Hot Mama In The City

Wells Fargo banking makes keeping track of your spending and finances incredibly easy with all of their easy to use banking features. I recently became a Wells Fargo customer and learning how to use their online and mobile banking tools has made banking so simple. I've been impressed with all I can get done on my phone with out having to take time out of my day to stop by a bank. Their mobile app allows me to deposit checks, transfer money and view my spending reports with just a few clicks.

Wells Fargo is focused on empowering Hispanics to enhance their financial knowledge and help them to reach their financial goals. Wells Fargo recently collaborated with Telemundo for the "Conversemos de Tus Finanzas" campaign, which provides customized content, tools and resources around the important financial topics of money management and credit.

Money Management Tips
Wells Fargo understands that money management is very important when it comes to reaching your financial goals. Follow these tips so that managing your money is simple and effective:

1. Learn where you can put your money
Learn the types of accounts that are available and how to determine which ones you need. Here are some definitions to help you navigate your banking needs:
• Checking account: A checking account offers easy access to your money for your daily transactional needs and helps keep your cash secure.
• Savings account: A savings account allows you to accumulate interest on funds you’ve saved for future needs.
• Certificate of Deposit (CD): Certificates of deposit, or CDs, allow you to invest your money at a set interest rate for a pre-set period of time.
• Money market account: Money market accounts are similar to savings accounts, but they require you to maintain a higher balance to avoid a monthly fee.
• Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs): IRAs, or individual retirement accounts, allow you to save independently for your retirement.

2. Prepare a budget
• Understanding your income sources is one of the starting points towards creating a budget.
• Tracking your expenses will help you spend your money more wisely. If you take the process step-by-step, it can be surprisingly easy to find out how you’re spending your money.
• Saving for life's special moments. Set your sights on specific goals to effectively target your savings strategy. Look for an online budgeting tool that helps you identify and track multiple goals at once.
• Putting it all together in a budget. Create a budget in five easy steps.

Step 1: Organize. At its core, a budget is a worksheet with two columns:
Step 2: Track. For one month, keep a detailed log of all your spending
Step 3: Analyze. At the end of the month, total your income and your
Step 4: React. After looking at all of your expenses, separate them into categories and set a budget for each.
Step 5: Review: Make a habit of reviewing your budget every month, particularly in the early stages.

3. Track your spending. Online tools can make the process of tracking your spending completely automatic.

4. Pay yourself first. If you're having trouble finding ways to pay yourself first, try taking these steps to get into the habit:

• Figure out how much you can afford
• Set a personal payment goal
• Create a savings strategy

5. Reduce your debt. If you find that you’re paying down your debt each month, but your balance doesn’t seem to budge, you may want to take a look at your payment strategy. Here are a few tips to help you make more headway:

• Organize your debt
• Prioritize your payments
• Consolidate your debt

6. Save for an emergency. Learn how much you should save in case of an emergency.

7. Keep track of your account. An important step in managing your finances is consistently tracking your account activity.

8. Avoid overspending. Keeping an accurate record of your transactions is the best way to avoid spending more money than you have in your account.