#had to cut off some of the screenshot because apps and stuff but eh

[kindercelery]

That wallpaper I mentioned a few weeks ago btw

[starrybethany]

I’m Sure - Adam Boqvist Imagine Part 5

Word count: 4.0K

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Adam: You followed me

I stare at the three words, blinking with tired eyes. All I want to do is sleep, especially after the day I’ve had with Holden, but the baby decided kicking me was more important. So here I am at four o’clock in the morning checking my social media when I should be getting another three hours of sleep.

I rub my eyes, unsure of how to even respond to the message.

It’s just a statement. I feel flabbergasted by it- really, we haven’t talked in years- well, technically months, but the last time we saw each other we just fucked, and our child went to see him without my knowledge or consent. How the fuck am I supposed to respond to those three words?

Y/N: I think we need to talk.

I sigh, setting my phone down. Might as well get straight to the point. The sooner I tell him about the second baby and ask why he would see Holden without at least running it past me the better. I roll over, pulling the blanket tighter around me. Hopefully I can sleep at least a little bit longer. I’m going to need it to deal with the moody adolescent I’ll be seeing in the morning.

~

“I made some toast and bacon. Just let me just finish cutting up these strawberries and then breakfast will be ready,” I inform Holden as he hops down the stairs.

He picks up the filled plate waiting for him on the table, throwing the food into the trashcan and setting the plate on the counter, giving me an expectant look.

I stare blankly back at him. I know he’s waiting for a reaction. He wants me to blow up so then he feels okay yelling at me instead of starting the confrontation himself. Instead, I just say, “That’s wasteful.”

He rolls his eyes, grabbing his backpack from its usual spot by the door and making his way outside, letting it slam shut behind him. I release the breath that I’ve been holding in, popping a strawberry into my mouth.

I open my Instagram app to catch up on the posts that I’ve missed, freezing when I see that I’ve received a DM. I forgot that I sent a message to Adam last night. Well, technically this morning. After I sent the message, I passed out hard, and I thought the whole thing was a fever dream.

Adam: What about?

Adam: Here’s my number

My fingers tap the screen quietly as I add his phone number into my contacts, saving it and staring at it blankly.

Well. No time like the present.

Before I can even realize what I’m doing, before I can even think things through and decide what to say or whether this is a good idea or not, or hell, even what time it is in Chicago right now, I click on the phone icon.

I curse to myself, raising the phone to my ear. Absentmindedly, my hand raises to my mouth so I can chew on my fingernail. Nail-biting is a nervous habit that I gave up years ago, but I guess old habits die hard.

“Hello?” His groggy voice comes through the phone.

I can’t breathe.

The oxygen gets stuck in my lungs. All I can think about are his hands on my body, sliding down to grip my hips. The twinkle in his eyes as I would pull my shirt over my head.

And not to mention the last time I saw him. His hair is longer than he used to keep it, but it suits him. It looks good on him. And he bulked up since the last time I saw him, too- his abs definitely looked and felt like it, anyways.

“Hello?” He repeats, sounding more awake and borderline annoyed now.

“Adam,” I respond softly, suddenly feeling shy. Come on, where did my confidence go? I’ll need it to get through this conversation.

“Y/N,” he says, all sounds of annoyance out of his voice. “You actually called, I didn’t think that you would-“”Sorry for waking you up,” I blurt out, glancing at the clock and seeing that it’s seven in the morning here. Chicago is an hour behind Philadelphia- it’s what kept me from calling the boys on the team late at night for several years.

“Oh, no, no, don’t you ever worry about that,” he reassures me. It’s quiet. I know he’s waiting for me to speak, to let him know what I want to talk to him about, but I just can’t get the words out. I feel them stuck in my throat, clawing to escape. “So, how’s Holden?”

And there it is.

That question is what spurs me to speak, to dig into the man who hid a huge secret like that from me. But I guess I’m doing the same thing to him now.

“I don’t know, how is he, Adam?” I spit out.

He sighs. He sighs. I want to punch his perfect fucking face.

