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Monday Night Finance- Volume 38

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Monday, 02 November 2020 / Published in Monday Night Finance

Monday Night Finance- Volume 38

Where Is Your Financial Journey Taking You?

Have you thought about what your retirement looks like? Do you want to move into a retirement community with chair yoga and water aerobics? Or do you envision yourself forging an independent existence on a homestead far from civilization. Maybe you haven’t thought about it at all? If you want your retirement to turn out like your daydreams, you need to develop a plan for how to get there. Without a plan, it’s too easy to let inertia take you down your current path. You may find out that if you don’t adjust your savings, your only retirement option is moving in with your children.

Think about your life as a 65 or 70 year old. Think about what kind of house or rental you’ll want to live in, the type of community you’ll want to be a part of, and maybe do some research. ~Beyond Pennies

In this article, Shelley from Beyond Pennies explains how to create a financial plan for a successful retirement. The first step is to calculate how much money you will need in retirement. Tracking expenses, with an app, like CountAbout, is a great way to get a handle on how much you spend in a month. While some of your expenses (i.e. food) won’t change in retirement, you may need to make estimates of how your other expenses will change. Will you want to travel more? What will you do for health insurance. Get as granular as you can during this step. After you know how much money you need on a monthly or yearly basis, then you’ll need to calculate how much money you’ll need to have saved to be able to sustain this spending. Shelley walks you through these calculations. Finally, you’ll need a plan on how to amass that wealth and the best ways to save and invest that money.

How Do Credit Cards Work? Credit Cards 101

If you’ve been to a store lately, you’ve probably noticed that hardly anyone pays in cash anymore. People typically pull a little piece of plastic out of their wallet, put it in a machine and walk away. (I guess now you can even hold your phone or watch up to the payment terminals to check out). While you’ve probably seen people using credit cards all of the time, do you really understand how they work? Credit cards are designed to make money for banks. So to minimize the money they make from their cards and maximize your savings, you need to understand exactly how credit cards work.

So how do credit cards work? We will begin first with what a credit card is. We will explore how this piece of plastic work. Then, we will address the difference between credit cards and debit cards. Lastly, we will delve into several types of credit cards and how they work differently. ~Growth Rapidly

In this article by Growth Rapidly, you can learn everything you wanted to know and more about credit cards. The article first breaks down the difference between credit and debit cards. They are both little pieces of plastic that you can use to pay for things but they work completely differently. If you’re not sure which one you should be using, check out the article. The article then breaks down the difference between different types of credit cards. For instance, a “secured credit card” can help you build your credit if you have little credit or bad credit. Finally, the article breaks down various types of fees that the credit cards charge and how to avoid paying them.

Your Guide to a Frugal, Socially-Distanced Vacation that Actually Feels like Vacation

In the US, the coronavirus has impacted our daily lives since March. That’s about 6 months by my calculations, although some days I can’t remember a time before coronavirus (new BC?). Vacations are incredibly important for mental health. It’s good to leave work and home obligations behind and place yourself in new surroundings. However, jumping on an airplane in the middle of a pandemic doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. Furthermore, even if you could go some place cool, most of the attractions would probably be closed anyway. What if you need a getaway? How can you vacation without potentially harming yourself or others?

In June my friend and I quarantined for two weeks before taking a long weekend trip up to New Hampshire. We rented a car and we ran around Concord, hiked, and hung out with horses for $115/day total. ~We Want Guac

In this post, Darcy of We Want Guac shares her tips for vacationing during the pandemic. Darcy went on two trips this summer, both of them to rural New Hampshire. Choosing a rural location is beneficial as there will be less people and thus less potential to contract the virus. Even if you just plan on hanging out in your AirBnB or hotel for large chunks of a time, the change in scenery will help you feel refreshed. While heading to museums or crowded restaurants might not be on your agenda, you can still find plenty of things to do. Darcy went hiking and did some agrotourism at a horse farm. And you might just find that this slower paced, rural vacation is good for your budget too. Darcy spent just over $100 per day on her trips.

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What you can read next

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Reviews

Barbara Ann Feeney
16-05-2016

I switched from pencil and paper on grid accounting paper, then to a Google spreadsheet, then to CountAbout. Really happy with how this app makes it easy to track how I doing, staying (or not) on budget.

