As we figure out the best ways to stay proactive and financially minded during lockdown, many people have started leveraging their smartphones an increasing amount, using the wealth of different apps and services available at the tap of a button in order to not only get a better hold on their finances, but also to build and prepare investment strategies for the future.
Thinking of ways to increase your productivity from home as we delve deeper into 2021, preparing yourself financially so that you can leave lockdown with a better grip on your money? To help get you inspired and in the right mindset, check out this quick list of some of the best smartphone apps for saving and investing money.
Building up your savings
If you’ve never really used your smartphone before with regards to your finances, then you should definitely start by connecting your card to your digital wallet (using facilities such as Google Pay/Apple Pay), and signing up for your respective bank’s online app. Not only will this empower you financially by allowing you to look into your bank balance and check on direct debits etc. at any given moment, but it will also allow you to pay for things quickly and more securely.
Once you’ve done that, there are a wide range of different savings apps that you might want to make the most of in order to help you to get into a better financial standpoint by the time you leave lockdown. Here are a couple of the most popular examples:
- Plum – This is one that you might have heard of or seen already, through adverts on social media apps like Facebook or Twitter. Plum uses a smart algorithm once you’ve input your spending habits, figuring out the sort of money that you can afford to spend and giving you some nice visual indicators. This can be a helpful one if you’re the sort of person that struggles to see where their money is going each month, or finds themselves living from paycheck to paycheck.
- MoneyBox – This is a great midway point between savings and investment, particularly as we come out of lockdown and try to get back towards everyday life. Aside from similar features to plum such as categorising and recommendations, MoneyBox also rounds up spending on small purchases here and there, rounding up the change and automatically investing it on your behalf.
Learning about investment
Got some additional money saved away that you usually would have allocated to things like social events or parties, and want to think about potentially investing it in order to put it back to work for you? Many savvy entrepreneurs and financially-minded professionals have been looking into investing in the stock market during the pandemic, through user-friendly apps such as Trading 212, or RobinHood in the US.
Aside from just dipping your toes into some different investment markets, you may also decide that you want to put some of your capital into something more long-term, forming a financial backbone for your portfolio going forward. Property investment, for example, is typically a much more stable and secure investment than more volatile assets like stocks and shares. If you want to get involved through your phone, RWinvest have a range of different videos, mobile-friendly guides and podcasts that you can quickly look into in order to prepare you for the future.