Buzz
If you’re looking to save money through a finance app, this advice from commenter Drew-Ferg11 is highly effective:
Qapital doesn’t invest in stocks like Acorns does (so it’s not directly comparable if you're focused on stock market returns), but it rounds up purchases and sets the extra aside. It also lets you connect to IFTTT and other options to make saving more engaging. For example, I save a dollar every time Trump tweets... as you can imagine, the savings quickly accumulate.
Qapital stands out as a savings app due to its gamified experience. You set a goal, and then the app provides several saving methods, such as saving a portion of each paycheck or saving each time you make a purchase you're trying to avoid.
As Drew-Ferg11 mentioned, you can also integrate Qapital with IFTTT. This platform allows users to create conditional actions (“if this happens, then that happens”), connecting various Internet-enabled services and devices. There are numerous pre-set rules for Qapital, such as saving when the temperature hits 75 degrees, every time you post on Instagram, when you add a song to a Spotify playlist, or when the International Space Station passes overhead. You can even create custom rules of your own.
IFTTT also offers various finance-related applets to explore. For instance, you can set up notifications to receive an email when a specific stock rises by 5%, or get a push notification with the daily Bitcoin price.
In the Qapital app, I’ve created a payday rule and a guilty pleasure rule for when I shop at Madewell (I just can’t resist a good button-up). There are endless programs and devices you can connect to IFTTT—if you have any creative ideas, share them in the comments.
