7 Tech Advancements that Can Help You Save Money

Table of Contents

1. What Are Some Recent Tech Advancements That Can Help Individuals Save Money?

2. What Role Does AI Play in Identifying Cost-Saving Opportunities?

3. How Is Technology Expected to Continue Evolving to Enhance Personal Savings Strategies?

4. Tips to Protect Yourself When Using Personal Finance Technology

Tech advancements are happening every day and as a result, it can be difficult to keep up. In the past few years especially, there’s been huge technological innovation and advancement in things like generative AI tools that can be used to save money, invest for retirement and so much more.

The challenge, of course, is to understand which technological advancements can help you save money and how to incorporate them into personal finance management. In this article, we’re sharing seven tech advancements that we think are worth exploring, including tools to help you manage your finances, save money in key spending categories including travel and utilities, improve your financial literacy and protect yourself against cybersecurity threats that could impact your financial health.

What Are Some Recent Tech Advancements That Can Help Individuals Save Money?

Let’s start with a broad overview of emerging technology and tech trends that we know can help people save money. We’ve included information about each technological advancement plus one or two tools that can specifically help you with saving.

#1: Artificial Intelligence

AI technology has gone from being the stuff of science fiction to something that’s part of our everyday lives. Of course, AI development is still in its early stages, so we’re not yet at the point where we have computers that are nearly human in their thinking. That said, it’s still impressive technology.

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are being used for personal finance in several ways, including information gathering and budgeting. AI uses machine learning, meaning that it’s always teaching itself and becoming increasingly sophisticated.

#2: Personal Finance Apps

Take a look at the Apple Store or Google Play and you’ll find tons of personal finance apps. Some are designed to help you with one area of your finances, such as saving money. They can help you create a budget, track your spending, and even round up purchases and put them into microinvestments.

There are apps designed to help people work toward a specific financial goal such as saving for a down payment on a home or buying a new car. Banking apps that have that capability may be integrated with your bank accounts to make saving as easy as possible. One example of a personal finance app that can help you with cash flow predictions, budgeting, bills, subscription management and retirement saving is Quicken Simplifi.

#3: Price Comparison Websites & Apps

One of the best things about the internet is that it’s easy to gain access to product reviews and research. Consumer websites make it simple to read reviews of multiple products, whether you’re buying a new car or a new laptop.

The best thing about consumer sites is that you can find what you need in one place. That means you can compare features, reviews, and prices, and save money by purchasing a product that’s in your budget and has everything you need.

Some of the websites you may want to consider include Consumer Reports, Capterra and Shopzilla. Price comparison apps include ShopSavvy and Price.com.

#4: Subscription Management Apps

Everything is a subscription these days and if you’re not careful, you can wind up spending hundreds of dollars a month on subscriptions you barely use. That’s where subscription management apps come in.

These apps make it easy to save money by allowing you to review active subscriptions and let the app handle cancellations for you. You might be surprised by how much of your net income you can save when you have an easy way to manage your subscriptions.

Some tools that fit into this category include Rocket Money and Trim.

#5: Smart Home Devices

Smart home devices are a type of AI system that is connected to the web and can help you with many tasks, including finding a recipe. They may also be useful in certain elements of personal financial management, including saving money. Here are some examples of how using one of these devices can help you.

Smart home devices can monitor the energy efficiency of your appliances and other home systems, making recommendations about power usage and how to reduce your electricity bills.

You can use a smart home device to adjust your thermostat when you’re not at home, preventing you from overspending on heat or air conditioning.

Smart home devices may be used to monitor and adjust water usage. For example, you can tell your device when to water your lawn or garden, and when to stop.

If you install smart plugs, you can use your phone to turn off power to anything in your home, thus saving even more on electricity.

Of course, to benefit from these savings, you’ll need to have both a smart home device and other smart devices, such as smart plugs and a smart thermostat. Amazon Alexa is a popular option.

#6: Digital Banking Features

Credit unions and banks have websites and banking apps that can help you monitor your personal finances and save money. Here are some things you can do with digital banking.

• Automate your savings with regular transfers from your checking account.
• Transfer money between accounts at any time.
• Monitor your savings balance to check your progress toward one or more savings goals.
• Get notified of large or unexpected purchases.
• Avoid overdraft fees with account balance notifications.

With digital banking, your account information is always available, making it easy to avoid wasting money and save more toward your goals. Addition Financial offers both digital banking features and a mobile app!

#7: Travel Apps and Websites

Travel is a big expense for some of us. Even if you’re not a frequent flyer, you can still end up paying more than you want if you’re not careful. That’s where modern technology can help thanks to flight comparison and travel apps.

Flight aggregators make it easy to search flights, including alternative airports plus additional related expenses such as hotels and rental cars. Many airlines also have apps that allow travelers to check flight availability and find the most advantageous price.

Flight aggregators include Expedia, Hotwire, Kayak and Orbitz. Other highly-rated apps to check out are Hopper and HotelTonight.

What Role Does AI Play in Identifying Cost-Saving Opportunities?

One of the key features of any generative AI tool, AI apps and AI-powered search engines is how quickly they can scan the web for relevant information and compile it into something that’s easy for users to review and understand.

It’s a technological innovation that has proven itself to be both a time-saver and a money saving tool.

Our overall take on AI is that it’s a useful and convenient way to gather data quickly. It can help you figure out a monthly budget. 

It’s also worth noting that financial institutions and digital investment platforms use AI to quickly scan account transactions and flag suspicious activity. 

How Is Technology Expected to Continue Evolving to Enhance Personal Savings Strategies?

What about the future? Considering the rapid rate of technological innovation and advancement, it’s reasonable to expect that before too long, we’ll all be able to do even more to enhance our personal savings strategies and manage our money more effectively.

Artificial intelligence has been dominating tech headlines for the past several years but the truth is that it’s still relatively new technology. It’s amazing to see how much it’s improved since ChatGPT first became available to the public, but we expect it will become even more impressive in its abilities before long. It may be able to forecast your financial future, manage your investment portfolio, automate savings and more.

Other tech advances are a little more difficult to predict. What we expect is that there will be more fully integrated personal finance apps and websites. Having everything in one place can make it easier to track spending, set savings goals, automate saving and manage investments while planning for retirement.

We may also see more specialized personal finance apps. Some people may prefer not to have everything in one app. We may find more apps that allow people to track and improve their credit scores, set up retirement accounts, manage automated contributions and investments or link to their credit union or bank accounts and set up tracking for multiple savings goals such as a down payment on a home, a new car, college education for their kids or even a holiday savings goal.

Tips to Protect Yourself When Using Personal Finance Technology

 Here are a few tips to keep your money safe when using a financial app or website.

• Read the privacy disclosure and change your privacy settings as needed.
• Don’t share any information that’s not required for what the technology is doing; for example, a budgeting app doesn’t need to know your location.
• Enable two-factor authentication for any app where someone who has your phone can access your money.

There are security risks involved with using any technology that’s connected to the web, but doing these simple things can protect you.

Save More Money by Using Technology

Technology is changing our world every day. The 7 tech advancements that we’ve shared here are all things that can help you take control of your finances and accelerate your savings. Best of all, they’re affordable!

Do you want to learn more about digital banking and how it can help you work toward your savings goals? Check out Addition Financial’s Digital Banking features.