Saving Money

Digit Review Scam Legit or Necessary?

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digit automated savings

Digit is an automated savings service. As always, my first question in a Digit review is, Is Digit a Scam? Then, if Digit is legitimate, the question is what exactly this online financial service does and is Digit worth it for the average person’s personal financial situation. Is Digit safe? I checked out some Digit app reviews and then dug into the details myself. If you are looking for something similar, but that invests the money and doesn’t calculate its own savings (it’s a roundup savings app) check out my Acorns reviews. Is Digit A Scam? The burden of proof for calling something a scam differs based on what exactly it does, and what can be shown from available sources. Digit is a venture capital-backed internet start-up, raising money from, among othe rs, Google’s own venture capital arm. That in itself doesn’t mean it is not a scam, but it does mean that it isn’t some fly-by-night hacker operation looking to steal a few credit card numbers and email addresses. Is Digit Legitimate? Since Digit is a legitimate business and not just a scam to steal your banking information, the question becomes whether Digit is necessary. The idea is that …

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Ibotta Review Cash Back for Buying Stuff

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ibotta really works legit

A friend of mine keeps going on about Ibotta. For those of you who don’t know, Ibotta is a shopping app that gives you cash back rebates for various items you buy. It’s kind of like coupons, only instead of saving on your grocery bill, you build up a cash back account. What makes it such a huge deal for my friend is that those offers often include beer and wine, and often for a few bucks at a time, so that can add up. But does that make Ibotta a legit deal for others, or is Ibotta a scam that takes more than it gives? Let’s dig into is Ibotta legit. What Is Ibotta? Ibotta is an app for either Android or Apple. You can also use it online via the webpage. It works a lot like many grocery store apps where you go through a list of coupons and select which ones you want to use. However, unlike my King Soopers app, or Safeway app, the offers on Ibotta are rebates, not coupons. In other words, while the coupons take 50 cents off of my grocery bill, the Ibotta rebates have no effect on the cost of my …

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Acorns Investment Portfolio Review

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acorns investment performance

Recently, I did a review of the Acorns app. If you are not already familiar with the Acorns savings and investing app, you should read that for an introduction how to use Acorns first. It also covers questions like Is Acorns safe, What are Acorns fees, and If Acorns is legit. Essentially everything you would expect in an honest Acorns review. Now, let’s take a look at Acorns funds and how they invest your change. Are Acorns Investments Good Portfolios? The idea of the Acorns automatic money savings app is that it rounds up all of your transactions and automatically invests that money for you. There are some nuances about how Acorns works you should understand first. Money is only transferred once the minimum round-up amount is $5, and it only happens once per day, unless you use the Acorns debit card or Acorns checking account. Before we get too in-depth here, it is important to remember a few things. First, when you get started with Acorns, we are talking about a very small amount of money. That means that as far as real dollar amounts go, the difference in percentages won’t be big. For example, if you have $100 in …

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Tricks to Save Money On Taxes

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save money on taxes tips

If you have fairly simple taxes, that is ones that do not include several complicated schedules or worksheets that have to be filed, then you might not want to pay for TurboTax or TaxCut or other tax preparation software.  But you still don’t really want to go it alone without some sort of double-check. Let’s jump right in with some tricks to save money on taxes. TurboTax For Free TurboTax offers a marketing gimmick where they allow you to do your taxes on the online version of TurboTax for free.  You only have to pay when you print or e-file your return.  But who says you have to print anything? When you have finished inputting all of your information, and TurboTax has finished crunching all of the numbers, switch to the form view where you actually are looking at an electronic version of the tax form.  Copy the numbers down onto Form 1040 that you printed off of the IRS website, and voila.  Your taxes are done, and all for free! Obviously, if you have to generate a bunch of extra paperwork or IRS Schedules, this isn’t the method for you.  But keep in mind that many of the worksheets …

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Top 4 Places to Save Money During Recession

