Spending hours sorting through paperwork or navigating online portals is nobody’s idea of fun. But if you pay tax or want to keep track of your finances, there’s a good chance you find yourself begrudgingly working through your files regularly.
Equally, time spent on other necessary financial tasks like planning and budgeting could be spent on more interesting pursuits, such as hobbies or seeing friends and family.
Luckily, this is where technology could come to your rescue. We’ve pulled together six apps and tools you could try to help make your finances and life easier and more organised this year.
1. Keep track of your tax
The HMRC app lets you quickly access your tax information at a glance.
Use it to:
- Check your tax code
- Find your National Insurance (NI) number
- View your employment history over the past five years
- See your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR)
- Find out how much tax you owe
- Look at your State Pension forecast
- Set a reminder to make a Self Assessment payment
- Track forms and letters
- Make a Self Assessment payment
- Claim a refund
- Speak to a digital assistant to get help and information.
It’s a very handy way of keeping up to speed with all your tax affairs, without needing to make lengthy phone calls. Plus, you can avoid penalties and late payment interest charges thanks to the reminder and payment functions.
2. Check if you’re a winner
The NS&I Premium Bonds Prize Checker App is a free way to check your own and your family’s Premium Bonds to see if you’ve won.
Premium Bonds can tick away in the background, and it can be easy to forget they’re even there sometimes! Depending on your settings, you may get prize money paid straight into your bank account or sent through the post as a cheque.
The app lets you know upfront if you’ve won a prize, and you can view the previous six draws. You can also store multiple bondholder numbers, so you can see all your family’s winnings at the same time.
3. Stay organised and never miss a deadline
Google Calendar and Apple Calendar are great tools to help you keep on track with the many dates and deadlines in your life.
Set reminder alerts for:
- ISA allowance deadlines, to make sure you’re getting the best from your savings and investments
- Self Assessment payment dates, so you pay on time and avoid penalties
- Insurance renewals, so you can check quotes and providers in advance to see if there’s a better deal available
- Car maintenance, such as MOT and service dates.
Realising on the day, or worse, after the event, can often mean unplanned time spent making payments, moving money around, or making phone calls to book last-minute appointments.
Reminder alerts set upfront give you the space to manage these life admin tasks in your own time and at your own pace, often helping you save money in the process.
4. Manage all your subscriptions and regular payments
According to Barclays, almost 10 million of the 155 million active subscriptions in the UK are unwanted and cost consumers £1.6 billion a year. The government is proposing to crack down on subscription traps, in which consumers sign up for a free trial and end up paying a monthly fee.
The Emma app can help you keep track of all your subscriptions and regular payments, so you can see what’s going out when.
Because you can see all your upcoming bills and subscriptions, you can cancel any unwanted payments and see any price increases before the funds leave your account.
5. Manage your passwords safely and securely
Most online retailers and apps now expect you to have an account, which involves creating, storing, or remembering an awful lot of passwords, as you’re recommended to use a different one each time.
And you probably know how frustrating it can be when you forget a password and have to navigate the login process again. Or worse, how worrying it can be if you read about a data breach of an organisation you’re registered with.
1Password can give you a full password management service, enabling you to:
- Create strong passwords and passkeys using the built-in generator
- Save and autofill passwords
- Receive two-factor authentication codes
- Access your saved information on any device
- Safely share your saved passwords and passkeys with trusted family members or create short-term passwords with expiring links.
- Receive flags for any data breaches, so you can quickly change any potentially compromised passwords.
6. Share digital files and documents
Upload and share your digital files, folders, and documents with your partner or loved ones using Google Drive.
You’ll get 15GB of free, secure cloud storage, although you can pay to upgrade this to more. As you can access it from any device, you can manage your documents wherever you are.
Get in touch
At Jane Smith Financial Planning, we can take the time and hassle out of your financial planning. Contact us at info@janesmithfinancial.com or call 01234 713131 to see what we can do for you.
Please note
This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at individuals only.
All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.
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