According to a poll from Bankrate.com, over 30% of Americans are not saving for retirement. If you are among them, you may find Digit to be just what you need to get started. By linking the Digit service to your checking account, every few days it will analyze your income and spending history and then withdraw small amounts of money (usually $5-50) free of charge and place it into your Digit savings account. It alters the amount pulled each time based on how much was spent recently, when bills are coming due, and when your next paycheck will be deposited. It does not pull out more than you have in your checking account and in fact, has a no-overdraft guarantee (in any cases where Digit overdraws your account, they will pay the fees). Digit uses bank level security encryption of your personal data, its savings account is FDIC insured up to $250,000, and it currently supports 2,500 credit unions and banks accross the U.S. You will receive regular texts from Digit detailing your savings total and if you need to withdraw the money from Digit, you just send a text with the amount at anytime day or night, 365 days out of the year, and it will be available to you the next business day. The downside of Digit is that any interest accrued on the amount in your Digit account will go straight to Digit to pay its operating expenses. They plan on offering ways to get a return on your investment in the future, but until then, you are able to transfer the savings to other investment accounts free of charge as often as you desire. Visit Digit‘s website to sign up or to obtain more information.
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“any interest accrued on the amount in your Digit account will go straight to Digit to pay its operating expenses”
That’s throwing away the biggest reason TO invest for retirement. Compound interest is how you turn thousands of dollars into tens of thousands. Sign up for something like betterment.com where you can schedule a little bit of money to come out of your acount every week.
Many people know the value of compound interest. However there are others out there that are living paycheck to paycheck and are afraid to schedule a set amount each week to be automatically withdrawn. This is where Digit helps. Digit automatically calculates the amount to withdraw from your checking account for you and it will frequently adjust that amount based on your past and projected income and spending. And since it does not automatically invest the amount, if you think you will need the money back, you can be sure it will be available to you by the next business day after your request. Your money is not available to you for as many as five business days after requesting it through these other automatic investment avenues. Also by using Digit, after you feel comfortable that you will not need the saved money, you are able to withdraw it and place it into investment accounts where it will have the potential to increase in value via stock, mutual funds, etc.
I’m not saying this is the best investment plan, but it is a way to get started for those who feel like saving is almost impossible.
Huge fan and user of Digit. Throwing the retirement card in the mix was probably a mistake as it’s not really designed for that. What Digit is though, is an alternative savings plan that withdraws small amounts of money in a way that you generally will never miss. Fast forward 3 months etc and all of a sudden you have $300 in savings.
Granted the no-interest “cost” of this is a bummer – but the reality is that this type of savings (a) wouldn’t get much interest at your local bank and (b) a lot of the other strategies that people use (throwing your change in a jar, never spending dollar bills etc) don’t pay interest either.
It’s worth noting that Digit partners w/ Wells Fargo for the banking back end, so there is legitimate FDIC protection etc.