I often get asked what credit cards I recommend, or budgeting software, or how I invest.
So, I decided to put it all in one place for your convenience and give you a peek inside my wallet as well!
Listed from left to right:
- My Saddleback wallet – love that thing
- A well-worn photo of the love of my life
- My TN driver’s license
- The debit card that I never use (only as a backup)
- Chase Sapphire Preferred (details below)
- Medi-Share insurance card (details below)
- Chase Ink Business Preferred (details below)
How I save up to 20% on online purchases
This is one of my secret weapons. It is so simple and painless a 5-year old can do it and if you ever buy anything, you will save money.
Watch the quick video below for details…
The only 2 credit cards we use
As of early 2018, we have received 161 hotel nights and 97 flights for FREE using credit card points and as a result, I am a big proponent of rewards cards.
Even though I have opened probably 25+ credit cards in the last 10 years, these are the best that I have found. And that is why they are the only 2 in my wallet.
1. Chase Sapphire Preferred
Running a financial blog I hang out with a lot of other nerds who love stuff like this, and almost every one I know uses this card.
Cardratings has them listed as their top pick for travel rewards as well.
I have used this card as my primary card for 6 years now.
Why I love it?
- It rewards you with Ultimate Rewards points (which are just the best value and options that I know of).
- 50,000 bonus points (aka $625 in travel) for signing up at the time of this writing
- Earn 2 points per $1 spent on dining and travel, and 1 point per $1 on everything else
- You get a 25% bonus on point redemption if you use Ultimate Rewards portal.
All that to say, if you only want one card that pays fantastic rewards, this is the one I would recommend.
(Find out more details about the Chase Sapphire Preferred here )
UPDATE: After 5+ years of using this beloved card, I have been lured away by this one…
Find out more about the Chase Freedom Unlimited here.
2. Chase Ink Business Preferred
I wrote about how this is the only card I use for my business here, so I won’t go into all the details again.
But, this card is insane in that it pays 3x points on online advertising.
So if you have a business where you buy online ads, definitely get this one. If not, it is still a really good business card, but the Chase Business Unlimited would probably be a better bet.
(Learn more about the Chase Ink Business Preferred here)
The Financial Tracking tools we use
3. Personal Capital
This is by far my favorite way to track investments and easily track net worth. These guys have been around a long time and have built such a great tool to:
- See a snapshot of your finances in one place
- Track your net worth
- See the fees you are paying in your 401k and other retirement accounts
- See where all your money is going each month
And it’s 100% free.
You can read our review here or watch the video below for more info!
If you want to get a big picture snapshot of your financial picture (without the Quicken nightmare), then it is worth checking out.
The Banks we use
4. Capital One 360
In my opinion, this is the best all-around online bank out there. I have been with them for over 10 years and like mentioned above, we devised a method of budgeting with them that we loved.
Why I love them and still use them:
- Always in the top 1% best Savings, MMKT, and CD rates out there.
- No minimums and no fees.
- They offer debit cards and checks.
- Free and easy to transfer money to and from other banks.
If you decide to try them out click here to get a $20 bonus for signing up.
5. A local bank
Even though we probably could get by using Capital One 360 for all our banking needs, it is still nice to have a local branch every once in a while. So this satisfies our brick-and-mortar banking needs.
The Budgeting method we use
After testing out pretty much every budgeting app and software out there and still found that we were HATING budgeting, we decided there had to be a better way.
And we found that there is. And it’s called Real Money Budgeting.
You’re welcome.
The Insurance we use
6. Health Insurance
We have used Medi-Share as our health insurance alternative for the last 9 years. They have been great to work with and I highly recommend them if you are a Christian and adhere to a Biblical lifestyle.
You can check read our Medi-Share review here or check out this video for more info as well:
7. Life insurance
Like 98% of people we are best suited with term life insurance. It is the simplest to understand, the cheapest, and the easiest to get started.
I don’t have an affection for any particular life insurance company, but I do really like Policy Genius for getting quotes and comparing rates. Many of the comparison tools out there are obnoxious and I have liked using this one.
