5 Fun And Free Personal Finance Tools

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Whether you’re a recent college graduate about to embark on a new life and career or a thirty something with a mortgage, 2 kids and sizable debt to match. The personal finance tools we discuss below can be used by anyone – rookie and veteran alike. Some are just plain fun while others practical and down right useful. Take a look at our top picks and let us know what you think and how you plan to use them?

1. Credit Karma – this website will fetch your credit score on a monthly basis and provide an overview of your credit standing for free. The catch? Well as is the case with most tools and services that are offered for free, they make up for it with ads. The site displays ads on related items of interest such as credit card offers, insurance offers, etc. The simple and free service offered up by Credit Karma is a great way to keep tabs on your credit without forking over a dime.

2. Share A Gift – this is a new type of site that seems to be the latest rage these days as it relies on the power of crowds to work. In simple terms the purpose of the site is that it allows you to enlist your friends and or family members to help you reach a financial goal for a pre-determined event. For example, let’s say you’re getting married in a few months and wish to honeymoon in Vegas for a week yet your husband was laid off recently and now you most likely will not be able to afford your dream honeymoon. Well here comes Share A Gift to the rescue. You set up your event, send an email to friends and family and they get to share the gift with you.

3. Smarty Pig – we discovered this cool personal finance tool and website about a year or so ago and love it. The initial draw was their online savings account deal however over time the rate has dwindled and is not as competitive as it once was. Blame the economy on that one. However the site is still a good smart personal finance tool as it makes saving money – fun. Something banks have yet to do. Smarty Pig allows you to set up micro accounts for all sorts of goodies such as a new laptop, mini staycation, moms b-day gift, etc. You can also share your goals with friends if you like or not. All for free and did we mention fun.

4. Lending Club – as previously mentioned on Riches Corner, this is a site aimed at investors or borrowers who wish to try something new and or those who are tired of fooling with traditional banks for a decent return on their money. Lending Club allows you to borrow or invest a set amount however the big difference is that the loan is diversified among many investors. One loan can have a myriad of investors. The point is diversification multiplied ten-fold.

5. iPhone Apps – how can we write a piece on personal finance tools and not mention an iPhone app (or ten). The iPhone (and other smartphones that carry apps) have truly revolutionized the way we conduct personal transactions and do business. Everything from how to find nearby low cost ATM kiosks to gas stations with the best rate and more is now available as a handy dandy cell phone app. We advise to perform a search on your phone or the iTunes store to see what’s on offer for whatever financial ailment you have. We’re about 100% sure you will find a corresponding app. We plan on writing another guest article here on Riches Corner that will outline good iPhone apps to manage, grow and otherwise handle your finances. Look for it soon here on the blog.

There are of course many more financial apps and personal finance tools then what we’ve listed above, but the five mentioned and profiled above should get your appetite wet for discovering additional fun and free personal finance tools. Share with us which one’s are your personal favorite? Leave a comment below.

Sponsor This Blog

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First off, I want to thank you for visiting Riches Corner.

I’m Richard.  I’ve been running this blog since the middle of 2010, when I decided to take up a hobby.  So, after I get home from work, or before I leave for the office, I’ve been blogging.  I found running this blog to be totally rewarding and enjoyable and have had lots of opportunity to meet others in the blogosphere.

As it turns out, blogging takes a lot of time and effort.  Even though this is a hobby, the time and effort put towards maintaining the blog is closer to second job status.  Also, I found that there are ordinary expenses (such as web hosting) that accrue over time.

However, I’m really loving this adventure and I’ve persisted with Riches Corner.  Over time, I’ve built up my PR and traffic.  We are steadily growing.

Sponsor This Blog

As you can see, I have a several opportunities for you to sponsor this site through posting advertisements or purchasing an e-book.  I can customize your advertisement to your needs.  If you wish to place banner advertisements, you can see available space in my sidebar for a variety of contextual and banner ads in different sizes and configurations.  Please contact me using the contact form below to discuss your advertising needs further.

Sponsored Posts

Recently, I’ve received several inquiries about guest posting.  I’ve laid out very specific guidelines for guest posting, however, I still often get specific email inquiries to accept guest postings.  Many of these are guest authors wishing to clarify some of my guidelines.  I’m happy to answer any questions and accept guest posts that meet my guidelines.

