While going through my divorce and court proceedings a few years back, I had the HEINOUS task of accounting for EVERY SINGLE DIME I SPENT and coming up with a budget to appropriately reflect my life.
It was a GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND wake-up call that I wasn’t prepared for.
I spent hours…days…weeks pouring over every bank statement and credit card to determine how much I was spending on household expenses like my mortgage, heat, lights, internet, car, this list goes on and on. Then the lifestyle expenses like take-out, drive-thru coffee, gift giving, haircuts and entertainment; and of course, the big things like Christmas, vacations, tuition, hockey and everything else in between!
That was the year I’d discovered I’d spent $1,300 on hockey sticks!!
To say it was a difficult undertaking is an understatement both from the perspective of going through all of the bills and categorizing everything to actually opening my eyes to see where all the money was going and why I was so darn broke all the time!
I’ll be 100% honest with you, I spent hours sorting through the debris to come up with a proper budget and found it incredibly useful to actually know where my money was going – this allowed me to change some of my habits and get real with my finances. But, I’ve totally let things slide again and currently, once again, have ZERO clue about how much I’m spending. Life is busy…I’m busy…I’m “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul” and living on the edge one paycheque at a time where some months there’s an abundance and others I’m in an overdraft hole.
It’s time to take a good hard look at my spending habits once again and also take a peek at the simple fact that at 50, I might want to focus on saving for a rainy day and set some money aside for my future!
But, the problem is the thought of going through all of that paperwork once again to figure out where all my money is going and sort out where I can save a few dollars is a task that just seems too overwhelming at the moment.
ENTER ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE!
As an RBC Customer, I’m super pumped about a new tool from RBC – NOMI – that it is taking the guess-work out of where my money is going and my habits!
RBC is the first bank in North America to use artificial intelligence to help clients automatically track spending and fast-track savings through their NOMI Find & Save platform – a simple solution to help you save.
NOMI Find & Save proactively analyzes your spending, so you can save money without lifting a finger. All you need to do is turn on NOMI Find & Save in the RBC Mobile app. Just like that, NOMI Find & Save (and possibly wee little money elves that are hiding in your phone) will learn your transaction patterns, categorize your spending, find the extra dollars that you won’t miss, and set them aside for you automatically!
YOU’LL ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO SAVE MONEY FOR A RAINY DAY but more importantly in my case, see exactly where all of that money is going so I can unbury my head from the sand, once again, and get real about my finances.
Plus, another amazing thing about NOMI Find & Save is that they just launched their new joint account feature so now joint users can use this feature to save as well! I have a joint account with my kids, and we’ve been chatting about wanting to save up to go on a family vacation, so this might be absolutely perfect for us. It will track our spending and we’ll put extra money into savings with a goal for that family trip!
I’ve been working on ME for the last few months getting healthy mentally and physically and now, with the help of RBC and their NOMI Find & Save technology, I’m working on getting my financial health in order as well!
Go Me!!! NOMI!
Check out www.rbc.com/nomifindandsave for more information and to find out how you can accelerate your savings with the touch of a button.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by RBC. All expressed opinions and experiences are my own.