“If I had realized that you had such a problem with it-“”Such a problem with it?” I repeat, not believing my own ears. Suddenly I’m reminded of why I decided not to tell Adam about this baby and why he wasn’t ready to be in Holden’s life for thirteen years. Hell, it sounds like he’s still not ready.

“My son lied to me about his intentions of going to Chicago, traveled halfway across the country by himself, and saw someone who he’s never met before. Yes, I have a fucking problem with it,” I growl.

“Our son.”

“What?”

“He’s our son. You said my son.”

All I want to do right now is to reach through this tiny screen and hit him upside the head. Really, after I lay out all of my concerns, this is all he has to say to me?

“Whatever. When are you coming to Philadelphia next?” I question. I don’t want to air all of grievances and talk about the new baby over the phone. I’ve had enough communication classes to know that you need to see someone’s nonverbal behaviors instead just hearing what they have to say.

“Why? You want to see me?” Suggestion laces his tone.

No, asshole, you already got me pregnant again.

“Yes. We need to talk about Holden… and some other things,” my voice trails off at the end, not sure how to warn him about such big news.

“Some other things, eh? Well, I’ll be looking forward to that,” he responds, clearly thinking that it’s something regarding us and our relationship, well, our dislike or lust for one another or something, instead of picking up what I’m trying to hint at.

“Cool. So, can you take a trip to Philly sometime soon or are you going to wait until hockey season?” I inquire.

“I can take a trip there, just for you. And Holden, of course.”

I can’t help but let a small smile slip onto my face. That sentence shows me that he’d be a good dad if he just put in the effort. It infuriates me that he’s kept that from Holden for years just because he hasn’t felt like working towards a relationship with his son.

“Good. Let me know when you’re in town so we can meet up.”

“What? You’re not going to invite me to stay with you?”

“Goodbye, Adam.” I hang up before he can respond. All I can imagine the rest of the day is his reaction after that phone call. He would have that small, knowing smile on his face, pulling his phone out of his pocket every five minutes to check and see if he got a new text from me or to send the fifth one in a row to me- one that I still would not respond to.

And my heart skips a beat at the thought of that.

~

It’s been a week since the phone call and since Adam sent me a screenshot of his booked ticket to Philadelphia two weeks from then. For some reason, maybe it’s the stupid, hopeless romantic part in me, I had hoped that he would book his plane ticket and hotel room for that night or even the next day. But he told me he had some ‘lose ends’ to tie up in Chicago before leaving.

And it’s also been a week since Holden has said a word to me. I’ve tried talking to him. I’ve asked him about his day, his friends, cooked him his favorite meals all week, I even offered to take him to Target to get a new video game.

None of that has worked. And it hurts. It hurts knowing that after everything I’ve done for him and everything I’ve sacrificed for him, and how Adam has done none of that, he looks at Adam like a God and me like the scum on the bottom of his shoe.

I know it’s what I’m supposed to do as a mother, care for my son and make sure he’s happy, but it’s just- it’s just- ugh.

I start to feel my blood boil as my mom’s voice echoes in the back of my head. Life’s not fair.

It’s then that I realize that I’ve given him enough space and time to figure out his feelings and how he wants to proceed. I don’t want to give him too much space that he begins to resent me and feel like I don’t care about him.

I know that feeling all too well.

I knock on his bedroom door softly, waiting for him to open it before I just walk in. It creeks open slightly, and just as I expected, eyes matching my mom’s peek out to glare at me.

“Can I talk to you, Holden?”

He doesn’t respond, just stares at me.

“Please, you don’t even have to talk, just listen,” I beg.

Fortunately, he opens the door the rest of the way, watching as I walk into his room and sit gently on the edge of the bed. He sits down on his worn computer chair, laptop open to some video game I don’t recognize on his desk.

“I want to start by apologizing for yelling at you last week,” I begin, taking a deep breath. Apologizing isn’t something that comes easy to me- I grew up in a family where the words ‘I’m sorry’ were unheard of. My parents were always right, and I was always wrong.

