Finance Archives | A CurlyTransition

December 4, 2018 by Dominique R. Bounds Leave a Comment

How to Earn Cash While You Shop

How to Earn Cash While Shopping -Shopping is one of the great American recreations. So earning money while you shop can only be a plus right? If you use these apps responsibly you can get back some of that hard earned money.

Shopping is one of the great American recreations. So earning money while you shop can only be a plus right? If you use these apps responsibly you can get back some of that hard earned money. Here is a breakdown of the top cash back apps I use quite frequently. Please note that some of the links contain referral information.

IBotta

Ibotta is a free app that pays you for making everyday purchases. Earn cash back on groceries, apparel, cosmetics, and more. There are three ways to earn cashback: receipts, loyalty cards, and mobile in-app purchases. In order to get started with Ibotta you need a PayPal or Venmo in order to cash out your cashback.

I love Ibotta as it holds my coupons for me, and I attached my Kroger loyalty card which allows me additional purchases. When I sit down to make my grocery list, I go through Ibotta and add the items that I am looking to purchase. Once I purchase the items, I upload my receipts and earn my cashback. It is super easy, and one of my favorite features is that I can get cash back for generic, any brand items. Signup today and get $10. f you decide to sign up, please use my referral code: 9s4uka
For more information about Ibotta, here is an article on Balance that goes into more details: Beginner’s Guide to Ibotta – Earn Cash for Shopping

Shopkick

Shopkick is an amazing app that allows you to earn reward points for free gift cards. Kicks can be earned by walking in the store, online, or scanning select items with your Shopkick app. I completely forgot about this app for the longest and recently rediscovered it. I can take a long time to accumulate points, and you need several hundred points to get a gift card. Also, you can only earn gift cards and no cash.

Checkout 51

Checkout 51 is a new cash program that is very similar to Ibotta. It basically works in the same way. Download the app, browse and select the offers, upload the receipts, and receive the cash. Every Thursday new deals and cashback is released. Also, like Ibotta you can stack the savings with coupons and other discounts. For more information with using Checkout51, please check out the following article: Beginner’s Guide to Checkout 51

Ebates

Ebates is one of the more popular shopping portals with cash back offers on various partners. They several different promotions including in-store cash back, online cash back, double cash back, travel and vacations, BOGOs, and gift cards. You can use Ebates through the website, browser extension, or phone app. Linking your debit and credit cards to your Ebates accounts allows you to earn instore cashback. Every 3 months, your reward check (Big Fat Checks) are mailed or sent to your Paypal account.

When using Ebates online, search the website for cashback and click the link, or use the browser extension. The browser extension will show the percentage cashback once reaching the online store. If you are looking for in-store cash back, you have to search the app for in-store offers, and add the link to your debit card. It’s just that simple. If you decide to use Ebates considering using my referral code: DRBOUN2D

Dosh

Dosh is a cashback app that is similar to Ebates. It is accessed through a phone app only. Honestly, using dosh as a part of your everyday life is much easier than Ebates. Once you download the app and connect your card you are paid to shop like normal. Dosh will alert you when you have earned cash back. Earning cashback online is similar to that of Ebates. You have to go into the app, select the store, and follow the link to the online store. I have been using this app for a short period of time and have earned quite a decent about of money in the last few days.

I love using cashback and coupon apps to help me save money. What cashback apps do you and recommend? Please an answer in the comments.

How to Stop Struggling to Manage Your Money

Almost everyone struggles with money some more than others. Being able to manage your money can assist you in building essential wealth. Here are five steps that can you stop struggling to manage your money.

1. Check your Accounts Monthly

It is impossible to manage your money or the status of it. Staying on top of your finances can be hard work. Yet doing it correctly can help you succeed with money. Make a standing appointment to check your bills, auto payments, credit card statements, bank accounts, retirement plans, and pay stubs once a month. Often people discover overpayments of bills, being short on paychecks, and mistakes on including that save them some additional money. Analyzing your monthly bills, and other accounts is an important component of knowing where you stand financially. There are several applications and website that can help you with this.

Mint is a total money management app and website. It can help you track and build a budget, pay your bills, see your credit score, student loans, bank accounts, retirement plans, other loans, etc. Mint provides reminders and notifications for everything from bill payments to unusual spending while allowing you to invest as well. Mint has been a staple in my financial essentials for years, and the addition of bill payments just make my life so much easier. Check it out!

