’t watching all this very closely and actively making moves in the direction they feel will be successful: so in 2012 you can expect a lot of personal finance technology to happen. … and as we head into the new year, I urge you to try and “stick with it” if you will, and save time and money by using technology to your advantage Find ways to
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