Ah, tax season. Recognize and embrace it, Chicago.
To the disgruntled taxpayer: you will survive. You always do. Hell, 80% of you will actually get paid for this.
But don’t forget the season’s most important lesson:
You should probably be paying closer attention to your finances. So, we went ahead and rounded up the best apps that’ll help you do just that.
Because tax season might be over, but smart money management never ends.
Digit
We all automate bill payments and the like, so why not automate your savings plan? That’s the idea behind Digit. Essentially, you save money without trying. Thanks to a nifty algorithm that decides when and how much to take depending on your spending habits, the app withdraws a small amount of money (any where from $5-$50) out of your checking account and stashes it away into a savings account. Best part: no-overdraft guarantee. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to save when you … uh, do nothing.
Level Money
When it comes to your daily financial outlook, there is no app more simple or easier on the eyes than Level. It’s an elegant simplified view of your day-to-day spending, acting like a digital wallet so you know your exact “spendable” income for any given, day, week or month.
Robinhood
Robinhood is for those who want to dabble in stock trading with absolutely zero fees. The app allows you to easily buy and sell stocks with no commission per trade and no minimum balance required. With any luck, you’ll be making the greenbacks in no time.
Paribus
No one likes buying something only to find out later it went on sale with a price drop. Use Paribus to make sure you’re not getting the short end of the stick. The app looks at your receipts and monitors prices: if they drop, that app negotiates the price difference for you. Especially useful for online shoppers.
Acorns
Wiith Acorns, every penny counts. This app automatically rounds your daily purchases up to the next dollar and invests the difference (i.e., spare change) into a diversified portfolio. Like Robinhood, the idea here is to create easy entry into the market for first-time investors, but Acorns is also a fine option for those with too much “loose change” lying around.
This article was featured in the InsideHook Chicago newsletter. Sign up now for more from the Windy City.