2. Build and Use a Budget

As we discussed previously, building and using a budget can make you the owner of your money instead of it owning you. A budget tells you what money you have to spend and possibly start that new hobby you want. A budget can help you decide how much money you can afford to add to your retirement plan.

Most people look at budgets are a limitation placed on them on their money. Budgets are looked at as horrible things that are only for people who can’t manage their own money. But I assure you that having a budget can help you master your money and increase your wealth in the long run. Building the budget is only step one. In order for a budget to be successful, you have to execute and follow that budget on a consistent basis in order to see results. For more information regarding budgeting, please see my post on The Top 3 Methods Used for Budgeting.

3. Give yourself some discretionary money

One way to remain on budget and stop struggling to manage your money is to provide yourself with some discretionary money otherwise known as personal spending. Allowing yourself some personal spending money will help you to stick to your budget. Personal spending money can be placed for whatever you wish. I recommend using the money for hobbies, magazines, books, notebooks, crafts, etc. If you find yourself overspending with money then increase it within reason.

4. Contact HR regarding Benefits

Often people leave benefits and money on the table with Human Resources. New employees will sign up for the essential benefits offered through their job (medical, dental, vision, and retirement plans), but leave other valuable benefits on the table. Most people are not taking complete and full advantage of their retirement plan benefits, matching, and vesting. While others are completely unaware of their Flexing Spending Accounts (FSA), Health Saving Accounts (HSA), tuition reimbursement, gym membership reimbursement and etc. Make an appointment with your HR professional to make sure you are aware of all of the benefits offered to you by your job.

5. Save 10% of your Income

The 10% savings rule applies to retirement and emergency savings. Getting into the practice of saving 10% of your income, regularly and consistently, could lead to a significant increase in wealth. As I have discussed before it is vitally important to keep an emergency savings fund. But once you get that years’ worth of income saved that extra money could be saved for other things including adding to your retirement plans. For more information, please see my post on Emergency Funds 101.

Hopefully these five items can help you to manage your money more effectively. I know that these steps have helped me. Any other steps that can help you stop struggling with money? Leave a message in the comments.

November 8, 2018 by Dominique R. Bounds Leave a Comment

Banking with Simple – Mobile Banking at its Finest

In early 2015, I decided that I wanted an online bank versus a physical banking while still maintaining some basic features and easy access to money. After some extensive research, I stumbled upon Simple. Simple is an online bank founded in 2009 and at the time it was partnered with Bancorp Sometime after I joined they moved to BBVA. Upon the move to BBVA, the features expanded and I have been in love ever since.

Simple is a mobile banking experience. Through the app and website, individuals have access to many different features including:
– deposit checks
– direct deposit
– link external accounts
– accept third-party payments

This bank is 100% fee-free meaning no minimum balances, maintenance, overdraft, or monthly fees, and ATM withdrawals are free as long as you use Simple ATM system (ATM locator within the app). Simple isn’t just a bank. It is a money management system. The company takes customer requests for features and roll out new ones all the time. Since its inception, there have been several new features that I can’t live without (Goals, Emergency Funds, Expenses, and Push Notifications).

Favorite Simple Features

Goals – This feature in Simple can function as both a digital envelope system and automate savings. To set the digital envelopes, you add the money to a goal, and as you spend that money, you move it from the goal to the safe to spend. Using Goals as a generic saving is essentially the same actions. Set an amount and date to have money saved and Simple does the rest. You can move money as often as you like (daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc).

Emergency Fund Goal – This is a protected goal that can’t be accessed accidentally. Save at least $2000 and earn 2.0% APR.

Expenses – Turn on expense and save money automatically so that those recurring bills are automatically covered. The expenses feature is one of the best features of the Simple app. Gone are the days of having to worry about paying the monthly bills. Set the amount to be stashed, the date, the funding schedule, and Simple handles the rest. Expenses is a very useful features when you pay bills via the half payment method.

Instant push notifications – Knowing exactly when purchases occur, payments are made, money is deposited is just another amazing feature of Simple. I love the push notifications, and I can count the number of times this feature has alerted me to attempted fraud or incorrect payment amount.

By using Simple, I was able to get rid of the GoodBudget app, and focus my attention on EveryDollar and Simple. I absolutely love banking with Simple and I have referred a large portion of my family and friends to Simple. If you have any questions or wish to explore more in-depth check out Simple at www.simple.com or my two other blog post where I talk about the beauty of Simple.