“I realize it probably wasn’t easy for you to go to Chicago by yourself to meet your dad. Holden, I just want you to realize that I would do anything to protect you, and I love you with my whole heart so realizing that you were in such an emotionally taxing situation without talking to me about it first-“I pause to sniffle, starting to feel tears well up in my eyes. “I felt helpless. And I couldn’t stop wondering why you didn’t feel like you could share that with me and then I realized that it’s because I don’t share stuff with you either.”

He watches as I lift my sleeve, wiping the tears from under my eyes. His face is still blank, but his eyes look like they’ve softened. He’s understanding my words so far.

“So, yes, this baby is also Adam’s baby. And he did ask about you when I saw him back in February, but I let my pride get the best of me and I told him that he didn’t deserve to see you. I’m sorry for robbing you of meeting your father earlier,” I genuinely apologize, maintaining eye contact with my son.

He shifts in his seat, his hard exterior softening with every word. “Well, I’m sorry for calling you a shitty mother. And saying all of that other stuff. And, if it makes you feel better, I did go to the computer programming camp. I just saw Adam when we had a night off.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

He nods.

“What did he tell you? About not being involved in your life?” I ask carefully, curious as to what Adam told Holden to turn him against me like that.

“He just told me that he was working through some stuff,” he shrugs, acting like he doesn’t care but I know my son well enough to tell that he does. “And he wasn’t ready until recently to meet me.”

I bite my tongue to keep it from releasing an insult towards Adam. “And how does that make you feel?”

“Honestly?” I nod, probing him to go on. “Pretty awful. I don’t think I want a relationship with him, mom.”

A mix of emotions run through my body at his word. I feel anxious, because now I have to tell him that Adam’s coming next week and will want to see him, sadness, because my son now recognizes how his father did not want be involved in his life, and anger toward Adam for making him feel like this in the first place.

“Well,” I cough awkwardly. “He’s coming to Philadelphia next week. I’m going to meet him to tell him about the baby. If you don’t want to see him, you don’t have to. It’s all up to you, bud.”

I stand up slowly, rubbing my belly as the baby begins to kick. He always seems to do that whenever I move even just a little bit- he’s an active little guy.

“Oh,” I turn back around just as I’m about to close the door. “How did you even find out who your father is?”

“Please mom, I’m not stupid,” he grins slyly at me, sliding his headphones onto his neck. “You lived in Chicago when you got pregnant with me and worked for the Blackhawks. I figured, since you said you worked a lot, the only guys you really had a chance to be with were on the team. And when I asked you about my dad for that project for school you said he was Swedish, so I just went to the Blackhawks roster in 2020 and found the Swedish players, messaging them some really uncomfortable and intrusive messages on Instagram.”

I chuckle at that, shaking my head. It will never not blow my mind how clever and smart he is. As I close the door to his bedroom, I hear him say, “On the plus side, Alex Nylander is a really nice guy.”

~

The day is finally here. Being eighteen weeks pregnant makes it really hard to hide my baby bump, but I somehow manage to find a baggy sweatshirt that I’ve stolen from one of my ex-boyfriends to cover it up. I don’t want to walk into the restaurant we’re meeting at and have him immediately know.

Somehow my jeans still fit on my legs, but I have a feeling by the end of this lunch they’ll be unbuttoned. It’s just the way it goes sometimes.

I get to the restaurant before Adam, just like how I planned it. I wanted time to scope out my exits in case I need to bail halfway through this meal- knowing Adam, it’s a possibility. I haven’t thought through what I was going to say too much.

I know I need to talk to him about why he would keep Holden going to Chicago to see him a secret from me, and we need to talk about the baby.

But mostly I just want to hear him grovel. The secret, sadistic part of me wants to hear him beg for forgiveness for making me raise my child by myself for the past thirteen years. I want to hear him admit that he fucked up- I’ve never heard Adam Boqvist admit that he fucked up before.

He shows up two minutes late.

I know because my phone is sitting face up on the table and I click on it every five seconds to see what time it is. I tell myself that if it gets ten minutes past noon and he’s still not here, I’m going home and giving up on dealing with Adam ever again.

