Apps to save money and control expenses
One of the biggest concerns of the Spanish population is the pension situation. Many young people are beginning to assume that the Personal savings will be necessary to be able to have the same standard of living in retirement and working life. This concern requires greater economic planning for the future. In addition, beyond pensions, the crisis caused by COVID-19 has complicated and worsened the economic situation in Spain, making it more pressing than ever need to manage and control expenses well and look for options to face the future in the best possible way. A lot of people have to do Juggling to make ends meet or to save a little. In either case, Technology is on our side.There are more and more initiatives and mobile applications designed to help us save and have greater control over our expenses, even to more easily manage savings and pension plans.
Apps for saving: rounding and micro-saving
Las automatic rounding apps they allow us to save almost without realizing it. These applications allow save with every purchase we make with a card: for example, if we make a purchase of 5.30 euros, the app we use will keep the difference until it reaches the nearest euro, that is, it will round up the payment, in this case up to six euros, so we will save 70 cents. However, Are there different rules that we can set for our savings style, for example, we could double the amount we save with each purchase. Some benches, such as EVO, have already incorporated the rounding option.
Arbor
Arbor is a free app to save money which works with most banks operating in Spain. Like most rounding applications, it works with an account or bank card linked to it, allowing users to save while shopping. The app allows you to configure specific goals and savings rules with the objective of seeing how money increases until it reaches them:
- Round up the amount paid to the next amount.
- Make periodic (20€/month, 3€/week...) or one-off transfers.
- Establish a temporary challenge to set a savings goal that must be met within a certain period of time.
They also have Arbor Gold, which costs two euros a month, a application for saving and investing no experience starting from 5€ in diversified portfolios and maximizing money.
Coinscrap
CoinScrap is an app for mobile phones or tablets that allows us to define savings objectives and, like the rest of the rounding apps for savings, rounds up any purchase we make with a card to the nearest euro, although it can be rounded up, for example, to two euros. Coinscrap automatically transfers the difference to a savings product contracted with the insurance company Caser. Since its official launch in 2017, the platform has evolved its system with new features, such as the possibility of automatically saving percentage of payroll or automate savings in relation to personalized highlights, such as your favorite soccer team winning a game. Some benches, like EVO in this case, have incorporated the rounding option to help their customers save while they spend. EVO established a fintech alliance with Coinscrap in 2018 and since then it has allowed its users to set savings challenges in an automated, friendly and digital way.
I think
Pensumo is a platform that allows you to save to supplement tomorrow's pension through purchases and challenges. Unlike the others, It also makes it possible to save on physical purchases and online, although only in stores associated with the brand. Users justify the tickets for their purchases and a percentage of their spending will go to microcontributions to an Allianz savings plan. Las shopping in neighborhood stores from Spain they amount to 0.03€ and you can pass up to two tickets a day.Retailers can partner with Pensumo to build customer loyalty, that they will be able to save with the purchases they make in them. Unlike gift cards, points or other gifts that are common in stores and establishments, the savings that the customer receives are real money, which they can spend on any other business and, according to Pensumo, that is precisely what makes the customer buy there again.
Vidahorro
Vidahorro is a loyalty platform that allows users Save for your retirement when making purchases at participating stores, for example, AliExpress, Cepsa, Booking, El Corte Inglés or Iberia. Instead of offering a discount, stores transfer cash to the customer's account at VidaAhorro, that is, when buying from one of the partner companies, a percentage of the transaction It's going to go to an AXA pension plan. With each purchase we can accumulate between 2% and 10% of the amount paid in a pension plan.
Goin
Goin is the abbreviation for 'gain with each coin', that is, of earning with each coin. It allows us to set goals to save for something specific, such as a computer, a car or a trip, for example, and to save for as long as we want. The app retains the money we are saving, as if it were an online piggy bank. It also allows you to invest without having financial knowledge, the application itself is responsible for diversifying investments to minimize risks and prevent us from losing money.
Apps to control expenses
A good way to Control expenses is to be organized. Luckily, nowadays technology can also lend us a hand in this regard and become our best ally to have our money well controlled. Whether you simply want to organize your income and expenses, or if you want to know what you spend your money on, we bring you several proposals for apps to control expenses that will be of great help to you.
Fintonic
Fintonic is one of the best-known savings apps. This is a personal finance app that helps to save and organize money, with all banks, cards, insurance and loans in one place. It allows See how much we spend by category, in the supermarket, on trips, in sports, in technology... in order to be able to save more easily. The app also Warn of all important matters related to money: commission charges, insurance expiration, duplicate charges, etc., any errors or strange activity related to cards and bank accounts.
Spendee
Spendee is an application to control expenses and have a global vision Of all our money in a simple and visual way. In its free version, it allows you to manually classify expenses into categories, while with the paid version it has more features: creating shared portfolios with friends or family, adding goals and budgets, synchronizing bank accounts and classifying expenses automatically.
Mint
Mint makes it easy to manage and control budgets, expenses, and revenues. In it, you can set spending and savings objectives and Schedule payment reminders that we have to do, so as not to forget any. It also helps to control our scheduled monthly budget, as it alerts us if we exceed it.
Other apps to control expenses
There are many applications to have greater control over our expenses and to be able to save in a smarter way. Each one of them has its specific peculiarities and design. The key to choosing the most appropriate one is to think about what our objectives are; this way we can know what features interest us most and can best help us achieve our savings goals. As we have said, there are many apps to save and control expenses in the market. Apart from those mentioned so far, there are others such as Fidelity, Vesto, Wally, Money Pro, Wallet, Balio... and many more. We encourage you to tell us on social media which ones you use or have used and which ones you like the most!
Apps for making accounts with friends and sharing expenses
Sharing expenses can sometimes turn into an ordeal, right? When it comes to traveling, sharing a flat... Nobody likes to owe money or to be owed it, but sometimes it's difficult to do the maths. However, once again, technology to the rescue of human beings, we have been able to develop apps for doing math between friends, family or roommates so that we never have doubts about who paid what again. As in the previous cases, there are many applications to make this task easier for us divide and share expenses: Splitwise, Settle Up, Crowd Money, Billr, Tricount... But Splitwise and Settle Up are the two we know best.
Splitwise and Settle Up
Both applications They are used to share expenses in any situation and with anyone. You simply have to enter the expenses and who pays at all times. In the apps you can enter the reason for the payment, what you are paying (for example: electricity bill, dinner at a certain place, gift set, etc.), the amount, who pays it and for whom. Both Splitwise and Settle Up calculate who owes money to whom, always in the simplest and fastest way. For example, let's say we are three people:
- A owes 15 euros to B.
- B owes 10 euros to C.
- The apps will say that A owes 5 euros to B and 10 to C.
In this way, they will tell us what each one should and all the people involved will be able to see the updated situation at all times from their own devices.
Save for retirement
According to a study by Instituto de Pensiones BBVA, the Baby Boom generation (born from 1957 to 1977) is clear about the importance of saving for retirement. For 63%, the public pension will be their only income during old age, and more than half fear not having enough money to live well. 90% of Millennials believe that the pension will not be enough for their retirement, but only a minority has begun to plan for it. According to an ING report, 51% still feel too young for it and 22% consider that they cannot save because of their expenses. According to a VidaCaixa barometer, millennials are the generation most aware of economic challenges.Have you tried any of these apps? Do you know others that work well and help you save? Tell us about it on social media!
