Jill's age range: 25-35. She is married with one child in the home.
As we help people get their finances in order, they often ask us how their bills and spending compare to our other clients'. That is why we decided to ask a few of our clients if they would be willing to anonymously "show us their money."
These are our client's actual mobile screen shots from the app, but we've changed their name to keep it anonymous.
Here is a sneak peek into Jill's financial life:
Before Jill "assigns" her credit card charges (decides which account will cover each charge).
Jill has $8,794.64 in her Income Account ready to be organized. We recommend that people assign their charges about once a week and right before they organize their income.
Here is the list of Jill's unassigned credit card charges. As you can see below, Jill edits the description of some of her charges (in particular the ones from Amazon) to make them easier to identify. You can also split a charge if you want to assign it to more than one account.
The Credit Card Tracker shows that Jill has $216.99 in charges that need to be assigned.
Jill's accounts with the assigned credit card charges.
Notice how with Otto, Jill can watch their money grow in their accounts. There is something psychologically rewarding about seeing your money grow. They have a nice chunk of change saved up. Way to go!!
Jill and her husband each have personal spending accounts. Otto makes it easy for them to see how much money they still have available.
Amex Send is a great way to keep your money organized when you use Venmo. American Express has a partnership with Venmo that allows your Venmo charges to show up as credit card charges. We don't recommend using this if you aren't good with credit cards, but if you are, and you use Otto, this can be a really useful tool!
As you can see, once Jill has assigned all of her credit card charges, the Difference is zero. This means she has enough money in her Credit Card Payoff Account to cover their credit card balances. And that is a great feeling!