But then he’s standing in front of me, familiar toothy grin on his face, black beanie on his shaggy hair, and a bouquet of red roses in his hand.

“You’re late,” I state sternly, not letting any sign of emotion onto my face. I need to let him know I mean business. I need to let him know that I’m never getting into bed with him ever again.

“Yeah, sorry, there was a line at the grocery store,” his grin begins to slip, but as he holds the bouquet out towards me, it takes over his face once again. “I got you these.”

“Thanks.”

I don’t make any movement towards them. His smile falls once again and I begin to feel guilty- he did buy these flowers for me, but he also impregnated me and left me twice.

He slides into the chair across the table from me, setting the flowers on the table and coughing awkwardly. “So, have you ordered yet?”

“Just water,” I respond shortly.

“Do you want to split a bottle of wine?”

“I’m not really a day drinker,” I eye him over the top of my menu, then go back to skimming through the items. It’s a charade, though. I already know what I want.

“Are you two ready to order?” The peppy waitress appears at our side, notepad open in her hand.

“I’ll have the chicken alfredo,” I announce, folding my menu.

“I’ll take that too. And a bottle of your sweetest wine, please,” the blonde orders, passing his menu to the waitress. When she leaves, he turns back to me. “I know you like the sweet stuff.”

I take a deep breath, deciding to cut to the chase. I’d rather get through this meal as soon as possible. The sooner we get done talking about this stuff, the sooner I can get out of here.

“Adam, I’m pregnant.”

He chokes on the sip of water he’s just taken from his glass, water dripping down his chin and landing on the table in front of him. I can’t help but watch with a content smile as he coughs, trying to catch his breath.

“Excuse me?” He utters through coughs, wiping his chin with a napkin.

“I’m pregnant,” I repeat. “I’m due in November.”

“Well, uh, congratulations,” he says unsurely.

I roll my eyes, muttering, “You clearly haven’t gotten smarter since last time.”

He seems to catch on to the hidden meaning behind my comment, his eyes widening. “Oh is it- since we-“”It’s your baby,” I conclude bluntly.

A smirk begins to spread across his face. I can’t believe it. He’s smirking just after I told him that he got me pregnant accidentally for the second time.

“Why do you have that look?” I snap.

“My little swimmers work pretty well, don’t they?” He inquires confidently, sipping from his water and succeeding this time.

I lean across the table, turning it on him. “I don’t know, do they? Are there any half-siblings that I need to worry about?”

The smirk is replaced by a look of genuineness now. It startles me, the sudden change of emotions. “No, it’s you, Y/N. It’s always been you.”

I lean back in my seat, the sudden seriousness too much for me to bear. I fiddle with the napkin sitting next to my glass, avoiding eye contact with him. “Yeah, so it’s a boy.”

“Another boy,” he echoes my very thoughts the moment I found out the sex.

I grin at the thought of my second child. When he’s been kicking me at night and keeping me awake, I think about what he’s going to be like. Is he going to cry a lot or is he going to be a quiet baby like Holden was? Will I have to keep an eye on him every minute or will I be able to get some breaks?

And what about when he’s older. Will he like hockey like his dad? Would he like the Flyers because we live in Philadelphia, or would he like the Blackhawks because his dad plays for them?

“Speaking of boys, how is Holden doing? He hasn’t been responding to my texts lately.” Adam means for the question to sound casual, but I can hear the undertone of worry in his voice. Maybe he isn’t as much of a shitty father as I think he is.

“He doesn’t want to talk to you,” I confess.

He doesn’t bother to hide the hurt on his face. I don’t expect him to. I know how it feels to feel unwanted and unloved by your child- I felt it when Holden told me that I’m a shitty mother. And although Adam deserves the consequences to his actions, I can’t help but feel a small amount of pity for him.

“I deserve that,” he sighs.

“You do,” I agree, knowing that I’m shoving the knife deeper into his heart. “But just give him time to decide what he wants to do. It’s all so fresh to him.”

He gives me a small, vulnerable smile.