8. Auto Insurance
I don’t have a company that I particularly love, but definitely shop around – even when you think you have a good rate. I knocked my annual bill down by $530 in on year, just by checking rates.
The Investing tools we use
We have investments in a lot of different areas and there really are a lot of great options for new investors these days. These are what I use…
9. Acorns
Simply put, the easiest way to start investing with no money. They just round up all the purchases you make to the next dollar and invest the difference.
So, say you go to the grocery store and spend $16.25, they will round up to $17.00 and take the 75 cents and invest it. If you do that over and over, it quickly adds up to some big savings.
By far, the easiest set-it-and-forget-it way to get started investing. Here is how it works:
You can learn more about them here.
10. Fundrise
This is the easiest way to invest in real estate that I have found.
We actually sold our rental property shortly after realizing that our Fundrise returns (which are 100% passive income) beat our returns on our rental property.
Read about it here:
Fundrise Review 2019: Fundrise vs. My Rental Property
11. M1 Investing
This is where I go to purchase stocks. The reason I love them is that they allow you to buy fractional shares.
So if the stock price is at $200/share, but you only have $50 to invest, you can buy 1/4 of a share.
Not many online brokers do this.
They work best when you plan on investing a regular amount each month, which is the wise thing to do anyway.
And here is how to invest $100 using it…
12. Retirement Estimator
I mentioned Personal Capital up above for financial tracking, but they also have a free tool built in to help me see if I am on track for my retirement goals.
It is really helpful to see how increasing your savings amount by $50 a month can impact your retirement nest egg.
13. Vanguard
In an industry wrought with fees and middlemen trying to get a cut, Vanguard is really something unique and special with the index funds and ETFs they offer.
Warren Buffett just recently won a 10-year bet that the S&P Index Fund (which Vanguard offers) would beat out a collection of hedge funds (with outrageous management fees) and not only was he right, but it won by more than 3x!
You can invest in these Vanguard funds at CapitalOne Investing.
14. Inspire Funds
I love these guys because they took the benefits of the ETF model and applied a Biblically Responsible filter to it. So few Christians actually think about the companies they are investing in (and thus financially endorsing) and these funds do the work for you. They filter out all the companies that are ones that you probably wouldn’t want to support and then create a simple ETF to invest in with the rest.
You can also invest in these ETFs at CapitalOne Investing.
Credit Reporting Tools
Admittedly I don’t use these much anymore since we paid off our debt, and since we don’t plan on borrowing ever again, I don’t really care what my credit score is. I generally suggest checking them annually just to make sure there aren’t errors on there harming you.
These are the tools I used in the past and are the best (FREE) options I know of:
15. Credit Karma
These guys will do about everything and for FREE:
- Check your credit reports (Transunion and Equifax)
- Check your credit score
- Monitor your credit report for you
What I love about them is that they monitor your credit report for you, just in case you forget to check it each year.
16. Annual Credit Report
As you probably know, there are 3 different credit reports. Credit Karma only checks 2 of them, unfortunately. So you can use this site to get the other one (Experian).
I’ll continue to update this post as I think of other tools that we use and love.
Got any great ones you recommend?
Let me know down in the comments!
Have you ever looked into Stash? I would be interested in your opinion!
Stacie, i haven’t used them, but i have some friends who do. They are similar to Acorns in that they make it really simple to start investing with basically no money. I haven’t used them, but that’s about all i know about them.
Sorry… I forgot to ask also… why does it matter if you are a “Christian and adhere to a Biblical lifestyle” in choosing Medi-share? I believe I do… but am not sure what role that plays in choosing my health insurance.
Thanks!
Medishare is for Christians only (i would check out our review for more info) but basically the gist is that by only having members who live by a “Biblical Lifestyle” they don’t have to pay for things like abortions, drunk driving accidents, etc and as such all the members pay a whole lot less than traditional health insurance.
Great information! Thank you again!
I use Excel for tracking my finances.
