More Americans Ignoring Their Money

Online banking tools offered by banks rarely allow consumers to aggregate separate accounts and credit lines. Independent budgeting tools, conversely, allow consumers to see all of their accounts as well as their discretionary spending patterns, but they can’t actually manage their money - transfer funds, link accounts or pay bills.

Schwanhausser believes that these tools will remain unpopular until they allow consumers to do both, a tasks he says falls to the banks, which could provide these types of options on their homepage. According to him, banks should integrate the model used by independent personal finance management sites, since they make setting up a budget about achieving a goal, as opposed to depriving oneself. “That’s how online tools can be beneficial and that’s how they should be framed,” Schwanhausser says.

Want to learn more about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to managing your money? Check out this MainStreet article that looks at six weird ways we save.

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