“Why didn’t you tell me that he was going to see you while he was in Chicago, Adam?” I ask him the question I’ve been dying to ask ever since I found out about the situation.

He shrugs, not saying a word.

“Yes, you do know,” I persist. “So just fucking tell me. Enough of the bullshit, we’re in our thirties now. It’s time to focus on the children, not your fucking pride.”

He looks baffled by my sudden outburst, but it inspires him to answer. “I was afraid that if you found out, you would stop him. Then I’d never get to meet my son.”

“I would have stopped him,” I agreed, causing him to open his mouth to begin arguing with me. I start to speak again before he can begin. “And reschedule the trip to a time that works better with my work schedule so that I could go with him. Yes, you’re his father, but you’ve never been in his life. You’re essentially a stranger to him.”

He narrows his eyes at me like my words are a challenge. “Not anymore.”

I narrow my eyes at him now. “Really? What’s his middle name? When is his birthday? What’s his favorite color?”

He doesn’t respond and I scoff, taking a sip of my water again. “That’s what I thought.”

We’re quiet as the waitress returns with our meals. I cut my noodles, taking a bite of my food.

“I don’t want it to be that way with this baby,” he says, quickly adding, “And Holden anymore. I want to be there for this baby from the start. Or from now, I guess. And I want to be there for Holden, if he ever wants me.”

Mixed feelings begin to flush through my body. This is what I wanted for my kids from the beginning, an active father figure. And Adam’s offering it now, but why am I still feeling so hesitant?

After years of expecting him to step up as a parent and him never doing it, I have reasonable doubts when it comes to Adam’s parenting ability.

“Well, you know it’s up to Holden. You can’t force him to like you,” I begin slowly, trying to phrase my words in the best way possible. “But with this second baby… we can try it. I have a doctor’s appointment in two days. I’ll text you the address and time.”

“But my flight leaves tomorrow,” he whines. “Can’t you just reschedule for today?”

“You have so much to learn, Adam,” I shake my head. “I just hope you realize that being a parent means that you’re selfless more than selfish. Tell you what, go back to Chicago if you want to. But if you go back to Chicago, the only time you’ll communicate with the boys is when they want to talk to you.”

[fesahaawit]

Will New Financial App, Clarity Money, Kill Mint.com?

What’s up money lovers!

Got a new financial app to share with ya today for anyone still looking for that holy grail of fintech help ;) It’s called Clarity Money, and my boy who’s on their core team over there literally told me it will become “the app that kills Mint” haha… Pretty bold for only being a month old! But hey – I guess you gotta shoot for the stars, eh?

He also told made sure I knew that the founder – and his boss – is Adam Dell, the brother of THE Michael Dell from computer fame, and that one of their backers is legendary investor George Soros. All pretty impressive, for sure.

Here’s a quick clip of what Clarity does from their website:

“We help you take control of your finances by cancelling wasteful accounts, lowering your bills, getting you better deals and managing your financial life — all in one place for free.”

Well sign me up! Haha… Oh wait, I can’t because I rock Android, womp womp…

I was going to wait until I could test them myself to post this up, but it’s still going to be a while and didn’t want to keep y’all in the dark. So any Apple lovers will have to just be my guinea pigs for now, deal? ;) And from what my friend is saying, they definitely seem to be doing something right.

Here are some of the stats he just shot me this week:

Apple featured them as a “New App We Love”

They’ve got over 100,000 downloads so far

They’ve analyzed over $7 billion of transactions

They’ve saved their customers over $400,000

And their customers have opened 4,000 Clarity Money savings accounts so far

(PS: My friend I keep mentioning was one of the guys who helped jump start that savings app, Paribus, you might recall me reviewing a couple years ago. Similar to Digit, I had the opportunity to connect up with them and receive a small pile of stock options, however I took too long to decide and they eventually went on to sell to Capital One!!! D’oh. But at least my taste in fintech apps seems to be good ;) My friend Marc Atiyeh was a part of that team who helped get them to where they are, and then promptly jumped ship to move over to the next hot app – Clarity Money. So we’ll see if he strikes gold again.)

