What Are Some Other Ways to Save Besides digit?

What Are Some Other Ways to Save Besides digit?

What Are Some Other Ways to Save Besides digit? | brokeGIRLrich

Before I even saw my email the other day with digit’s announcement that they plan to start charging monthly, 3 different friends texted me to tell me about it.

I have been hardcore on the digit bandwagon. A few of you have probably read my digit supporting posts through the years:

I even rave about digit in real life when hanging out with friends. The second they mention wishing they could save more, I start harping on how they should download digit.

Personally, I’ve saved about $2,500 using digit without even realizing it was happening.

This does make me wonder if $2.99 a month is worth it. For $36 a year, I can set aside nearly $1,000 a year without even trying.

So, honestly, it might be. But for now, I’m planning to close my account and see if I can manage to set aside a little bit here and there on my own as well as digit does or find an alternative app that does the same thing.

One of the things I really loved about digit as a freelancer was that it worked with my variable income. I don’t feel comfortable auto-drafting $20/week out of my checking account because some months I have steady income coming in and I could take out $40-50 a week and not even really notice it and other times I go 2 months without a paycheck and $20 a week would really stress me out.

For two years, digit accurately navigated my variable income stream and really maximized the amounts it would pull out so that they never really seemed noticeable.

However, the personal finance blogger in me balks at the idea of paying to save. This seems like something I should be able to manage on my own – and don’t get me wrong, I do. If you follow my monthly net worth updates, my list of goals on the bottom always includes several savings goals each year. Digit helped me reach them sooner and/or invest even more each year.

Fortunately, there are a couple of other ways to save if paying $2.99/month for digit is unappealing to you too.

You could go entirely old school and check out one of these awesome savings plans (you could also set up autodrafts out of your checking account to correspond with the first one):

All of these are going to require more effort than some magic app that just trolls your purchases and knows how much you can afford to set aside this week.

But you know what? Putting a little more effort into setting up your savings when you’re first learning how isn’t such a bad thing. Four years into my personal finance journey and I’m not as hands-on, on-top-of everything like I was at first, but it was the learning process I went through at the beginning that allows me to take a step back now and see that things are running smoothly and to know right where to look when things aren’t.

On the flip side of that though, some of digit’s miracle juice was in how easy it makes savings – and, honestly, if you are setting aside some serious chunks of change using it, that miracle juice might still be worth $2.99/month. If you’re severely cash strapped and that miracle juice is putting aside $10-15 a month for you, $2.99 isn’t worth it.

Now I present to you, some other automated options.

**I also offer these in a factual way, not in a THIS IS AWESOME way, because the digit news is new to me too and I’ve only just now started to use these apps myself. These are my hopefully these are awesome options and I have totally risked linking my own bank account to a few of them.**

Dobot

Someday you'll be mine, tiny home, someday.

Someday you’ll be mine, tiny home, someday.

I gotta say, my initial impressions are strong. You can set multiple goals. It’s got a few more steps to it than digit, but it allows you to allocate the savings to multiple goals.

Similar to digit, it pulls small amounts out of your bank account and holds them in your Dobot central account. You can then go in and allocate those savings to different goals (right now I’m just using it to pad my Down Payment savings goals).

It also sends you updates and messages via text like digit.

If you’re interested in giving it a try, you can use the referral code QXIHK to get $5 when you sign up (full disclosure, I get a $5 kickback too) or sign up for Dobot through this link.

That being said, a reminder that I’ve only just started to use the app, so I’ll update it a few weeks to let you all know how it’s going.

Qapital

 

Qapital is a little different, but also has some really cool features that automate savings for you.

Qapital works on the IFTTT basis, which mean If This Then That. What that means to you is that you set up a savings system that works if you do this, then that will happen.

So, let’s say you pick the round up scheme. If you spend $1.75 on a pack of gum, then $.25 will move into your savings from checking. Each purchase rounds up to the nearest dollar and the difference is moved from your checking to savings account.

Another cool perk to Qapital is that you can share goals, so let’s say you’re in a long distance relationship and the two agree to save 5% of each paycheck so you can visit each other. You can both share this goal through Qapital and track it’s progress.

