Personal Money Management Tips and Advice

Category: Money Management

ASA Vault logo

ASA Vault Adds Five More FinTech Tools to Its "App Store"

The "App Store as a Service" platform ASA has added five more FinTech tools to its roster. About the additions and ASA Vault: ASA has announced that it has added five FinTech applications to its ASA Vault app. These include PortfolioPilot, Guac, One Goal Finance, Credit Rent Boost, and Column Tax. With ASA Vault, users can sign up for and access these services without providing their name, email address, or...
Southwest logo and airplane

Southwest Airlines Unveils Accelerated A-List Status Promotion

Southwest is bringing back a popular promotion to help passengers achieve coveted A-List status — including a new option. About the promotion: For a limited time, Southwest Rapid Rewards members can work their way up to A-List and A-List Preferred status more quickly via a few different options. First, Rapid Rewards customers who book qualifying flights and travel between now and November 30th can earn double tier qualifying points. What's...
Octane logo and website on two phones

Recreational Vehicle Financing FinTech Octane Raises $50 Million

A FinTech that helps consumers get financing for a variety of major recreational purchases has raised a fresh round of funds. About the round: This week, Octane announced that it raised $50 million in new equity capital. The Series E was led by Valar Ventures with participation from Upper90. Notably, both firms are existing investors. To date, the company has now raised a total of $242 million, including a $52...
Spotify Car Thing

The Spotify Car Thing and Super Planned Obsolescence

Have you noticed that the nature of consumption has been shifting? These days, questions such as "What is a product?" and "What does it mean to own something?" need to be asked as the answers are evolving. In the case of the first question, recent standalone AI offerings have revealed a growing trend of businesses basically treating paid customers like beta testers. Meanwhile, as far as the ownership question goes,...
FinTech

FinTech Fallout: Lessons From the Synapse/Evolve Bank Dispute

Over the past several years that I've been covering FinTech, I've seen my fair share of apps shut down. Yet, I've never seen anything quite like the situation that's playing out right now. As of this writing, several neobanking customers are unable to access their funds due to a dispute between Synapse and Evolve Bank. So, what is going on between these two and how does it impact some FinTech...
holding a jar with a taxes label filled with money

How I Found My Tax "Sweet Spot" This Year

Well, I waited until the last minute, but I got my taxes done and paid before the deadline. At this point, while I wouldn't say I'm good at preparing my returns, I do at least have enough experience to troubleshoot mistakes. On top of that, I also have a decent idea of how the various factors of my somewhat complicated tax situation come together and affect my total bill. Despite...
Apple Cash app

How to Activate a Virtual Card Number on Apple Cash

In 2017, Apple expanded its FinTech aspirations by introducing a peer-to-peer payment account called Apple Cash. With this account, users could easily send and receive payments via iMessage. What's more, while customers could elect to transfer received funds to a linked bank account, they could also be spent directly using Apple Pay. The only problem was that, for merchants that didn't accept Apple Pay, there wasn't a way to use...
38

Money at 38: The Major Ways My Finances Have Changed

In 2016, I wrote a guest post for what was then called Dyer News (now Fioney) about my "financial awakening." What inspired that article was the fact I'd just checked my credit for the first time, leading me to take a greater interest not only in my money but in the topic of personal finance in general. Needing a title, I settled on calling it "Money at 30" — which was...
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2025 SoFi Checking and Savings Review

 Ever since I started taking an interest in the FinTech sector, one company whose name I’ve seen pop up over and over again is SoFi. That was later sent into overdrive as the company has not only become a household name thanks to its stadium naming rights deal but also because of the company’s continued product expansions. The most interesting development in my mind is SoFi’s acquisition of Golden Pacific...
Rakuten: Where it pays to shop.

A Look at How Rakuten (Ebates) Works in 2026

Since taking an interest in personal finance, one site I’ve come across again and again is Rakuten, formerly Ebates. If you’re still unfamiliar, Rakuten is a cashback site — and is the largest of its kind by far, boasting deals from over 3,500 retailers. Its popularity has endured even with the odd Rakuten re-branding and the platform remains one of my most-used money-saving tools. Since joining Rakuten / Ebates some...
Travelers with two Best Western Credit Cards

Best Western Debuts Two New Rewards Credit Cards

After pausing applications for their previous rewards card, the hotel chain Best Western has unveiled a new pair of rewards credit cards with a new issuer. About the Best Western cards: Best Western is partnering with First Bank & Trust and Mercury Financial to introduce two new co-branded credit cards. First up is the no-annual-fee Best Western Rewards Visa Signature Card. With this card, customers can 4x points on Best...
Marriott Bonvoy card and a woman on vacation

Marriott Bonvoy Bold Card Launches Travel Contest

Chase and Marriott Bonoy have unveiled a special contest while continuing to offer its best-ever welcome bonus. About the welcome bonus and Bold Chat Court Contest: Marriott Bonvoy and Chase have launched a special opportunity called the Bold Chat Court contest. As part of this contest, 10 lucky travelers will be awarded 500,000 Marriott Bonvoy points (for a total of 5 million) as well as $5,000. For this contest, the...
Bilt and All Reward logos

Bilt Adds 2 New Transfer Partners Including First 3:2 Transfer Rate

Bilt is once again expanding its travel transfer rewards program — and is even breaking the mold with one new partner. About the new additions to Bilt: This week, Bilt launched partnerships with two more travel brands: TAP Air Portugal and Accor. As a result, Bilt members will now be able to transfer their points to Miles&Go and ALL Reward, respectively. In total, Bilt now has 18 transfer partners including 13...