Crush Your Financial Resolutions with Must-Have Tech
Setting New Year’s resolutions is easy. Achieving them is a different story.
Survey after survey shows people struggle to stay motivated ith their goals. In fact, a whopping 80 percent of goal-setters give up by mid-February.
The odds may be stacked against you, but you can still achieve your New Year’s resolutions to save more and pay down debt. Armed with the right tech and virtual tools, and you can find the motivation to stick with your goals all year long.
For Budgeting Goals
Behind any successful financial New Year’s resolution stands a budget — whether you want to save more, spend less, or start investing. This spending plan helps you understand your cash flow, so you know how much money you have to achieve your goals. It also reveals any bad habits that may be interfering with these intentions.
Despite how important a budget can be, it’s a serious roadblock in your plans. It’s thankless work tracking your spending, and you can easily forget to check in with this plan once you make it.
If you struggle to track expenses in real time, consider downloading a budgeting app for help. Budgeting apps take on the boring job of tracking your expenses, so you don’t. They even set limits to popular spending categories, sending you alerts when you’re in danger of going over your maximums.
For Borrowing Goals
Budgets can fail, even when you use an app to help you make one. The breakdown usually happens when an unexpected expense comes your way. Your cat eats a rubber band and needs emergency surgery. A terrifying 24 hours later, Fluffy is safe and sound, but you’re now responsible for a $3,500 bill.
Getting hit with an unexpected expense at the start of your resolution can be especially frustrating. You probably haven’t had enough time to save much money so early in the game, so you might not have an extra $3,500 lying around.
Luckily, you can get fast cash in an emergency, and you don’t need to rely on payday loans to get it. Check out these three great alternatives to payday cash advances to see how you might finance an unexpected expense before you’ve built up savings.
Virtual loan platforms make it easier than ever to research your options, shop around for rates, and apply for help. Relying on these online loans isn’t a failure; it’s a solution that helps you get back on your feet.
For Credit Goals
If you plan on improving your credit score this year, you need to keep close tabs on your credit report. You can do this manually by visiting each of the three major credit bureaus once a year.
Three checks may not give you enough oversight when you want to boost your score. If you space them out throughout the year, you’re checking in only once every four months. A chore as infrequent as this is easy to forget.
Credit monitoring tools dial into your report, tracking your score on your behalf. They’ll automatically inform you of major changes to your report and notify you of any suspicious activity that may indicate fraud.
Having this set of virtual eyes watch your file can help you keep track of your score as you make efforts to improve it.
The Takeaway:
Achieving New Year’s resolutions is one of the hardest things you can do. So do yourself a favor, get the right tech to help. You can lean on apps and virtual platforms to gain financial security in 2024.
Lucas Noah is a tech-savvy writer with a solid academic foundation, holding a Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) degree. His expertise in the IT field has paved the way for a flourishing writing career, where he currently contributes to the online presence... Read more