Play to save.
That’s the name of the game for some people looking for easy incentives to stash away a little extra cash without thinking twice about it.
Before Mike Pearson, 37, and his wife planned a trip to the Bahamas last year, they downloaded a savings game app that let them “set it and forget it.”
‘You can definitely hit a savings goal like a small vacation or something similar.’
“We wanted to set a savings goal to help pay for the trip, and we thought it would be a good way to ‘force’ ourselves to save up,” Pearson, a New York City-based music-industry lawyer, told MarketWatch.
He downloaded a personal-finance app called Qapital, which links to a user’s checking account and lets them set savings goals like a rainy day fund, spa weekend, concert or student-loan payment.
The app has customizable rules. Pearson chose one that rounded up his transactions to the next dollar and put the difference in his savings account. When he made a purchase for $9.60, the app would deposit 40 cents into his savings account. He was able to create a joint goal, so his wife could also contribute to their savings plan.
Pearson estimates he and his wife saved $3 to $4 a day for a year. “It doesn’t sound like much, but that’s about $100 per month, or $1,200 per year,” Pearson said.
He saved up $500 and she saved $700. Together, their savings paid for plane tickets and part of the hotel in the Bahamas.
‘It definitely appeals to a person’s sense of competition.’
Money is the biggest stressor for Americans, beating out personal relationships and even work, a survey by Northwestern Mutual found. And 69% of employees said they were stressed over their finances, with 72% admitting to worrying about their personal finances on the job.[1][2]
Consistency is key. When people start saving for something like a life event, they typically fall off the savings wagon after reaching their goal. Four in 10 people identified themselves as “aggressive short-term savers,” meaning they can put away money for a given goal like a wedding or vacation, but after that go back to their old spending ways.[3]
“It’s not a ‘get rich quick scheme,’ but if you stick with it over a long period of time, you can definitely hit a savings goal like a small vacation or something similar,” he said.
When Pearson used the app it was free, but Qapital now offers a free 30-day trail followed by a fee of $3 to $12 a month, d[4]...