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The Top 5 Apps That Will Negotiate Lower Bills For You

08.24.2022 by Harry //

We all want lower bills. Luckily, there is an app for that. Unfortunately, many people do not have time to figure out how to reduce their monthly bills. However, there are mobile apps out there that can help you negotiate and slash your bills each month.

Discover these popular services that can help you avoid overdraft fees and save you a lot of money on cable, subscriptions, memberships, and insurance.

Cutting expenses can take a lot of time, even with a budget. Whether you are financially secure or living paycheck to paycheck, it is wise to save money by avoiding overpayment.

The good news is that these typically free apps negotiate better rates with creditors and providers, cancel unused subscriptions, automate savings that can score discounted services, and leave more money in the bank.

1. Truebill

One of the top ways to automatically reduce your bills is to try out Truebill. This service lowers bills by canceling unwanted subscriptions and managing your spending. Truebill’s website says this service has saved consumers $100 million.

Here is how it works. When using Truebill, the platform syncs with your bank accounts and credit card to observe your monthly bills. You can also select bills that are no longer in use or subscriptions you do not want anymore. With all your bills in one place, this makes it easy for the system to monitor when your automatic payments come due.

Even better, if you live in an area with regulated energy and experience an internet or cable outage, Truebill can ask the company to apply a credit to your account. The platform will determine the lowest rates available if you live in a deregulated area.  

The platform offers users a big bonus because it allows them to upload their recurrent bills. Then, Truebill will negotiate directly with service providers and creditors to take the hassle off your hands and get you the best deal.

  • That is not all. Truebill gives you various tools to assist with budgeting, such as generating expense reports to track where your money is going and automating savings according to your financial goals.
  • Truebill has a free app for Apple and Android and a Premium service feature. Premium memberships cost around $3 to $12 per month, totaling up to $36 to $48 annually.

You commit to giving Truebill 40% of the savings they get for you. The platform will also provide additional tools, such as subscription canceling, bill negotiation, budgeting features, Smart Savings Plan, and concierge services to streamline your financial life.

2. Trim

Like Truebill, Trim manages your bills to help you save the most money.

For example, Trim cuts the fat from your monthly expenses by checking regular charges for any unwanted services you would prefer to cancel. It can also monitor your credit card and bank account transactions to see where you’re losing money.

Trim dazzles users with its ability to negotiate your phone, internet, and cable bills with your providers, saving you up to a staggering 30% on bills you would pay anyway. Remember that Trim will deduct 33% from whatever amount they save. So if you snag $100 in savings per year on your phone bill, the platform will take $33, while you get to keep $67.

With Trim Simple Savings, Trim helps you meet your savings goals by stashing cash away every week to meet your financial goals.

Not only is Trim’s service free of charge, unless you select the Premium option for $99 per year, but Trim lets you earn a 4% annual reward for the first $2,000 you save with them. You will earn around .001% interest on any additional savings.

After that, you gain .001% interest on anything saved over and above that amount.

3. Billfixers

This free app saves you money by cutting down on multiple expenses, including phone, internet, cable, satellite radio, satellite TV, home security, and small business service bills.

If Billfixers saves you money, they will deduct 50% of the annual savings total that they net you by charging your bank, credit card, or PayPal account for a portion each month.

Since Billfixers is free, it does not come with automated savings or subscription cancellation features. However, the good news is that you won’t have to worry about negotiating your recurrent bills anymore.  

4. Billshark

This popular money management platform helps keep more dollars in your pocket by getting you a better deal on your cell, cable, satellite TV, or home security system bills. According to their website, Billshark has a 90% success rate in getting creditors and service providers to drop their prices.

Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank also recommends, like BillShark, negotiating all your regular bills.

Similar to Truebill, you can upload your bills to the app. That way, Billshark will run your potential savings through their system and then contact your provider to get your bill reduced. They also cancel unwanted subscriptions for a $9 fee.

While the app is free to sign up or create an online account, Billshark takes 40% of any savings from negotiating your bills.

5. Harvest

Harvest helps bring your savings home by protecting you from hefty overdrafts or bank fees. That is because Harvest monitors your overall financial picture and asks for refunds on fees for you. If they save you money, the app keeps 25% and leaves the other 75% in your account.

The platform also helps you review and monitor your regular spending. If there are any unnecessary payments that you want to cancel, Harvest will notify you.

https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/7-simple-ways-to-lower-your-utility-bills-this-summer/

Overall, this tool helps you get refunds and gives you saving and spending tools that can help your hard work of budgeting and saving pay off.

Final Thoughts

These apps make it simple and easy to reduce regular monthly bills. Also, some of the apps offer paid services that give you more options for negotiating.

While you might save even more money negotiating directly with your service providers or credit card companies, these outside tools can automate the job for you.