I use a simple Excel spreadsheet. It is the T Bookkeeping system. It is simple and I have a double check system I set up to make sure all balances. I establish a spreadsheet for each month then I have established a YTD Spreadsheet for the end of of the year totals. The far left of my spreadsheet is a check register. Date, Ck# or Deposit or EFT. Then the description, A column to indicate if the transaction has cleared the bank. The amount of the Deposit in a column of Debit and the checks or credits in a Credit column. Then the balance column. After that is the General Ledger column indicating where the funds are going for the month. At the bottom of the spreadsheet is totals for each column and below that is the budgeted amount with a calculation below that to show if I am over or under the budgeted amount.
We have loved Medi-Share. They have walked beside us so much through two pregnancies and now a cancer treatment. Thankful for this company and finding your site!
Thanks for your recommendations. I’m a sometimes reader of your blog (which is fantastic by the way!) from Australia and wondered how these products and services stack up for someone outside of the US.
I wish I knew Brad! Unfortunately, I just don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with where the services are and aren’t available. I would just suggest reaching out to any that interest you and Google for alternatives if they aren’t available.
Hi Brad, I live in Australia as well and have used a few different options for budgeting (haven’t looked into anything else). So far, YNAB beats everyone by a long shot!
What YNAB. features have you found to be the most helpful to justify the annual cost compared to free software like Mint?
I used to use Mint and I did like it, but unless they have changed it isn’t really a zero-based budgeting tool. And if it isn’t zero-based, then it isn’t super valuable as a budgeting tool IMO. Mint does a great job of allowing you to see where your money went, but I prefer Personal Capital for that as they do that and a lot more.
Hi….I am from India…
Can you tell me what app is good for Indian currency..
Not sure unfortunately!
Bob,
Following Sound Mind Investing and their daily blog for the past 10 years has been he single most transforming thing for me in the way of money. They have renewed my mind and exposed the lies of the secular world to me. Their handbook is filled with priceless wisdom. The best part about the handbook is that it’s so easy to understand. A subscription to this is well worth the wisdom gained.
Neal Hansel
Springfield, MO
Thank you for your prompt answers!! I use Quicken for tracking personal, Quickbooks for tracking our business and Excel for creating a budget.
I’ve been considering travel-reward credit cards, but I’m shy of the $100/yr fee. You obviously think it is worth it, but did you have the same struggle? How much do you put on the card each year?
Eric, we spend as much as possible on it each month and for all the rewards we get the $100 annual fee is an afterthought. But if that is an issue, many Chase cards waive the fee for the first year, and I believe some just don’t have an annual fee at all.
Jenifer, I did actually years ago – but I can’t find the article unfortunately. Bottom line, generally speaking, programs like this can offer benefit, but there are some hassles involved – I don’t recall exactly, but I think you need a good amount of cash in the system to make it work. And I think I recall that unless you had at least $5-$10k available to put in the system there wasn’t a lot of benefit. But I am not 100% on the details because it has been a while. Anyway wish I could be more help, but that’s about all I got right now!
I recommend Stockpile. They will let you buy fractional shares of different stocks as well. Great for the beginning investor.
I really wanted to like YNAB. I heard so many people recommend it. But I too found it to have a learning curve. I just couldn’t get my head around how to even begin using it. I think I need Budgeting for Dummies 🙂
Jennifer, I agree. It is still too difficult in my opinion. I use it and generally recommend it because it is the best tool that I have found, but I agree with you on it.
Bob with my bank everytime i swipe my card they take $1.00 out of my checking and place it into my savings, Is this similar to Acorn? The concept is great I now have money in my savings without me doing anything except swipe my card. ..but my own issue with it is that I transfer when I dont have enough money in my savings.! What are your thoughts and wisdom on the Acorn vs my bank $1,00 swipes? Should I use Acorn as well as my banks swipe? Are they different?
Similar concept, the only difference is that Acorns is investing all that money so potentially you could be earning more on it than in a savings account. Does that make sense?
Hello.
I actually like the newer Mint .com which was bought out by Intuit.
One thing I did not see listed is to set up Auto Pay on all your bills and then put the daters in your planner.
I prefer Capital One over anything out there. I have stood by them even through the Data Breach. They stood by me when I was scammed by the Green Dot Loan Scam. The same for Target. I will not own another Bank type credit card out there. Especially, Chase. They have hidden fees. I had one account with them and I have seen my husband get reamed by the hidden fees which is part of the reason we are still in Deep Debt.
