I’ve got a savings account. The other day I took a look at it and was pretty shocked at just how much money wasn’t there. The problem? Here in the UK our interest rates are really low. That’s great if you’re getting a loan or a mortgage, but not so great if you’re trying to save money.
Recently a whole load of apps have appeared to help you stash some cash. Most of these, like Moneybox, involve you putting money into investments.
Doing this really isn’t scary, but a lot of people think it is because “stocks and shares” is generally an unknown topic. However, it’s not that much different to your pension. That slowly gets bigger because the money you put in gets invested into stocks and shares. Sure, they very safe and secure investments, but they’re still stocks and shares.
To go further, you can also do trading on your smartphone, with stock trading on Android and forex trading on iPhone. It can, in all honesty, take a bit of time to learn, but there’s plenty of resources out on the web to help you with this. YouTube is also a good source of inspiration if you’re looking to find out how it all works.
Another little trick is to “round up” your change, and some payment apps now offer this. Those systems save the change by rounding up to the nearest pound. So, as an example, if you pay £2.70 for a coffee, 30p goes straight into your savings account or your investment fund. It’s these micro payments that will go a long way, so trying something like this will pay off quite quickly and usually without you noticing the “hit” too much.
Whatever you decide to do, even if it’s just a small savings pot, it’s really worth putting some money aside for the unexpected, and your smartphone can help you.