Okay, So What Does Clarity Money Do?

In a nutshell, you hook up your accounts with them and then Clarity will analyze all the data and make suggestions on how to better optimize and save you money. But rather than just telling or showing you what to do, you actually have the ability to *take action* there directly in the app – the major difference between them and all the other apps popping up around each corner.

Here’s a short video on ’em if you prefer watching vs reading:

Clarity’s Bill Lowering & Canceling Service

One of the main ways you can take action is through their Bill Negotiation & Lowering service, where you can give them permission to negotiate and cancel any of your recurring services on your behalf. They do this by applying discounts or coupons that you may be entitled to but didn’t even know about.

If they’re successful in cutting down the costs, they keep 33% of the savings as their commission, leaving you with the other 2/3rds of the difference. Win-win for all. And of course, they never change your contract or commit you to anything unless you’ve approved it after getting all the info.

Here’s some screenshots of how it looks in the app:

Some Other Things You Can Do Directly In The Clarity App

Transfer money between your connected accounts

Get your free credit score (they work with Experian and use the VantageScore model)

Create a new savings account and have them automatically save for you (FDIC-insured up to $250,000, but no word on interest rates)

Find lower interest rate credit cards and/or personal loans (another way they make money)

Stay on top of insights based on your spending patterns

And then lastly, of course, they aim to help you budget better. You can easily set up expense categories, get overall views any time you want, and they’ll even alert you any time you get close to hitting any max limits.

Here are some more screenshots:

Are There Cons?

Of course! It’s hard to know all of them since, again, I haven’t personally tested them myself (Con #1 – no app for Android! :)), but similar to all the other apps out there you have to be okay with the following:

Connecting all your accounts to an app

Not being able to connect to *all* your banks and institutions (like the small guys)

Not being able to cancel or negotiate *all* recurring expenses

Not working outside of the U.S. (I swear – one of these days!!)

And probably coming across some bugs here and there since they’re still so young

There are always trade offs with this stuff, so the main question to ask yourself is – does this app (or any app) have a good shot of improving my finances and simplifying my life? Can it replace any other apps or services I’m already using? Do I enjoy testing new apps because I’m a big fat money nerd?? :)

Only you know the answers to those, so from there you just gotta go with your gut and continue keeping your eyes open for any other ideas or apps that may look good over time. It’s a constant game of trying things out and putting together your perfect array of killer tools.

If this newer app looks interesting and you rock Apple, you can sign up and test them easily here: ClarityMoney.com. Again, it’s FREE.

Let me know what you think! And especially if you’re already using them! Drop all the tricks and hints below so we can all learn from you, please :)

I want to see if they can for real dethrone the app that started it all – Mint.com.

***** As with most products we feature here, all links to Clarity Money above are affiliate ones which means I’ll get a few bucks if you end up signing up through them. It never impacts my reviews (and as you can tell, I rarely do any of them unless I think there’s a winner out there!), and I always want you to do whatever is best for YOU. If it means testing out stuff I share here, cool! I appreciate the support.)

Will New Financial App, Clarity Money, Kill Mint.com? posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

[heliosfinance]

Will New Financial App, Clarity Money, Kill Mint.com?

What’s up money lovers!

Got a new financial app to share with ya today for anyone still looking for that holy grail of fintech help ;) It’s called Clarity Money, and my boy who’s on their core team over there literally told me it will become “the app that kills Mint” haha… Pretty bold for only being a month old! But hey – I guess you gotta shoot for the stars, eh?

He also told made sure I knew that the founder – and his boss – is Adam Dell, the brother of THE Michael Dell from computer fame, and that one of their backers is legendary investor George Soros. All pretty impressive, for sure.

Here’s a quick clip of what Clarity does from their website:

“We help you take control of your finances by cancelling wasteful accounts, lowering your bills, getting you better deals and managing your financial life — all in one place for free.”

Well sign me up! Haha… Oh wait, I can’t because I rock Android, womp womp…

I was going to wait until I could test them myself to post this up, but it’s still going to be a while and didn’t want to keep y’all in the dark. So any Apple lovers will have to just be my guinea pigs for now, deal? ;) And from what my friend is saying, they definitely seem to be doing something right.