Money Management Guides – https://acurlytransition.com/money-management-guides/

November 5, 2018 by Dominique R. Bounds Leave a Comment

Sinking Funds- Budgeting for Unexpected and Expected

Having a sudden unexpected, yet expected expense can ruin your budget for the month and possibly months ahead. Despite the fact that my birthday comes yearly, I always forget about having to pay for the renewing of my car registration. For many years it would blow my budget for that month and the next. Once I started an emergency fund that stopped but I hated having to reach into it because I forgot about the expense. Just because you forgot about the expense does not make it an emergency, and that is not what an emergency fund should be used for. After some searching, I ran into a series of videos by JenPlans where she discusses her budget set-up and sinking funds.

Sinking Funds – What are they?

A sinking fund is money that is set aside (separate from your savings account or emergency fund) that is used to pay for various types of unexpected and expected but forgotten expenses. There are a number of reasons to use sinking funds from vacation, home remodeling, christmas, birthday gifts, car issues, car registration, etc. The average sinking fund falls into three categories (despite what you name it) large purchases, overlooked expenses, and unexpected events. Starting a sinking fund and maintaining a sinking fund can be as easy or complicated as you make it.

Make a list of the expenses for which you want to make a sinking fund.

Some common sinking funds include: Christmas, Birthday/Gifts, Home and Car Maintenance, Clothing, Vacation, Car Registration, Car Insurance, and many more.

Determine where to store your sinking fund.

Money for the sinking fund can be saved in a regular savings account, or in a checking account with instant access and possibly a debit card. You can store the total amount for all sinking funds in one account as long as you remember to keep track of the money in each category.

Building a Sinking Fund

Sinking funds can be established with unexpected money such as a work bonus or income tax refund. It can be filled incrementally throughout the year. If I wanted to make sure I had the $200 every August to pay for my car registration, I would start with saving $16.67 monthly from September until the next August (12 months). By the end of that time period, I would have the necessary $200 needed to pay the registration.

Apps to Help Manage Sinking Funds

There are multiple apps that can be used to help manage your sinking funds. Personally I use a mixture of the Budget Calendar (physical planner) and my Simple account. Other budgeting apps to try include: Everydollar, You Need a Budget, Pennies, GoodBudget, Mvelopes and probably many others.

Sinking funds were honestly a lifesaver for me back when my income was minimal and continues to help me better control my budget. If you have any questions regarding sinking funds. Feel free to comment below.

Four Online Banking Accounts – https://acurlytransition.com/online-banking-accounts/
The Top 3 Methods Used for Budgeting – https://acurlytransition.com/three-methods-budgeting/
Budgeting Apps to Organize Your Finances – https://acurlytransition.com/budgeting-apps-to-organize-your-finances/
JenPlans Budgeting Series Part 3 – http://jenplans.com/jenplans-com-budgeting-series-part-three/

October 18, 2018 by Dominique R. Bounds Leave a Comment

Budgeting Apps to Organize Your Finances

When talking about budgeting it is difficult to discuss this without also discussing the various apps that make budgeting, and organization easier? Budgeting and Spending apps aid in managing your budget while on the go. Each app has different features and benefits, and a search within the Apple Store or Google Play can leave you easily overwhelmed. Personally, my top apps are EveryDollar, GoodBudget, Pennies, and Simple. At different points in my life, these applications have assisted me in managing my expenses and ensuring my bills are paid. Today, I am going to share with you the best features and uses of each app.

EveryDollar

EveryDollar (everydollar.com) is a budget app that was developed by Dave Ramsey (Ramsey Solutions) that helps you to create a monthly budget. It is a good app for someone who has never built a budget. The app walks you through the developing of a budget including debt, sinking funds, and savings. After the budget is created, you can enter transactions within each created category ensure that you maintain your budget. Additionally, there is a Baby Step portion allows you to see how you are progressing through Ramsey’s seven steps (baby steps). EveryDollar Plus ($99 annually) allows you to connect your bank account for easier expense tracking and is available on iOS, Android, and web-based.

Pennies

Pennies (getpennies.com) is an app that allows the management of budgets and spending. This app allows you to set daily targets, flexible budgets, and spending habits. You can track all of your monthly expenses and set a budget or only track specific information. Creating the starting amount for a specific category allows you to enter transactions. The app is basically a smart bank ledger. Pennies is $4.99 and is available for iOS only.

