Imagine waking up one day to find the small change you’ve squirrelled away has turned into a neat little (or rather large) nest egg.
Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, whether you want to save for your future, your education, some nice holidays, home renovations or simply a rainy day, there’s one app that’s taking the hard work out of investing for so many Brits.
Smart money app Plum is on a mission to help its millions of customers save for life through the power of AI and automation, and with its easy-to-use rules and investment options people are reaching their financial goals faster.
The app links to your bank account and sets aside just enough money according to whatever rules, which you always have control over. From there it manages your money in a way that works for you, whether that’s investing in one of Plum’s many funds, or setting the money aside into an Easy Access Interest Pocket*. As with all investing, please remember that your capital is at risk.
You can create a range of autosaving rules – such as ’round ups’, ‘rainy days’ saving and ‘splitter’, which will split your money throughout various accounts and investments – or let the smart algorithm analyse your spending and help you save without even thinking about it.
Every few days it’ll look at your bank transactions and income over the last 3–12 months to determine how much you can safely set aside without affecting your daily life.
This automation is helping customers see their money grow, with Jordan, 34, from Stratford-upon-Avon, managing to save thousands through the app in just a few years.
While he’s ‘always been a good saver’, Jordan previously found himself needing to pull money out of his savings account ahead of payday if a big unexpected bill came in or he slightly overestimated how much he could actually save.
He says: ‘It felt like my savings goals would never quite be reached. Now, with Plum’s Primary Pocket pulling money that I can afford to save, it means at the end of each month I know that money is safe to use and I can then distribute it into the other pockets I have for savings.’
Just from the auto savings function, which puts away odds and ends in your account from spare income, Jordan estimates he’s saving between £1,000 and £1,200 a year. He now puts the majority of his savings into Plum and believes since 2020 he’s saved close to £12,000.
‘It’s the most user-friendly app I have used for my money, especially when it comes to the investment side of things,’ he says, sharing he not only loves how the platform’s interest rates are so competitive but also the different options of interest accounts, which earn higher rates of interest compared to the default Primary Pocket and Regular Pockets.
He was initially attracted to the app via the auto-saver function, with the goal of seeing how much Plum could put away without him having to really think about it.
‘It worked really well and before I knew it Plum had saved money from the odds and ends in my bank and the best part is I didn’t really notice,’ he explains. ‘So when it came time to look in my Plum account it was nice to see a little bundle saved and that’s where my Plum journey started.’
While Jordan has some previous investing experience on other apps, he realises he ‘wasn’t really sure’ what he was doing, especially as a first-time investor.
What he likes about Plum compared to other platforms is how he can easily understand where his money is invested, with graphs and data from previous years accessible so he can clearly see if a particular investment is worth investing into or not.
The app offers individual funds, but Jordan invests in mutual funds which are stocks managed by experts, which track a stock market index, such as the well-known S&P500. They allow you to invest in a bunch of assets at once, reducing costs and mitigating risk through diversification.
‘When compared with the 1.5% up to 4% a bank would give me on interest, that’s a no brainer,’ Jordan says of choosing Plum’s investing options to save his money. ‘Now of course that’s not to say it can’t go the other way, but I find it simple to just start with a set rounded amount and then take the profit when it hits a certain level.’
He also loves the fact the platform pays interest on the savings accounts monthly ‘so it’s like a little boost at the beginning of the month when it hits the pockets’.
Having taken control of his savings, Jordan has money goals in sight, including saving for a holiday and putting money towards his degree in Astrophysics that he’s hoping to start next year (as well as pay for a new telescope).
‘It’s awesome to be able to see each individual pot grow and your savings goals seem to come to life quicker,’ he says. ‘Plum has enriched my life both on the investments and on the savings side and has allowed me to truly take hold of my finances in the way I wanted to – I’m not the sort of person who is bad with money in the first place, but it’s optimised my time for sure.’