If you cannot negotiate these money-saving measures on your own or prefer to avoid bill negotiation situations, these apps are a solution to the problem that can help you save hundreds or thousands of dollars on your bills every year.

Image credit: [Grki]

Categories // Money Management, Reviews

The Best Financial Books of 2021

09.16.2021 by Harry //

There are thousands of books out there about how to become better with finances, how to invest, and how to be okay with talking about money.

Listed below are books that will teach you how to go from living tightly with money to retiring debt and being worry-free. There are many books out there for those wanting to learn about finances!

Retire Before Mom and Dad: The Simple Numbers Behind a Lifetime of Financial Freedom by Rob Berger

Retire Before Mom and Dad is a book that teaches you how to improve your financial future by using psychology, finance, and self-help concepts. This is a great book for those that are just beginning to get into the world of personal finance or those that want to learn more!

Rob Berger is a litigation attorney and the founder of popular personal finance and investing website.

Rob’s goal is to help people achieve financial freedom by helping them live a life free of financial stress and worry by teaching them about wealth and living financially free. 

In Retire Before Mom and Dad, Rob writes about the difference between a Roth 401K and a Traditional 401K, the ins and outs of investing, how to retire debt-free, and how to successfully and carefully analyze long-term decisions.

His simple approach and clear writing will teach you how to become financially wise and efficient, as well as how to invest and self-help. This is a great book for those just getting started in the financial world, or those wanting to learn more!

When She Makes More by Farnoosh Torabi

In When She Makes More, Farnoosh Torabi teaches the reader how to deal with income imbalances in relationships, and how to help women manage these circumstances that can have negative impacts. 

Today, there are more women than ever working as the household’s top earners. However, they face higher risks of burning out, depressions, infidelity, and even divorce. Farnoosh uses her real-life experiences to connect the reader on a personal level.

Sold as a physical book or an audiobook, Farnoosh Torabi outlines rules to help her readers learn how to address financial imbalances that can affect relationships negatively and how to become okay with talking about these problems.

In When She Makes More, readers will learn how to deal with changes in dating and marriage in society, how to know when to let your significant other lead, and how to allow your significant other to become a stay-at-home parent without making their life too easy. 

Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together by Erin Lowry

Written for Millennials, Broke Millennial gives great insights on how to save money, handle student loan debt, negotiate a pay raise, and how to ‘adult’.

Erin gives humor and empathy a fun twist in Broke Millennials!

No one likes to think about money, especially when money is tight. In Broke Millennial, the reader will learn how to be okay with talking out loud about money and how to deal with it.

Described as refreshing and conversational, Erin relates to her audience in a way that will guide them to a path of financial wellness! 

Written for Millennials, Erin doesn’t use boring language to talk about investing and credit card debt, but rather uses analogies to relate those topics to Tinder, dating, and marriage.

Erin even talks about how to manage student loans and what to do when your dining out with friends and can’t afford to split the bill.

Written by a millennial for a millennial, this is a must-read!

How I Invest My Money by Joshua Brown and Brian Portnoy

In How I Invest My Money, you will learn about 25 experts and how they invest, spend, save, and give their own money.

Joshua Brown and Brian Portnoy will teach you there is no right or wrong way to use your money!

Joshua and Brian talked to 25 different financial experts, including financial advisors, portfolio managers, and venture capitalists, and have turned their stories into essays about their lives, families, struggles, and aspirations.

https://www.harriman-house.com/Howinvestmoney

How I Invest My Money describes how there is no right or wrong way to handle your money, but rather use these stories to teach the reader how to figure out what works best for them. 

You will read about different perspectives on bonds, stocks, funds, charity, and other means of achieving the life you have always dreamed of. How I Invest My Money will also teach your how to create and keep a healthy relationship with money and your values. 

Spend Well, Live Rich by Michelle Singletary

In Spend Well, Live Rich, Michelle Singletary teaches the reader how to support a family while living on a budget.

Michelle also teaches the reader that it’s okay to not feel bad about not spending. 

Michelle Singletary was raised by Big Mama, her grandmother who made $13,000 a year. Big Mama was the one who taught Michelle the “7 Money Mantras for a Richer Life.”

These mantras include “If it’s on your a$$, it’s not an asset,” “Sweat the small stuff,” Keep it simple,” and “Priorities lead to prosperity.” 

How to Analyze Your Financial Upbringing
Check out our article on analyzing your own financial upbringing.

In Spend Will, Live Rich, Michelle teaches the reader how to teach children the value of money, how to become comfortable talking about money in relationships, how to save money as a household, and how to look for and get the best loans for your situation. 

Summary

There are many resources to help you become comfortable with finances.

By becoming comfortable with your finances, you can have conversations about money in your relationships, learn how to save money as a household, and become okay with saying no. Start your journey to financial freedom today!