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i bond

It is looking less and less like the U.S. economy will achieve the promised land of a soft-landing and will instead end up in a recession. It may turn out to be a shallow recession, but the economy is not typically forgiving of rapid increases in interest rates. If hiring falls off before the holiday season, then look out below. Where To Save Money During Recession Making smart personal finance decisions during a recession is critical to avoid losing progress on your goals. The four places are the best way to save money during recession and even depressions. Money Market Account – No it’s not sexy, but it is safe, and it should pay more than your basic savings account. Get at least three months of expenses put aside in case you are one of the unfortunate ones who lose their job during a recession. The silver lining on recessions is that rising interest rates means earning more money on your savings accounts and money market accounts. Consider a high-yield online savings account from a bank you trust to earn even more. Pay Off Debt – Alright, this is cheating. Paying off debt isn’t technically saving money, but it will …

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Power of Compound Interest – A Case Study

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compound interest

Over at MarketWatch recently, was an interesting article entitled Make Your Kid Rich for $1 a Day. I’ll let you go over there and read the particulars if you are interested. However, I think that the concept provides a great way to study the phenomenon of compound interest, and the elements that go into it. Compound Interest Only Works Over Long Periods People love to quote Albert Einstein saying that the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest. What most people forget is, that as a physicist, Mr. Einstein was used to working on a very large scale, with a very long timeframe. Let’s start at the beginning. Compound interest is not magical. It is merely the phenomenon of earning interest on your previously earned interest. So, if you invest $10,000 and earn 10 percent interest annually, then you would earn $1,000 in interest, and have $11,000 at the end of the year. (Sort of, depending on how interest is paid and compounded, but let’s not quibble.) The following year, you would also earn the same 10 percent interest. However, this time, you earn 10 percent on $11,000, not just the original $10,000. In other words, you are …

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Free TurboTax Software Online – Deals on Tax Programs

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Free TurboTax Software Online - Deals on Tax Programs 1

Here comes tax time for that huge group of Americans who wait until the proverbial last minute to file their income taxes. For them, crunch time is approaching, and they need to find all those tax receipts and records that they will need to file Federal Income Taxes. Fortunately, one of the best tax tricks for 2022 is getting tax preparation software. The best part is that there is no real downside if you are smart and keep an eye out for optional add-ons, upgrades, and online tax filing options that might shatter your free tax software deals. Many of the deals websites out there (check out Slickdeals.net and Gottadeal.com as well as Dealnews.com for starters) will notify you when companies like Intuit offer cheap online TurboTax applications for users who show up within a certain time frame. The HR Block guys similarly offer free TaxCut software signups from time to time. If you are wondering what the catch is, because obviously these companies can’t make money by giving their programs away online, then good for you. The first step to avoid being a sucker who gets scammed is to be aware of what makes sense, what motivates people and …

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Are No-Penalty CDs Worth It?

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no-penalty cd

Banks never stop innovating. For the most part that is good news for customers who have an ever increasing set of products and tools to use for their financial needs. The catch is that with so many permutations of money products and services out there, it can be confusing to know what is the right financial tool for you. Let’s do a no-penalty CD review to find out the pros and cons of a no-penalty CD. What Is a No Penalty CD? A no-penalty CD is like a normal CD, or Certificate of Deposit, except the bank will not charge you a penalty to withdraw your money after a certain date. It sounds like a no-brainer, but as always, the devil is in the details. What Is a CD? Let’s start with what a normal CD is. That will make it easier to understand what a no-penalty CD is. A normal CD, or Certificate of Deposit, is a savings product offered by banks, credit unions, and brokerages. Like a savings account, you deposit money with the bank, and in exchange they pay you interest on those funds. However, unlike a savings account, you cannot withdraw your money at any time. …

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How To Start Retirement Savings

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retirement planning how much

One of the things that comes up in financial planning is that getting all of the information and facts can be difficult. This, all too often, leads to financial paralysis where you don’t end up doing anything at all, because you don’t understand all the details. Ironically, a lot of the information that ends up being “too much,” is for edge cases that don’t affect the average American saving for retirement. How To Start Saving For Retirement Now Retirement savings, investing, and planning is one area where complicated topics can needlessly paralyze people from taking action. Occasionally, financial companies themselves accidentally cause this confusion. Not long ago, I was talking with someone about retirement savings. The issue, for this particular person was the commercial talking about “Your Number.” If you remember this commercial, the point was that you should know how much money you will need when you retire. The goal, was to get you to schedule an appointment with one of their financial advisors or brokers to find your number. Since the person I was talking to didn’t know his number, he was stuck on what to do for retirement. The ironic part is that you don’t need to …

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