How to stay on budget, build credit and save for the future with Austin fintech

by Colin Morris
December 8, 2015

Editor's note 12/15/15: This story was updated to clarify the terms of Self Lender's credit building loan.

With the holiday shopping season upon us and our credit card balances rocketing skyward, we’re less than a month away from the inevitable resolution to regain control of our finances in 2016. And let's be honest, we tend to put ourselves in the same situation year after year.

But your generosity doesn't have to come at the expense of your budget. Why not make this the year to take the mystery out of your money and make a budget that's actually fun to watch?

Here are four personal finance apps and services made in Austin that can help.

 

This budgeting app lets you track your spending in various categories on one chic screen.

It requires importing transactions manually, which can be a pain, but it avoids the liability of storing passwords to your financial accounts in a third party app. And users don’t seem to mind too much: According to the company behind it, the app has been downloaded 35,000 times, sending it to the top 10 apps list in the finance category of the iOS app store.

WellSpent is free, but supported by ads. The paid version removes ads and allows syncing across multiple devices so you and your partner can stay on top of shared finances.

Coming soon: The company has mentioned plans for an Android version, but hasn’t given an official release date.

 

 

Numerous is one of the most fun, easy and beautiful ways to track the numbers in your life. Its integrations range from Google Calendar to Fitbit and Tesla Motors, and even includes banks—15,000 of them, according to the app’s account balances channel.

Just add the Account Balances channel to your Numerous app on your iPhone, Apple Watch or Android device. (It’s the first channel icon in the top left on the channels menu.) From there, you can select a bank and link your account.

Numerous also has channels for Piggybank, which helps you manage your kids’ allowance and teach them financial literacy, and the bitcoin wallet Coinbase, among other basic info such as exchange rates.

Coming soon: The company has announced plans to add an Intuit Quickbook integration.

 

 

Trying to build credit is one of those rare situations where youth can work against you. Even if your credit is good, lack of credit history can hurt your score if you haven’t been borrowing money for very long. Combine that with a few credit card mistakes or missed loan payments, and you might be one of the millions of Americans looking for a leg up on their credit score.

Self Lender was launched in September 2014 to help consumers overcome precisely this issue. 

Here’s how it works: For a one-time $60 fee, the company will cut you a loan for $1,100 with an interest rate of 12.52% and hold it in a savings account while you pay it back. Self Lender reports your payments to credit bureaus to build your credit scores.

You get all the money back once you finish pre-paying the loan. The process may sound backwards, and the fee and interest aren't a bargain. But for those of us who need help forming better spending habits, a forced savings account that builds credit makes a lot of sense.

 

 

Once you get your spending under control and start building some credit, it's time to make a plan for the future.

Here's one way to do it: As we recently reported, Honest Dollar now offers a retirement savings plan for the 53 million independent workers in the U.S. who can’t rely on retirement benefits from an employer.

Some of us don’t give retirement much thought, especially if we’re young and self employed, or working for an early stage startup. Retirement just feels far away—or impossible, depending how cynical you are about the economy—and investing can be intimidating to the uninitiated.

Luckily, it only takes about 90 seconds to sign up for one of Honest Dollar’s Roth IRAs from your phone, and costs a flat fee of $5 per month. Honest Dollar built its own order management platform for making trades through Vanguard, but they don’t have a formal partnership—so the companies aren’t tacking on hidden fees for transactions or asset management.

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