GoodBudget

GoodBudget (goodbudget.com) is a budget tracker that uses the envelope method to log and allocate finances. Money is placed within digital envelopes (categories) based on wants and needs, and that money is “spend” from those envelopes. GoodBudget is a free plan (with limited envelopes) and a paid plan ($5.00 a month) with unlimited envelopes. GoodBudget is amazing if you have bills that you tend to forget about, or if you have expense where you overspend. It is available for iOS, Android, and web-based. One major plus with GoodBudget is that multiple individuals can use the app to view and manage the envelopes. I used GoodBudget religiously until I discovered Simple.

Simple

Simple (simple.com) is a bank account with amazing budgeting features built in the app. The app tracks your income, helps you save for goals, keeps you on track of your budget for Safe-to-Spend, create savings goals, and manages monthly expenses. Expenses allow you to automate your recurring bills, and ensure that the money for those bills is tucked away. Goals allow you to have the funds you need for vacations, emergency savings, etc when you need it. Just set the goal up and simple automatically saves your money. Simple offers various other functionalities to help you address and manage your money. It is available on iOS, Android, and web-based.

I continue to use EveryDollar and Simple on a daily basis. EveryDollar is used to make the master monthly budget and to track debt while Simple is my bank account that is also used for the envelope system, and paying the bills using the half payment method. Pennies is used occasionally for rare occasions like vacations, and attending places were spending money occurs frequently (fairs, amusement parks, etc). What apps do you use to organize and keep track of your expenses? Let me know in the comment section. I would love to hear about them.

September 5, 2018 by Dominique R. Bounds Leave a Comment

The Top 3 Methods Used for Budgeting

A budget is just a plan for your money. It is a financial plan for a specified period that allocates money for a particular purpose. Essentially, a budget tells you if you can afford your monthly expenses, savings goals, etc. Budgeting is only as complicated as you make it, and while some hate the idea of building and following a budget. A budget is often the first step to financial peace. There are various versions of budget methods, and your financial style and personality help to determine which version you will use. Personally, I have done them all, and now I use a mixture of them all.

Zero-Based Budget Method

The zero-based budget method was made famous by Dave Ramsey involves making a budget before the new month starts. It is called zero-based because you take your total monthly income and subtract all of your bills until you have zero dollars. I recommended listing your bills and their amounts in the order of importance on a sheet of paper. Don’t forget to include groceries and your transportation cost (gas, bus fare, etc.) in the top five. Dave calls these items the Four Walls (food, shelter, utilities, essential clothing, and transportation).

Envelope Budgeting Method

You may remember your grandparents carrying around envelopes full of cash. Well, this is something similar. The envelope method allows for the use of cash for different categories of your budget. Mostly the envelope method is used for the categories of the budget that often cause a budget to fail such as groceries, gas, personal expenses, etc. For example, if you budget $400 a month for groceries, you would either take that out half of that each paycheck or all of it at the beginning of the month and put it in an envelope labeled groceries. Now you have the money for groceries for that destinated time period, and the money in that envelope should be used for nothing other than groceries. Also, if you are uncomfortable with carrying large amounts of cash, there are several envelope type apps for your mobile phone that can do this for you. (Don’t worry a complete list of financials apps are coming soon). If you have money left over from that money, it is okay to roll it over to the next month or move that money to your savings account.

Balanced Money Method (50/30/20)

The balance money formula also called the 50/30/20 rule is a simplified budget method that attempts to balance fixed expenses, variable expenses, and savings. As with the other two methods, this utilizes your after-tax (net or take home) income. The method works as follows:

50% – Fixed expenses and necessities (food, housing, utilities, transportation). 50% is the maximum, and it is recommended that it stays at 35%
30% – Wants. Cable, Internet, personal, dining, trips, grooming, etc
20% – Savings and Debt Payments

Of course, to use this method, you have to be able to differentiate between needs and wants. While most needs are apparent, others vary from person to person. Use your judgment to determine what determines needs and wants.

The First 3 Months

Using a budget for the first time is often full of setbacks and failures. You have to consistently use the budget (making adjustments to amounts, correcting errors, etc.) for at least three months before it can be representative of your finances. During the first month, you are primarily focused on making the budget, and making it work for you and your money. Month two is an adjustment and reassessment of last months budget. Analyze the places you have overspent or underspent and make changes are needed. By the time you have reached month three, your budget should be an accurate representation of your lifestyle. If you wish to make cuts, or rearrangement of some items according to your goals, this is the time to do so.

This post is apart of the Guide to Money Management. You can find more articles like this by click here.