I do have to point out that while I think Qapital has a pretty cool set up, I had a nightmare of a time getting my sign up to go through and have experienced regular connectivity issues. This could totally just be me – but it’s just an FYI for all of you.

Simple

Simple is actually an entire bank account, but if you’re looking for an online bank that’s got some awesome bells and whistles, Simple could be a good choice for you.

Most notable, considering the topic of this post, is that Simple has a goal setting section in its app and it does the same thing that digit did. It reviews your bank account balance, upcoming bills, income, etc. and siphons out small amounts to help you reach that goal.

Keep in mind though that Simple is an online bank and you’ll need to sign up for a bank account with them to use this function. 

Bank of America

If you’re already a Bank of America customer, you can reap some savings rewards by signing up for their Keep the Change program, which rounds up all your purchases to the nearest dollar and moves the change into your savings account.

If you’re not a Bank of America customer, you’d need to sign up for a checking or savings account with them.

Do you use digit? Are you planning to stick with it for $2.99/month? Do you use any of the apps above?

13 thoughts on “What Are Some Other Ways to Save Besides digit?

    • I think setting up automated transfers is a great idea for people who know what their paycheck will be every week or every other week and can plan accordingly! It’s probably the easiest method of all these too!

  1. Yeah, it seems like those digit fees are going to disrupt things for a lot of the PF world. I get that companies need revenue, but I wonder how many subscribers (and how much word of mouth) they are going to lose over the fees.

    Great list of alternatives, though. And I think the “save the change” concept could work for just about anyone, even if you don’t automate.
    Emily @ JohnJaneDoe recently posted…Troy’s Investing Story: Lessons from a Teenaged InvestorMy Profile

  2. Hey, thanks for including my saving chart! I agree with you. There are certain circumstances where the fee would be worth it. But with a steady paycheck and multiple methods for saving in place, I won’t be paying the extra fee. I hadn’t thought about people with irregular pay, but freelancers might find the fee worth it, too. As well as people just starting out that don’t have the motivation to save in place just yet.
    Jamie @ Medium Sized Family recently posted…5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week 73My Profile

  3. I’m torn by this … I save about $300-$400 a month and either use all of it towards debt pay down or split 50% to an interest earning account and 50% to debt pay down. I’ve been playing with the idea of having $10.37 transferred to savings on one day and $22.05 on another day and so on to see if I can recreate it, so to speak. If they were offering interest maybe I’d say absolutely stay with it but right now I’m like, I don’t know …
    Jan recently posted…Friday Night Pizza!My Profile

    • Honestly, if I were you, I’d probably continue using it – $3/month to save $297-397, if you don’t have to think about it, is possibly worth it. Especially since you use it for such a specific goal.

      But it does totally feel like a betrayal from an old friend or something. Ugh.

  4. Loved Digit, been with them for several years & recently stared using their goal options, but I already have marked in my reminders to close my accounts before the fee starts. I had found the Dobot app and planned to try it since I liked Digit so well, but the others you list are new to me and I plan to look into the now too. I also like Acorn and have used it for a few months now. I’m not as bothered by fees for this app, since it seems as though they do more than just pull money from my account.

      • I’ll have to look more closely at it. Are there other apps similar to Acorn. I have other investment accts for retirement, but was interested in the Acorn app as an investment acct, not for retirement, that wouldn’t require me to have a lot money up front or a set contribution.

  5. I love Digit, and have enough money saved that the fee hasn’t really bothered me, but have you checked out Cleo? It’s a chatbot similar to Digit, except through Facebook Messenger. It automates savings just like Digit, though weekly and less “automagically.” It still uses algorithms based on your spending to decide how much to stash away in its savings account, but it checks with you first if it’s “okay” to do so, as opposed to just doing it for you (which may be better for some, I prefer the automation of Digit but it’s similar enough that it may not bother me, actually). It also can set a budget for you and tracks your spending by category and “bills.” It’s definitely more “complete” than Digit and can effectively replace your banking app! Super interesting. I just signed up with it so the jury is still out but it’s FREE so if it works out I may just transfer my savings from Digit to Cleo!!

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