Beyond the regular inquiries, I’ve also had some people contact me regarding publishing sponsored posts.  These are inquiries generally related towards writing a more commercialized post.  This is generally some kind of review or promotional post of some kind.  In these cases, I’ve worked out payment arrangements with the person and have published these as sponsored posts.

If you have a guest post that meets my normal guest posting guidelines, you can still submit your post for publication.  Upon review, if your post follows all the guidelines, I will publish your post normally (free of charge).  You will be notified and receive all the promotional benefits of a guest author.

However, if your post is commercial in nature i.e. a product review or you are writing on behalf of a company as an advertisement.  Please contact me and I can publish your post as a sponsored post.

The price is $20 for a sponsored post.

You will receive the benefits of being able to promote and advertise your company or product to the growing audience of this Blog.  You post will be viewed by thousands of visitors monthly as well as all our subscribers and over 30,000 twitter followers.  In addition, all of our posts are shared to various social media outlets and quite often are shared with other bloggers in the community.

I will review each of these sponsored post submissions individually.  If you wish to discuss specific details regarding your sponsored post, I am open to discussion.

Please feel free to contact me using the form below to discuss your advertisement.

Please enter your contact details and a short message below and I will try to answer your query as soon as possible.

Your Sponsorships Helps This Blog

I run this blog in my spare time, however as you know, blogging does take full time work to maintain.  Over several years, I’ve steadily posted and built this blog up through time and effort.  Your sponsorship helps me maintain and improve this blog so that I can continue giving you the best.

If you enjoy this blog and wish to contribute beyond the methods that I’ve laid out above, you can contact me directly.

Also, if you wish to simply contribute and offer a donation, you can do that as well!

Thank you and have a great day!
Richard

Tell Your Story

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Telling a story

Write great content!  That’s the advice that I often see when I surf around the blogosphere.  It’s advice that’s much easier in theory than in practice.

So, then we often see follow up posts that tell us the type of generic posts that make for acceptable content.  You’ve seen these suggestions:  list posts, how to’s, compare and contrast, etc…  I’ve even written a similar post with content suggestions.  Though it hit me the other day that these suggestions don’t really offer content ideas so much, but rather simply give styles of writing.

Sure, if you put your ideas into a great list post, it’s a catchy style of blog post.  The same can be said if you can come up with a controversial idea and put it into a rant.  But first you need to come up with content ideas.

Now, there are several sources of information to get ideas.

You can go to google trends and read up on trending topics.  That’s one good way to find a popular subject to write about.  You can also browse through your local newspaper.  That way you can read up on the sections that pertain to your niche and find some up to date content there.

There are a lot of sources of information and mostly, you have to go out and do your research.

However, there’s one neglected source of information that can lead to some really powerful content.

You!

Tell Your Story

There’s an old axiom that people love to talk about themselves.  They say that lover’s will never run out of a conversation because they each will endlessly talk about themselves.

Tell your story to your readers!

I don’t mean just in your about page.  You have a story that happens to you every day.

Each day, you go out and experience life!  You watch other people go about their business.  You see or hear something interesting along the way.  Tell your story!

You can take virtually any recent incident that’s happened to you and put it down in writing.

Just reflect on something that you learned recently.  Perhaps, you had to deal with an angry customer at work.  Or you had to call a customer service rep about a faulty product.  Maybe, you had an insightful conversation with a co-worker.  Stressed about paying a bill?

Each of these may seem minor, but they are all learning experiences.  Better yet, they are personal experiences and they all come with a story.

After you’ve found a recent incident, think on the lesson that you can take from that event and think on how that lesson can be helpful to your audience.

Next, you want to draft your story.

Start at the beginning.  Let your audience know that this is a personal story about a real life event.  Describe your thoughts and feelings to them.  Don’t forget to include the key elements:  Who, What, Why, Where.

Tell your story.

Reading to kids

Then after you’ve told your story, talk about what you learned from your incident.  What can others take away from the story.

 

 

This is a powerful method of communication.  There’s a ritual to telling a story that touch people on a deep emotional level.  Before there was the internet.  Before there was the printing press.  Before writing was even invented.  There were stories.  People huddled around campfires telling others about their day.  If you can tap into that same ritual and touch others in that same way, you can draw them into your story as well.