Joseph Abbondante Shares the Top 5 Money Saving Apps

Many Americans are struggling mightily to save money away, both for unexpected expenses and for their all-important retirement funds.

Nearly 75% of working Americans reported that they would have trouble making ends meet if their paycheck was delayed by just a single week, while nearly 30% of adults have no emergency savings at all. Things look equally grim on the retirement front, as working Americans’ median retirement savings balance stands at about $50,000, a mere pittance compared to recommended levels.

Depending on various factors, recommended retirement savings can approach or exceed $1 million according to retirement planning specialist and Toscana Consulting Services founder Joseph Abbondante, who helps clients maximize their retirement savings potential through initiatives like asset protection, income management, annuities, and tax minimization strategies.

Abbondante says that stagnant wages, high levels of debt, the rising cost of living, and even social media pressure are making it more challenging than ever for Americans to undertake the vital task of setting aside money for their retirement.

He believes that developing the habit of consistently saving money and cutting costs is crucial to making any headway on your retirement plans. One of the best methods of doing just that is by using a variety of helpful apps, which can automate much of the money-saving process.

Joseph Abbondante shares five of the best and most unique apps in this space, which can help Americans of any age or income level save more of their money and set themselves up for a chance at a more comfortable retirement. All of the following apps are available for both iOS and Android devices.

1.Digit

The Digit app connects to your checking account and uses powerful algorithms to study your financial history and spending habits so it can automatically squirrel away some of your money whenever possible (assuming your balance is above your designated cut-off point) without impacting your ability to pay your bills and get by.

The app allows you to set up multiple savings goals to funnel money into, rewards you with a 1% savings bonus every three months, and lets you withdraw your money whenever you like. Digit also has built-in overdraft protection, automatically re-funding your checking account when it falls below a predetermined level or reimbursing your overdraft fees if it withdrew too much money.

2.Mint

Joseph Abbondante highly recommends this free app given its broad range of features and ability to provide a comprehensive snapshot of your financial situation. Mint allows you to monitor and manage all of your personal finance accounts from one location, with all of your latest transactions automatically recorded. That includes not only your banking accounts, but also your investments, insurance, bills (for which you can receive notifications), and loans.

Mint can help you save money by analyzing your spending patterns and creating reasonable budgets that you’ll be able to achieve. It will also analyze your investments and look for redundant or unnecessary fees that could be eliminated. Mint is also chock full of other personalized tips and advice to help you save more money and even provides unlimited free access to your credit score along with tips on how to raise it.

3.Coupons.com

Americans spend about 10% of their disposable income on food, far less than they were 50 years ago when that figure hovered around 17%. Nonetheless, food represents a major ongoing expense, particularly for lower-income families that are also at the greatest risk of not achieving their retirement goals.

The award-winning Coupons.com app can help cut back on those food costs through its exhaustive collection of grocery coupons which can be used at stores like Walmart, Target, Safeway, Kroger, Costco, and Dollar General.

Coupons are paperless and can be redeemed either at the checkout or after your shopping trip is over by scanning and submitting your receipt. The app even provides exclusive offers for free food products like potatoes, eggs, and coffee.

4.Qapital

The Qapital app makes use of two key functions to make saving more intuitive and fun for its users: goals and rules. Similar to the Digit app, you can set a variety of goals to be funded. Unlike with Digit, how they get funded is left completely up to you, as users can employ various rules to fund their goals.

Among them is the Round-Up Rule, which sets aside the spare change left over from a transaction, and the Guilty Pleasure Rule, which saves away some cash every time you indulge in one of your favorite guilty pleasures (like that Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino), making them costlier (in a sense) but also much more rewarding. Qapital users can even create their own custom rules.

Qapital also has an investing platform that includes pre-built portfolios of bonds and stocks with varying levels of risk and reward to suit the tastes of any investor saving for retirement or that next vacation.

5. Robinhood

Joseph Abbondante of Toscana Consulting Services says that investing in the stock market has historically been one of the premier ways to grow your wealth but notes that the fees can be intimidating. The Robinhood app eliminates those concerns, providing users with unlimited commission-free trades on stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies.

Robinhood users can buy fractional shares in stocks, allowing them to invest in their favorite companies for as little as $1 as opposed to having to buy full shares, which can run in the tens or hundreds of dollars. The app even pays outs a 1.80% APY on whatever cash you have on the platform that isn’t currently invested.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.