In this post, Sophia Young highlights seven simple tools senior citizens can use to manage finances.
Retirement is a time of life when older adults can now enjoy the fruits of their labor. This time involves a ton of transition, as well as handling finances that they saved over time. However, not everyone can track spending and investments as efficiently as they can in their younger years.
With that said, technology can help older adults handle their finances without hiring too many professional services. From a money manager to a budgeting system, there are many ways to help maintain financial independence. Here are some tools older adults can use to keep their finances in check.
Also Read: 8 Ways to Manage Money and Avoid Personal Financial Troubles
#1 AARP Now
For American adults, one of the best, simplest apps they can use is the AARP Now app. The mobile app, which is available on both iOS and Android, is a service connected to the American Association of Retired Persons. It has members all over the country, allowing for different kinds of perks where they are.
For older adults who are AARP members, they can take advantage of their digital membership here anytime, anywhere. The app offers news stories as well as events for members of the local chapter. What makes it better are its member-exclusive discounts, events, and benefits.
With the app, older adults can explore hundreds of events across the country. There are also career and skills workshops for those willing to learn a few more things. Members get discount offers that are available in their locale too, so there will be something for everyone.
#2 Age Well Planner
Age Well Planner is another superb online tool from the National Council on Aging. Rather than a simple calculator tool, it offers an array of useful tools that can ease daily living for older adults. Those who are ageing in place would appreciate this system’s expansive utility.
The website will start with a full assessment of the current situation for older adults. From there, the system will offer several personalized resources, tools, and even expert help. One of the tools from their website is Benefits Check Up, a tool that connects older adults with assistance programs that fit their age and lifestyle.
The Age Well Planner also includes a medicare cost estimate tool, as well as education on crucial financial skills. Their offers include guides towards creating lifetime guaranteed income and other health and wellness tools. With this, older adults can learn additional financial skills, which is vital when managing their finances.
#3 Mint
Mint is an all-in-one financial tool that helps users track their spending and handle their budget. It can also help users manage investments, which makes it easier to stay ahead of a ton of financial decisions. Older adults can access it via a mobile app or their official website, so they have a choice on which platform they want.
The system is flexible, allowing users to connect their many financial accounts and track their financial status in one place. What makes Mint more powerful are its additional tools that help figure out the right budget for the user.
Older adults tend to have issues remembering their finances due to complicated steps during payment. With Mint, all the details are in the system. They can also get reminders on the amount of payments they need to do.
#4 Honey
Honey is another great app that can save older adults hundreds of dollars on select offers. Mostly a browser extension, the system is not only designed with seniors in mind but for general use too. Honey has a ton of partner stores online, with most stores that older adults use providing several discounts.
What Honey does is simple: when users want to buy an item from a store, the extension searches for available coupon codes. These offer several discounts, with users reporting as much as 17% discount on average. For an older adult with the right money mindset, this should be useful for extra savings here and there.
#5 Acorns
Acorns is another all-in-one financial management tool that handles all financial details that older adults have. These include control over investments, checking accounts, retirement accounts, and more. The concept of Acorn is quite radical and can be useful for seniors in the long run.
Acorns rounds every purchase to the next dollar, with every spare change invested in portfolios of their choice. Many of these portfolios have experts curating them, which automatically adjusts and helps money grow. The investments range from IRA accounts to even basic savings accounts too.
The system is quite secure, backed by leading investors and investment entities. The app even uses bank-level security with 256-bit encryption, which means everything inside is secure.
#6 PocketGuard
Pocketguard is another budget snapshot app for older adults. Unlike other apps, Pocketguard automatically connects with checking, credit, and savings accounts. It shows how much users have left to use in their daily spending, minus recurring bills and expenses.
The app also subtracts other recurring payments, which will include savings goals from your overall income. Much like with Mint, all financial accounts will connect nicely and perform automatic tracking for expenses or money that needs to be spent soon.
Beyond all its tools, what makes Pocketguard useful is its interface. The system is intuitive and easy to use, with an interface designed to work well even with older adults who don’t have a ton of experience with technology.
#7 Personal Capital
Many old adults have their financial health tied in many of their investments. For them to have a smooth sailing retirement, it’s worth it to spend money on a few tools that will help them keep abreast with their portfolio. Personal Capital will help track investment earnings and losses, putting them in one neat package.
With Personal Capital, older adults can track their net worth and get a general idea of their assets and liabilities. There’s also a retirement planner that helps users chart a path towards financial freedom. The system can help users see the right methods they can use to meet their goals.
The fee analyzer rounds out the available tools, which will help uncover hidden fees in older adults’ portfolios. These include mutual funds, retirement accounts, and investment opportunities, so the app can help prevent overspending. It can even save more money that compounds over time.
Sophia Young
Sophia Young recently quit a non-writing job to finally be able to tell stories and paint the world through her words. She loves talking about fashion and weddings and travel, but she can also easily kick ass with a thousand-word article about the latest marketing and business trends and finance-related topics and can probably even whip up a nice heart-warming article about family life. She can go from fashion guru to your friendly neighborhood cat lady with mean budgeting skills and home tips.