I have had two local bank cards that their systems shut my account down with at least two hundred dollars in each of them and they refuse to refund a payment that had previously been refunded to my bank. But the Credit Union refused to add it back into my Checking account with them and the software was changed out and it closed my Checking and Savings accounts without even informing me so I finally called to find out why I am not able to log into my online account and this is what I was told: ” Your account was closed. and that I still needed to pay them $48.00. Then I would have to be reviewed to see if I can be trusted again”. I was like, What!! You guys just cost me my Business ( Long Story. I was hacked by Ransomeware and lost everything even the PC. Now my integrity and my money… Then GoDaddy tried to intimidate me into paying for the Office Suite I had paid in advance for along with paying for my Domain Names for Ten Years. I have so aggravated that I went to Microsoft and explained the situation and they gave me the exact same thing for free as they saw I had paid for it in full. GoDaddy refused to even reimburse me as it was not until they started the Load for the Hybrid Software business model that I was attacked. Then for a year afterward, They were still hounding me to pay for my stuff. I just told them to delete my account and everything. All because of Spy Hunter.
Just so frustrating you know especially since we are both disabled.
I have used Mvelopes for over 2 years and love it. It is the best one I’ve ever tried.
I just read your “The 17 Financial Tools I Use”. I am a Christian and I am very aware of words and names. I noticed you use Credit Karma. I googled the word “karma” and it isn’t a Christian or Godly word or meaning.
You may think I’m over-doing it with this kind of belief. This company may be wonderful but their name makes me hesitate to use their services. I’m sure there are others available that do the same thing for free, too.
We, as Christians, must be aware of our testimony with the services we recommend.
Other than that, I enjoyed your article and will consider using some of the services you recommend.
Thanks for posting this Bob. I’d like to second your recommendation of YNAB. We’ve been using it for less than 5 months now and absolutely love it. It has gotten us out of our paycheck-to-paycheck cycle (or worse, since we we’re slowly depleting our savings). It does have a learning curve, but I would definitely recommend their YNAB Webinars. I’ve listened to all of them, sometimes twice, which is how I got to using it. Now it’s fairly second nature.
To anyone considering budgeting like this, their Webinars are really excellent, even if you don’t end up buying YNAB. …and no, I’m not getting paid to promote them; I just wish I had known 10 years ago.
Bob, you are just an amazing person, happy easter and may God keep blessing you and your loved ones!
You are too Jessey! Blessings to you and yours!
I’d agree with Medi-Share being a great service. My wife and I have recommended them over and over.
Best,
Dear Bob
The economy is bad in SA at the moment, so I use every opportunity I can get to throw coins into my big fat piggy banks. I have three piggy banks and one small rhino-like bank, all marked with the amount of coin to be thrown in. For example, they are marked R5, R2, R1, and 50c respectively. So every time I buy something with a note or pay at the toll gate, I ask for change in coins so that I can fill up my piggies. As a result, my purse hardly has coins, and this helped me to avoid wasting money on sweets and other small staff that seem insignificant but whose sum total could have paid an instalment for a washing machine or could have been saved. Last year in December my son and I banked R4500 from the R5 piggy bank alone!
Secondly, I have a small group of women colleagues at work with whom I have opened a club account. We save equal amounts every month and we withdraw the money with interest in January of each year. All these savings have helped me to pay for my sons’ school stationery needs and fight off the January no-money blues which result from spending during the December festive season!
I use most of the same tools you do. I use Personal Capital for seeing a snapshot of everything and love Capital One 360 for my separate savings and money market accounts. I am currently using M1 Finance for a small portfolio because there are no fees, Vanguard for my Roth IRA and have been playing around with Tiller Finance for my budget. I love that they sync with my credit union and give me an accurate, consistent daily email of transactions and balances. Tiller also shows you how to do zero-based budgeting. There is a learning curve because it is sheets based, but they do a good job of providing learning videos to get out of it what you want. I tried to like YNAB but they do have my credit union in their system and so I would have to download transactions from the credit union and upload it to YNAB. That is more work than I want to do.