Saving money is important, no matter who you are or what your goals are. Saving money helps protect yourself against potential emergencies, gives you a chance to build wealth for retirement, and can afford you luxuries like vacations and home improvements. But for many of us, saving money is difficult—either because we aren’t experienced with personal finance or because our income is limited. And with 13.6 percent of American families below the poverty line (as of 2015, the most recent year on record), the latter point is an especially significant struggle.

Fortunately, smart financial planning isn’t just for the super rich or the already-acquainted. Thanks to new technology, it’s easier than ever to meet (and exceed) your financial goals.

Tech That Can Help You Save

Here’s how technology can help you save:

• Debt consolidation. Total household debt now averages over $132,000 in the United States, with $16,000 of credit card debt alone. Thanks to ongoing debt payments and the harsh effects of compound interest, standing debt is one of the biggest reasons why consumers aren’t able to save as much as they’d like. Fortunately, thanks to the Internet and the plethora of financial offers available through it, it’s now both possible and convenient to consolidate your debts. Doing so can reduce your interest rates and secure you more favorable terms and conditions (not to mention simplify your payments into one monthly payment).
• Budgeting and organizing. Before you can start saving money, you need to know exactly how much you make and how much you pay for both necessary and unnecessary expenses. Most Americans find it difficult and/or tedious to create a budget, but there are a host of apps available to make the process easier. Mint, for example, connects to your bank account and helps you create a monthly budget that you can visualize with charts and graphs. Pocket Guard is similarly useful, helping you manage your cash flow and properly prepare for your recurring monthly payments.
• Automatic savings. Even with a solid budget in place, it’s tempting to spend your extra income on discretionary things, like nice meals out or personal entertainment. That’s why an automatic savings app could be the perfect solution; it automatically takes money on a regular basis to be set aside as savings, so you don’t have to think about it. Digit, for example, saves a specific amount of money from your bank account every day. If you’re interested in investing your savings, you might consider Acorns, which rounds all of your purchases up to the nearest dollar and automatically invests the difference—however, there is a $1 per month fee.
• Credit report insights. As a consumer, you’re entitled to get a free copy of your own credit report, and thanks to modern technology, it’s easy to obtain one. Credit reports are important because they help you understand your previous financial habits and your current financial standing, so you can plan for major purchases or finances, like buying a house. Today’s credit reports are often interactive, showing you detailed breakdowns of your main areas of weakness, and what you can do to improve your standing.
• New types of investments. Once you’re in a better financial position, you can start using technology to invest in new and exciting areas—such as artificially intelligent investment algorithms, which invest your capital automatically into equity and markets that are most likely to perform well. Wealthfront and Betterment are apps that use these so-called “robo advisors,” and if you’re not into that idea, you can trade on your own using an app like Robinhood, which allows consumers to trade stocks for free.

It Starts With You

New technology can make it easier for you to save money, but you’re still the one who has to make the decision to save. Even if you don’t have much disposable income, even managing to squirrel away a hundred extra dollars a month—just over three dollars a day—can help you build a brighter financial future for yourself. Since most of these apps and technologies are free, you have no excuse.

Get started planning a better future for yourself today!