When I became a stay-at-home mom six years ago, I took over the job of the paying the bills and keeping track of our finances. It became something I enjoyed and took ownership of. I created a spreadsheet and diligently kept track of all the things we spent money on. My husband was so proud and bragged about my initiative.
Then I had my second baby and things began to fall through the cracks. I forgot to update our budget regularly and bills were going unpaid. The mortgage went unpaid twice! I was so embarrassed and overwhelmed. I just couldn’t keep up. Friends told me to create a Google calendar with reminders or just hand the job over to my husband. Neither option sounded appealing. Google calendars were something I was unfamiliar with and I knew my husband was blessed by my efforts. Paying the bills and keeping track of our money was something that needed to be done. Whether I liked it or not, I was the one that needed to do it.
How I wish there was an app like the Koach Financial app in my life back then!
Koach Financial is a local, faith based non-profit 501(c)3 organization that helps people with their finances in order “to live life with a purpose.” Their goal is to help people view and manage their money better, which in turn will create a better world for everyone.
Koach’s website and app provide a safe place to create a financial plan and track expenses. The app can also be used to show users whether or not they have a financial problem. If they notice an area they are struggling in, they can work with a Koach one-on-one, who will provide custom solutions based on the data in the app.
Over the years, my husband and I have tried a variety of different ways to track our expenses from Mint.com to different types of spreadsheets. So when I heard about Koach’s free app, I was excited to give this local company a try. You can try it out as well by downloading the app to your phone from the Google Play Store or the App Store.
Manage Your Cash Flow
One thing about Koach that is different from other expense tracking or budget applications is that they focus a lot on cash flow. In case you’re unfamiliar, like I was, cash flow is simply the timing of money going in and coming out. A few years ago, I always sent our tithing check in at the beginning of the month. However, that was also the time when our mortgage and other large bills were due. That left us pretty low on money in the bank as we waited for him to get paid again. What I didn’t realize was that we had a cash flow problem.
The Koach Financial app can help you see things that might be messing up your cash flow by letting you know any upcoming expenses to expect. They also remind you when it’s due when you log on, so you won’t miss any mortgage payments. Do you get paid at odd times in the month? No worries! You can customize your start date to any time in the month in order to plan the next 30 days of expenses.
Keep Yourself Accountable
Koach Financial encourages users to manually input expenses daily. This may sound like a lot of work but according to Koach, this task helps hold you accountable to what you are spending money on. And I agree with that 100%! When you have to go through the trouble of recording every trip to Starbucks and every unnecessary purchase at Target, it makes you think twice before spending money on those things.
Don’t Worry About Your Money Getting Stolen
My husband and I have used Mint.com in the past to track our expenses. A big drawback to Mint was that it had access to our bank account. I just have a thing about not trusting any website to link to my bank account. That’s another nice thing about the Koach app. Since you have to input your expenses manually, you don’t have to worry about someone out there having access to all your personal banking information.
The Koach Financial app will be a huge help to mamas during back-to-school shopping and the busy holiday season. If you are looking to stay on track with your finances and meet financial goals by the end of the year, make sure to check out this free app. You can download it on the Google Play Store or in the App Store.
What kind of goals could you reach with the Koach Financial app?