Categories // Earn Money, Education, Featured, Investing, Money Management, Reviews, Tips

Honest Review of Titan Invest | Pros and Cons

09.15.2021 by Harry //

With so many new investment options popping up, it comes as no surprise that you’re interested in learning more about auto investing services such as Titan Invest.

After reviewing the services they offer and researching their investment strategies, we’ve got the key details about Titan Invest that you’ll need to make an informed decision about investing with their company.

Titan Invest is an auto investing company, which means that you set parameters for the types of portfolios you’re interested in as investments.

Titan Invest Review: Pros, Cons, and What We Like

Then, the company makes the specific investment decisions for you. Typically, auto-investing companies have a much lower cost associated with an initial investment, and Titan Invest is no exception. 

You can begin investing with Titan Invest for as little as $100.

Are Titan Invest’s Services Legitimate?

The short answer is yes. Titan Invest does offer legitimate services. That said, however, their strategies and fee structure may not be for everyone. 

Because of the nature of the company’s services, many users do not understand how the investing process works.

What Are the Pros of Investing with Titan Invest?

There are many pros to using Titan Invest to help you choose your investment portfolio. Some of the best benefits that Titan Invest offers include but are not limited to the following:

  • Investors can choose the risk level where they are most comfortable—conservative, moderate, or aggressive
  • Choosing a portfolio type is simple with Titan Invest because they offer a simplified menu of just three portfolio profiles
  • Getting started is incredibly affordable at just $100
  • The company employees their own professional team of investment researchers that do in-depth research on all stock options before they are added to portfolios
  • Titan Invest’s fees are relatively low 
  • They offer an easy-to-use phone app for Android and Apple users
  • Once you set up your investment preferences, you don’t have to do anything else, and you can let Titan Invest complete all of the research and adjustments for you

What Are the Cons of Investing with Titan Invest?

Every auto investment company has its downside as well, no matter how many benefits they offer. Here are some of the most important cons of choosing Titan Invest-

  • While their fees are relatively low, their rates are higher than similar companies
  • Investors have no access to financial advisors
  • Titan Invest does not offer any assistance with tax strategies to increase your earnings
  • There is no customer support phone line
  • You are trusting people you’ve never met to handle your money for you

What Strategies Does Titan Invest Use to Make You Money?

Titan Invest uses three simple portfolio profiles to make things as easy as possible for new investors.

Titan Flagship

This is the default option for new investors signing on with Titan Invest. It is comprised of 20 stocks with large caps.

Titan Offshore

This is a new portfolio type just released in the spring of 2021. It is comprised of between 15-25 international companies stock for those interested in markets outside of the US.

Titan Opportunities

This final portfolio option is focused on growth over time, like the default option. Unlike the default, however, it is comprised of 20 stocks with low to mid-caps. 

These three portfolio profiles offer investors with little to no experience in the market the opportunity to get their feet wet.

So if you aren’t confident about making decisions about stock options just yet, but you are interested in dabbling in the market to see what it’s all about, Titan Invest is a reasonably good choice to start with. 

With their incredibly low minimum investment amount of just $100, you have little to lose if it turns out that this type of investment isn’t for you.

How Does Titan Invest Compare to Other Auto Investors?

There are several companies in close competition with Titan Invest that offer similar services.

Here, we’ll compare Titan Invest with two other auto-investing companies so that you can get a better idea of how Titan Invest stacks up against other options available to you.

Identifying a company that you feel like you can trust with your financial livelihood is one of the most important financial decisions you’ll ever make.

So, take your time and read through the details of how the following companies compare to one another before you take the dive and start investing in stock portfolios.

Fee Comparisons

Titan Invest’s two main competitors are Betterment and SoFi.

  • Betterment offers a set rate of 0.25%
  • SoFi offers a default account option with a 100% free-to-use robo-investor program

With a 1% rate for accounts with a $10,000 or more balance, Titan Invest comes in just behind Betterment in terms of rates.

Account Minimums Comparisons

Titan Invest offers a very reasonable, low investment minimum of $100. However, their two main competitors have them beat here as well.

Both SoFi and Betterment offer account minimums of $0, meaning you can begin investing with any amount you wish, from a dollar up. 

Why Should You Choose Titan Invest Over These Competitors?

While Titan Invest’s two main competitors do have an edge in the categories listed above, the benefits that Betterment and SoFi offer essentially stop there.

Both Betterment and SoFi have reputations for lousy service with their free minimum account options. Their services primarily focus on their paid-for investment opportunities, which have minimums of $100,000.

So, now that you know a little more about these popular auto investing companies, you can easily see that the services offered are very similar.

The details of how your money is handled and the fee structure are all reasonable but tailored to attract clients with different preferences.

Image credit:[KAROLINA GRABOWSKA]

Categories // Investing, Reviews

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