Personal finance is a huge passion of mine and I’m often offering unsolicited advice to friends, family, and anyone else I can rope into the conversation. I’m surprised that I haven’t written about it yet on Medium though, so it’s time to correct that silly oversight!

Americans don’t do a very good job at saving. In fact, the average American saves just shy of 5 percent of their income! That’s a paltry sum and is nowhere close to what is needed for a comfortable retirement.

Common financial wisdom dictates that you need to save about 15 percent of your income each year in order to have enough for retirement. So if you’re not at that 15 percent level yet, this article is for you! And even if you are there, you might enjoy adding some extra tools to your personal finance tool belt.

I’m going to cover two of my favorite automated savings apps, Digit and Acorns. They’re easy to use and get you into the habit of saving, which your future self will thank you for.

Digit

Digit is my top recommendation for anyone new to the world of saving. Since I started using it one month ago, it has saved $158.35 without me having to lift a finger!

Digit analyzes your spending habits and then withdraws small amounts of money into your Digit savings account. They guarantee to never overdraw on your account, and their entire goal is to take the money without you ever realizing it’s gone.

Overtime those small withdrawals will add up to a large chunk of change, which can then be used for all sorts of things! I’d personally recommend using it to start or augment your emergency fund, super awesome trips around the world, or paying off a chunk of any loans you might have dragging you down.

For example, at the rate Digit is saving for me, I’ll hit $1,900 a year from now! And I haven’t even missed any of that money they’re siphoning away for a rainy day.

If you don’t have any savings, definitely give Digit a try. If you use my referral link, we both get money! So what are you waiting for?

Digit invite: https://digit.co/r/t9X_UBZ7T7?wn

Acorns

Acorns is another app that makes savings dead simple, although this time it’s focused on investments.

Instead of analyzing your spending habits like Digit, Acorns rounds up to the next dollar on every purchase you make and invests the difference.

You should know that Acorns invests your money in the market. That means your investments could lose value. But, they could also dramatically increase in value as well. If Acorns seems scary because it is an investment platform, it’s actually the perfect service to help you get used to investing since you can start with very small amounts of money.

Acorns also allows you to set a recurring transfer into the account on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. I’d highly recommend doing at least a monthly transfer to get into the habit of initiating some savings yourself.

Some may balk at the $1.00 a month service fee that Acorns charges, as it’s well above the industry standard (it becomes 0.25 percent once your account reaches $5,000, which is quite competitive). But for someone just learning to save, $1.00 a month to develop a healthy habit is absolutely worth it.

Also, if you’re a college student, you can use the service for free for four years when you use your .edu email address!

So give it a shot, and if you do decide to sign up, please use my invite link so we can both get a couple bucks!

Acorns invite: https://www.acorns.com/invite/adurx8

So if you aren’t much of a saver, give one or both of these apps a try! Putting money away for later is one of the best habits you can cultivate, and there’s no better time to start than the present!

If you have any questions about Digit or Acorns, savings, or personal finance in general, please reach out to me!