The following post is not sponsored. However, if you do sign up for Albert using my link, I’ll earn a “friend bonus”.
Wealth & Abundance: financial planner
One of my biggest challenges is money. Money in general. I honestly think this comes from a place where I have never needed or wanted for anything in my life, so it seemed like money is just readily available to me. I recognize my privilege, ignorance, and feelings I’m having to reprogram because of that.
I have worked since college. I was lucky enough that my parents were able to cover the cost of my college education, but I worked in the admissions office to cover the fun stuff-mostly sorority related. I was responsible for all of my dues and any activities surrounding Greek Life, and I’m proud of that. In the summer, I worked six days a week and/or two jobs at a time, one summer balancing an unpaid internship as well.
The first time I really felt a money pinch was during film school. I was working at Pier One making, minimum wage when I started, making $2.00 more per hour when I became a shift lead. It’s nutty when I look back on it. Minimum wage, or near it, is not enough to live on, but that is a conversation for another day. Again, I am incredibly lucky that all of my needs have always been met and exceeded, but I was either at work, at school, or on the metro. I maxed out my first major credit car in a month with commuting alone. My biggest issue is that I saw credit as emergency money-and not a loan that needs to be repaid with interest. I’m unlearning that thought pattern now.
In a recent discussion with my therapist, we went over my finances and current thoughts about shopping/money. I read somewhere once that you were probably a shopaholic if you shopped to both celebrate and soothe yourself. I told her that I used to get myself a lot more “treats” because I felt like I had earned them because I was basically financially responsible for my household in Glover Park, when instead I should have been more conscious about money. I had a turning point this summer when I ordered a whole bunch of crap from SheIn that I didn’t even remember ordering and returned almost all of it because it was cheap crap. It didn’t make me happy.
Stuff at this point doesn’t make me happy. What makes me happy is that I have resources to build up a healthier financial situation. What makes me happy is that I’m safe and loved and healthy, as are those around me. What makes me happy is seeing that I’ve paid down SO much debt since I moved home. This is, again, is thanks to my parents letting their adult child come back, rent free, although I have offered to contribute financially to the household.
Before I get into saving with the Albert app, here are the things that have worked the best for me to get into better financial shape:
- Have friends to keep you accountable. Thank you for Dani and Ally for recently telling me “no,” I do not need whatever it is I think I need. (usually a novelty purse)
- Make a spreadsheet, or some kind of other visual for your finances and update it DAILY. This has been the best thing for me because I used to ignore my accounts if I was afraid to check them. It’s so satisfying to watch the numbers go down (or up, depending on the column! Love to see my credit score go up 15 points in a month!)
- Consider past purchases and usefulness of what you want to buy. My recent DO I NEED THIS is a clutch that looks like a bowl of cereal. Ok, cute… but I already have an insane collection of bags and my last novelty bag purchase has never been used. Once.
- Consider smaller, weekly budgets. I treated myself to the special edition Taylor Swift album last week because plans were canceled to meet a friend for dinner after work.
- Follow The Financial Diet. I share them on my stories at least a couple of times a week. My friends have started following them and weighing in if they thing I’m eyeing a purchase I don’t need. They’ve helped me examine my money habits, including a saving one that I’m about to explain below.
- Consider your goals. This leads me to Albert.
Albert is an all-in-one financial app. I first started using it to keep track of credit cards, and while I prefer using my spreadsheet for that particular function now, it is still connected to most of my cards, including my debit card, and it tracks my spending. It’ll tell you what percent of you’re budget you’re spending on major categories, and how that stacks up to their other users. I joke that it would yell at me for going to Starbucks too much or taking too many Ubers, but it’s actually interesting to see. For example, in this past month, personal care was 4% of my spending. It’s 2% of their average users’ spending. I haven’t really been shopping, so it makes sense that my Amazon subscriptions for shampoo etc. would be higher.
The function that I like the most about Albert right now is the ability to set up savings accounts. You can set up whatever you like for however much money you’d like and the app basically sneaks into your bank account to see what is prudent to pull into your Albert savings, small amounts at a time. After reading this older article about multiple savings accounts, I decided to tweak their suggestions and make them my own. With PNC, I actually have three accounts in place already. One is my regular debit account, one is SAVINGS, and the one in between, which was my “rent” account before, is an account for money to accumulate to I can pay off larger amounts of debt at once.
So what am I saving in for in Albert? I used the list from TFD to start my own.
For me, this is mostly to keep my eyes on the prize. If there’s something foolish I want to spend my money on, I have this great little list to remind me of what’s important to me. Even though the money actually going into these savings accounts are small amounts, the money is still working towards my goals. Basically, it’s an interactive wish list.
A final note about Albert-there’s a semi-new function where you can actually invest! I’ve been using it to teach myself about the stock market, $5.00 at a time.
What tools and tricks do use use to keep yourself financially healthy? I’d love to know!
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