I’m sure that one thing we can all agree on about finances is that they take some time. Tracking your spending is the key to making financial progress.
Often, it takes a great deal of time to set up, track, re-evaluate, and keep up-to-date. So whenever there’s a method to make this process more streamlined and efficient, we’re all about it.
The Personal Capital app is a great way to use technology and financial experts to ensure your money is going where you want it to and doing what it needs to do.
What I immediately love about Personal Capital is their goal to make financial planning more transparent and personal. One of the incredible ways they do this is through their initiative to “close the gender investing gap”. Many women don’t get involved with investing for many different reasons but mainly because it seems overwhelming and confusing. Personal Capital is empowering women to take hold of their finances in a more proactive manner by investing confidently and in secure manners. This isn’t just for women though. Anyone can benefit from this sleek, simple and helpful app.
Tracking your spending made easy with this app:
- The Retirement Planner – This tool uses information from the accounts you’ve linked up and assesses the possible impact of various life events such as babies and injuries. It uses all of this information to help you figure out your chances of reaching your goals to support yourself after retirement. The really awesome part of this tool is that it suggests ways to improve your chances of meeting your savings goals and lets you adjust and change things to better your retirement outlook.
- The Cash Flow Analyzer – If you have a hard time keeping track of where your money goes or simply want an easier way to keep track of expenses and cash flow, this tool will make your day (or year). Using the linked accounts you provide, it shows you how you spend your money based on charges and transactions made weekly, monthly and yearly.
- The Investment Checkup – Does investing stress you out? You definitely aren’t the only one. There’s so much to learn and so much to know about it that it can be hard to keep track of everything and feel secure about your investments. This time and money saving tool will keep track of your portfolio and figure out ways that you can tweak and improve upon it. There will also be recommended portfolio options that help maximize profits and lower risks.
- Net Worth Calculator – This is a fun one. With the help of this tool, you can find out your total net worth after all of your accounts, debt and investment information have been provided and analyzed. Many people have no clue what their actual net worth is because it includes so many things that may be hard to track or understand. This tool easily figures things out for you and helps you get a better idea of what state your overall financial situation is in.
- The Fee Analyzer – Ready for the really important one? The fee analyzer is what helps you make sure that the fees you pay for a broker or accounts are not going to jeopardize your financial progress. Often, the fees are hidden or really hard to understand so it’s nice to have this useful tool in your back pocket to help you figure out if something is worth it or not.
The People Behind the Company
It’s nice to know who or what is behind the making of a company because it says a lot about the quality of product it will produce as well as the type of service you’ll receive. The CEO and founder of Personal Capital is very familiar and well versed in technology and finances since he was a former CEO of Intuit and PayPal. Many of the employees hold the CFP – Certified Financial Planner designation and most have a strong background in finance. Personal Capital manages more than 2.4 billion dollars for its clients currently and definitely seems to have the expertise and passion that will make investing and tracking with them a positive experience.
Pricing
So it seems like there’s already a whole lot going for this company but it gets better. Tracking all of your accounts and investments while getting automated financial planning advice is FREE. They do offer paid investment management as an optional service. Many people opt out of this due to the fees being rather high but they do claim to have high success in the investment arena so depending on how you prefer to invest, this could be a great option. For those with assets of at least $100,000, Personal Capital offers a real financial advisor to work with your finances. The fees for this are from .89% to .49%. The more you invest, the less you pay in fees.
Security
I know it can be nerve-wracking to put so much personal financial information in one place, but it’s incredibly comforting to see how Personal Capital ensures the safety of your information. Not only do they require you to register all computers and phones you use before using them with the site, they also need to verify your personal online account as well as your Personal Capital account. Along with that, they keep your data and information safe by not storing it as plain text and all information is read only. No account action can be taken from within your Personal Capital account.
There are many ways you can choose to track your finances but not too many of these methods include free financial analysis and planning from experts. Most of the time, you will have to pay for quality services like that. You could also compare Personal Capital with Mint because they both allow you to hook up your account and asset information and help you track all of it in one spot. However, the main difference is that Mint does not have an area to track your investments.
If you want to be able to track your finances, retirement and investments all in one place where the information is safe and free, Personal Capital is a great way to do that. You always have the option to pay for more detailed advising but the free version is extremely useful and full of value and great information that will get you closer to your savings goals.
Personal Capital is an affiliate sponsor, but no worries. The Debt Free Divas will never affiliate with any organization who does not enhance, support, or encourage your debt free journey.
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