 
‏@davepurcell
15-11-2016

I rarely tweet endorsements, but -- after years of using/hating Quicken, Countabout is awesome for tracking home budget/finances. Thx!

 
David M.
16-07-2016

CountAbout is as easy to use on my mobile as it is on the desktop and it provides me with the same or better information than Quicken.

 
Nate E.
05-02-2016

Fantastic! I finally found a great replacement for Quicken! CountAbout is entirely cloud-based, so you can access it from whatever OS you happen to be using. And the mobile app isn't hamstrung like Quicken's. No looking back for me, this is a great app and a great service!

 
My Bank Tracker
24-11-2016

...you won’t be bombarded with ads when you log in. Mint, for example, uses targeted ads to help keep the platform free. All in all, CountAbout could be a good choice for Quicken and Mint users who want to start fresh with their finances without losing their past transaction history.

 
Mark Goldfarb
20-01-2017

I love the software – nice and clean – the categories was a must have that your competitors are lacking.

 
Widgets to Compare Monthly Spending in Active Categories
17-02-2017

Huzzah! I can add widgets now and already made one to compare my monthly spending in my active categories to my budget. Excellent. That tool is one of my favorite features in a personal finance product.

 
Shirley Hou
CountAbout was Perfect
15-03-2017

I was looking for finance software to use as treasurer of the parent-teacher association at my child's school. CountAbout was perfect - it had all the register features and download capabilities that I was familiar with from desktop Quicken, but it has the advantage of being in the cloud so I can use it from any computer.

 
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Steve P.
22-09-2017

My search for a cloud-based alternative to Quicken is over! Very easy to transfer my Quicken data and customize my account. Thank you CountAbout!

 
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Jim Powell
17-03-2018

Vastly superior to the execrable Quicken, which caused me to have to choose a new bank password every time I used it. CA is fast, simple, and all you need unless you have a complicated investment portfolio. Its almost fun!

 
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Jeffrey Wilk
02-04-2018

Great product and great customer service. Thanks!

 
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Nancy
10-08-2018

I love CountAbout! I have hated Quicken for years, but didn't have an alternative. Now I do! I love that the cost is only $9.99 per year for the basic service (which is all I need). You can upgrade for more features, if you need them. But for personal use, the basic plan is just fine. When I found CountAbout, I gleefully gave Quicken the boot and I haven't looked back or missed it at all. Bye bye Quicken!!!

 
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Dana Linder
29-03-2019

This is an incredibly well thought out program.

It imports QIF files perfectly. I tried a number that failed miserably.

It has a function that emails reminders about scheduled transactions. That is an extremely useful function that I hadn't seen anywhere.

Tech support is second to none. All my questions were answered in detail within hours (sometimes minutes).

The companion phone app is very simple. You can browse, search, enter transactions and see scheduled transaction. That's really all you need on the phone.

It's one failing for me is that I have a transaction that I have a transaction that occurs on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, and it's not possible to set that up. It's easy enough for me to change the date of next transaction when I enter the current one.

I am extremely impressed with the company. The trial is free for 15 days. You have nothing to lose.

 
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Keith Hurst
22-05-2020

I've been trying to ditch Quicken for years, finally a worthy replacement, but it's so much more, so clean and intuitively designed. I was really surprised and delighted to find a full featured iphone app that meets all my needs.

 
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Amanda Sherlock
25-08-2020

I started using Quicken in 1987, before I had my own PC. I continued using it for years, frustrated by the frequent breaks in the synchronization. Finally I took the leap and used Mint for a year or two. Free software is worth as much as I pay for. Finally, in 2019 I found Countabout. The synchronization is great and I am happy to have a product that's easy to use and reliable. The customer support is excellent and very responsive to my questions.
There aren't as many bells and whistles as Quicken but the simplicity outweighs the complications.

 

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CountAbout® is an easy-to-use online personal finance application that imports data from Quicken and Mint and automatically downloads data from banking, credit card, and retirement accounts. With no software to install, we’re anywhere you have an Internet connection. Our platform is stable, secure, and totally private. Our dedicated customer service team is friendly, knowledgeable, and quick to respond.

Never lose track of your finances, or the big picture, with CountAbout. Sign up for a free 15-day trial today.

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