Would you rather make money or save it? Well, the fact is, many travel nurses can now do both.
In fact, there’s an app – make that several apps – for that.
Many busy nurses and healthcare professionals have financial concerns and worry about managing their money. This makes it difficult to not only find the time and money to save for future goals, events, or the unavoidable emergency – but can cause undue stress.
So instead of worrying about your money, let today’s technology be your friend. Take a look at the following five apps that can make managing your money a lot easier:
1. Shopkick: Save Every Time you Buy
This app helps you rack up points by purchasing items. All you have to do is walk into a store, scan the barcodes for the products you want to buy, and then purchase and submit a recipe by taking a photo of it. You can also earn points by shopping online, and once you have enough points; you can redeem them for gift cards to your favorite stores.
2. GasBuddy: Why Pay Full Price at the Pump?
If you’re someone who drives more than relying on public transportation for commuting and getting around town, you know how paying for gas can take a bite out of your budget. This app helps you find the gas station with the lowest-priced gas in your area. It costs nothing to join, and you can save 25 cents per gallon at stations nationwide.
3. Acorns: Build your Retirement Savings
The acorns app is a free tool that lets you invest the spare change from your daily transactions. The app automatically rounds up your transactions to the nearest dollar and invests the difference into your chosen investment portfolios (once you’ve reached a minimum of $5 in roundup savings). Acorns also has a retirement savings feature that helps you invest your money in an Independent Retirement Account (IRA) and set recurring contributions from your linked account.
4. Joy: Save Money While on a Tight Budget
If you’re on a tight budget, the free Joy app can help find money you didn’t think you had! It analyzes your income and spending habits and calculates how much money you can safely save each day without breaking your budget. You can then transfer the funds from your linked account to an FDIC-insured Joy savings account. When you’re ready to spend your savings, you can transfer the funds from the Joy savings account to an external account.
5. Chime: Crank up your Emergency Fund
Keeping three to six months’ worth of monthly expenses in an emergency fund makes financial sense. But what if your emergency stockpile is, shall we say, a bit lacking? Well, you’re not alone, and the free app, Chime, a mobile-only bank, hopes its app’s automatic savings features will help you build your emergency fund. Chime can automatically transfer 10% of each paycheck into a separate Chime savings account. It’s not only a painless way to build your savings but if you really need the cash, it’s there for you.
We hope you find the above tips useful! At Focus Staff, we provide some of the finest career opportunities for travel nurses. To see what we can do for you, contact us today.