The Mint app can analyze your income and expenses and help you build a budget based on your spending patterns. This can help you uncover unnecessary or unwanted expenses so you can save some extra money.
And although credit cards can be a useful financial tool when it comes to building credit and reaping rewards points and cash back, you're getting hit with interest when you don't pay your balance in full.
If you already have a balance that seems difficult to pay off, you might consider using a balance transfer card with a 0% intro APR period. Consider the cards below:
U.S. Bank Visa® Platinum Card
On U.S. Bank's secure site
Rewards
Welcome bonus
Annual fee
Intro APR
0% for the first 20 billing cycles on balance transfers and purchases*
Regular APR
14.49% - 24.49% (variable)*
Balance transfer fee
Either 3% of the amount of each transfer or $5 minimum, whichever is greater
Foreign transaction fee
Credit needed
Wells Fargo Active Cash℠ Card
Rewards
Unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases
Welcome bonus
$200 cash rewards bonus after you spend $1,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening
Annual fee
Intro APR
0% APR on purchases and qualifying balance transfers for the first 15 months from account opening
Regular APR
14.99% to 24.99% variable on purchases and balance transfers
Balance transfer fee
Introductory fee of 3% ($5 minimum) for 120 days from account opening, then up to 5% ($5 minimum)
Foreign transaction fee
Credit needed
If you have your credit card payments under control, you can also use your card to earn extra money back when making purchases. You might consider a credit card with a big welcome bonus — like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Citi Premier® Card. Welcome bonuses allow you to earn a large amount of points for opening a card and spending a certain amount of money in a specified time frame.
With the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card you can earn 100,000 points (worth $1,250 towards travel booked through the Chase Travel portal or $1,000 in cash back) if you spend $4,000 in the first three months after opening the card. You can use the card to pay for your regular expenses — and you should be able to pay it off right away since you'd spend on costs you'd have to pay for anyway — and then you'll use your points for a vacation you really want to take.
Lastly, you can invest your money and have it grow on its own over time. When you keep all of your cash in a regular savings account, your money loses value over time because of inflation, which means it'll afford you less and less as the years go by. Investing, however, gives your money the opportunity to grow even if you don't make any additional contributions (though, the more you contribute the more it'll grow). If you're new to investing, you might consider robo-advisors like Wealthfront and Betterment, which can invest your money into portfolios that best suit your goals.
Wealthfront
On Wealthfront's secure site
Minimum deposit and balance
Minimum deposit and balance requirements may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. $500 minimum deposit for investment accounts
Fees
Fees may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. Zero account, transfer, trading or commission fees (fund ratios may apply). Wealthfront annual management advisory fee is 0.25% of your account balance
Bonus
Investment vehicles
Investment options
Stocks, bonds, ETFs and cash. Additional asset classes to your portfolio include real estate, natural resources and dividend stocks
Educational resources
Offers free financial planning for college planning, retirement and homebuying
Bottom line
Millennials have already lost a lot of ground when it comes to their earnings thanks to the 2008 recession and now the Covid-19 pandemic. But by taking some small steps, like using credit cards that let them save on interest, investing and supplementing their income through side hustles, millennials can start to strike a better balance between what they need and what they can afford.
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