Here are some of the stats he just shot me this week:

Apple featured them as a “New App We Love”

They’ve got over 100,000 downloads so far

They’ve analyzed over $7 billion of transactions

They’ve saved their customers over $400,000

And their customers have opened 4,000 Clarity Money savings accounts so far

(PS: My friend I keep mentioning was one of the guys who helped jump start that savings app, Paribus, you might recall me reviewing a couple years ago. Similar to Digit, I had the opportunity to connect up with them and receive a small pile of stock options, however I took too long to decide and they eventually went on to sell to Capital One!!! D’oh. But at least my taste in fintech apps seems to be good ;) My friend Marc Atiyeh was a part of that team who helped get them to where they are, and then promptly jumped ship to move over to the next hot app – Clarity Money. So we’ll see if he strikes gold again.)

Okay, So What Does Clarity Money Do?

In a nutshell, you hook up your accounts with them and then Clarity will analyze all the data and make suggestions on how to better optimize and save you money. But rather than just telling or showing you what to do, you actually have the ability to *take action* there directly in the app – the major difference between them and all the other apps popping up around each corner.

Here’s a short video on ’em if you prefer watching vs reading:

Clarity’s Bill Lowering & Canceling Service

One of the main ways you can take action is through their Bill Negotiation & Lowering service, where you can give them permission to negotiate and cancel any of your recurring services on your behalf. They do this by applying discounts or coupons that you may be entitled to but didn’t even know about.

If they’re successful in cutting down the costs, they keep 33% of the savings as their commission, leaving you with the other 2/3rds of the difference. Win-win for all. And of course, they never change your contract or commit you to anything unless you’ve approved it after getting all the info.

Here’s some screenshots of how it looks in the app:

Some Other Things You Can Do Directly In The Clarity App

Transfer money between your connected accounts

Get your free credit score (they work with Experian and use the VantageScore model)

Create a new savings account and have them automatically save for you (FDIC-insured up to $250,000, but no word on interest rates)

Find lower interest rate credit cards and/or personal loans (another way they make money)

Stay on top of insights based on your spending patterns

And then lastly, of course, they aim to help you budget better. You can easily set up expense categories, get overall views any time you want, and they’ll even alert you any time you get close to hitting any max limits.

Here are some more screenshots:

Are There Cons?

Of course! It’s hard to know all of them since, again, I haven’t personally tested them myself (Con #1 – no app for Android! :)), but similar to all the other apps out there you have to be okay with the following:

Connecting all your accounts to an app

Not being able to connect to *all* your banks and institutions (like the small guys)

Not being able to cancel or negotiate *all* recurring expenses

Not working outside of the U.S. (I swear – one of these days!!)

And probably coming across some bugs here and there since they’re still so young

There are always trade offs with this stuff, so the main question to ask yourself is – does this app (or any app) have a good shot of improving my finances and simplifying my life? Can it replace any other apps or services I’m already using? Do I enjoy testing new apps because I’m a big fat money nerd?? :)

Only you know the answers to those, so from there you just gotta go with your gut and continue keeping your eyes open for any other ideas or apps that may look good over time. It’s a constant game of trying things out and putting together your perfect array of killer tools.

If this newer app looks interesting and you rock Apple, you can sign up and test them easily here: ClarityMoney.com. Again, it’s FREE.

Let me know what you think! And especially if you’re already using them! Drop all the tricks and hints below so we can all learn from you, please :)

I want to see if they can for real dethrone the app that started it all – Mint.com.

***** As with most products we feature here, all links to Clarity Money above are affiliate ones which means I’ll get a few bucks if you end up signing up through them. It never impacts my reviews (and as you can tell, I rarely do any of them unless I think there’s a winner out there!), and I always want you to do whatever is best for YOU. If it means testing out stuff I share here, cool! I appreciate the support.)

Will New Financial App, Clarity Money, Kill Mint.com? published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B