Disclosure: Some of the links I include below are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a commission (at no extra cost to you!). Read more on my Disclosure, Disclaimer and Privacy Policy page.
This resource page lists some of the services, products, and companies I personally use or have used and believe are valuable. If you have any questions about any of them, send me a message through my contact form.
Mint
I started tracking my finances with Mint in March 2014 and love the convenience of being able to go to one site to get an update on all my accounts. To use the platform, you enter all of your account information and it creates a dashboard of your account balances. There is also a budget feature that categorizes your transactions so you can monitor how much you are spending on groceries, eating out, etc.
What I like best is the trends feature so I can see how my hard work is making a difference. When I was paying off my debt, I would regularly pull up the chart that showed how much debt I had paid off to keep me motivated. Now, I use it to watch my net worth grow!
Personal Capital
Similar to Mint, Personal Capital allows you to create a dashboard of all your accounts. I’ve just started using it so don’t yet know if I like it better than I like Mint. I was having trouble adding my HSA account to mint, however, and so wanted to see if Personal Capital had few glitches.
Podcast Favorites
- Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger: This is one of my favorite podcasts. Jill provides useful advice, with most shows including a segment where she answers her listeners’ questions, but the bulk of each episode is focused on deeper issues relevant to the financial markets. My money is important to me and I like developing a better understanding of the context in which the market functions.
- Retirement Answer Man: Host Roger Whitney focuses this podcast on people a few years out from retirement or who are already retired which I find helpful. After so many years focused on accumulation, spending at least a few minutes each week thinking about spending down my savings is a good use of time.
- HerMoney with Jean Chatzky: Host Jean Chatzky is very much focused on women and money and brings on a lot of great guest to talk about issues unique to this group.
SoFi
While I don’t recommend student loan refinancing for everyone—you can read why here—it was a good option for me and when I did it, I went with SoFi. I first refinanced with SoFi in the spring of 2013 with a variable interest rate loan that took my interest rate from 6.8% to just under 4%. About 2 years later, when interest rates started to go up, I refinanced with a fixed rate of around 4.4%
The interest rate you are offered will vary based on the prevailing rates at the time and your credit score but I found even a small decrease in my rate helped me pay off my student loans faster.