Group Sharing is now available on Wallet for iOS. This means you can share your finances across devices and platforms! Start building stronger relationships now!
Talking about money is awkward. No matter who is on the other end of the conversation.
In fact, a survey conducted by Wells Fargo & Co found that 44% of Americans point to money as the most challenging topic to have a conversation about. Even death came in second at 38%, followed by other explosive topics like politics (35%) and religion (32%).
However, money is a crucial element is most relationships–be it between couples, a family or friends. And, this is the reason why managing it right and having the right conversations become important.
At BudgetBakers, we aim to provide solutions that will help you simplify your money management game and, more importantly, take out all that is stressful and unpleasant associated with it.
How Group Sharing Will Help You Have Better Money Conversations
With Group Sharing, Wallet takes out the awkwardness in discussing money and brings in transparency. Being open about money is the biggest challenge in most relationships. So imagine if without speaking a single word, you could say all you wanted about money to your loved ones or friends.
No awkward conversations. No accusations. No hard feelings. Right?
Budgeting as a couple or family will become such a cakewalk and your relationships become stronger without much of an effort at all. Every relationship is unique.
So the biggest advantage of Wallet is that it lets you customise every small detail at every point of your money management journey in a way that fits your relationship or family’s philosophy of money.
A Step Towards Better Financial Literacy
A lot of parents also use Wallet to help their kids learn about money. A recent study by OECD that compared financial literacy around the world showed that only 12% of the surveyed youngsters had a good awareness and presence of mind to manage day-to-day personal finance situations. And, it was found that teenagers who frequently discussed about money with their parents scored better than those who gained most of their knowledge from their peers.
Going Beyond Families And Couples
The scope of this feature does not end there as well. It helps any group that is working with or handling money together. Even small businesses, freelancers, friends or roommates can use this feature to their benefit.
Before we give you an idea how, let us explain how this feature actually works.
Each Wallet user can share accounts of his choice, and/or certain individual modules, with upto 10 different people. You retain full control on what is being shared and what actions each member in a group can take by setting personalised access rights.
As you’re sharing accounts with different members, they will be able to use most of the features like Budgets, Goals, Planned Payments, Debts etc, that are associated with the said account. Unless, of course, you have restricted rights for them.
You can add up to 10 members to your group, but you can be a part of any number of groups of other Wallet users. To access your shared Wallets, you can check out the profile area in Wallet, where your groups will be listed.
We’ve compiled different ways in which our users have told us that they use Group Sharing. So here are 8 ways to make the most of the Group Sharing feature on Wallet.
8 Ways to Make The Most Of The Group Sharing Feature On Wallet
1.Budget With Your Spouse: This is the most common way that our users use this feature. You can use Group Sharing depending on how you share your finances with your partner.
The easiest is when you have a joint account. You could just connect the bank to Wallet and your transactions are synchronised automatically. Some couples use Labels with their names to mark their transactions so that they can later analyse individual as well as combined spending with Charts and Reports.
For couples who use two different accounts and split bills among each other, they can use Planned Payments for these bills and be reminded to pay them or be notified of the payment by your partner. Budgeting together with Labels is also a favourite among couples. Usually, they decide on Labels that have to be added to transactions for each budget. So no matter which partner spends money, once the transaction is marked with the same Label, it will automatically be counted in the shared Budget.
2.Involve Your Children In Family Budgeting: As we mentioned earlier, Group Sharing is a powerful tool for parents to teach their children about money and involve them in the family budgeting process.
A study conducted at North Carolina State University and the University of Texas found that children pay close attention to issues related to money and that parents should make an effort to talk with their children to ensure that they don’t develop misconceptions about finances or how to handle money.
One of the best ways to teach children about money is to actually let them handle their own money and make them feel like they are a part of the family financial planning process. Parents can share selected accounts on Wallet with their children so that they are in the know-how about how the family spends money.
Some parents set individual budgets for each child every month to which the child can add his/her transactions with Labels of their name. Or, they encourage children to use the common family Labels and add their transactions to the family budgets for food, groceries and so on. So, in this way, the whole family takes part in managing money and children also learn a thing or two about budgeting.
3.Track Chores And How Children Spend Their Money: Nowadays both parents and children are very tech-savvy and they make sure that they use technology to make life easier.
Wallet can help greatly in keeping track of how your children spend money. Connect or your child’s bank account to Wallet or encourage them to track their transactions manually. Use Labels to mark each child’s transaction. This will help filter them in Charts and Reports and use these visual aids to help children understand their spending and saving patterns.
You could also keep track of chores with the Shopping Lists feature on Wallet. Create checklist of the chores to be completed by each child and as and when the child finishes the task, he/she can mark it as done. Parents will then be able to see which of the tasks are completed and give children their allowances accordingly.
4.Help Children Set Savings Goals: Children need to aware not just about finishing chores and getting paid for it. They also need to learn the importance of saving money. One of the most important lessons in personal finances is how to spend within one’s means for our needs and save the rest to meet our wants.
Teach your children to use the Goals feature on Wallet to set their savings goals. This way, you can also keep track of how and what they are saving for.
5.Collect Reward Points By Sharing Loyalty Cards: Most often one or two members of the family usually have loyalty cards for retail chains. But it’s not always possible to go for shopping together as a family. So what’s the next best option?
If you use Wallet, you would have already digitised your loyalty cards. What if you could share them with your family members? You’ll then be able to collect points each time any of your family members shop at your favourite stores.
One advantage with the Loyalty Cards module is that even if you do not want to grant access to your accounts to the other person, you can give them special rights to only see your Loyalty Cards. So, in this way, you could even share your cards with your parents or friends, especially if you are a member of some exclusive membership clubs or luxury retail chains.
6.Make Sure Shopping Is Coordinated: One of the ways to save money while shopping is to make a list of all what you intend to buy. This will help you stay on track and not indulge in impulsive purchases.
Be it a family, couple or friends, you can share Shopping Lists using Group Sharing. And, just like Loyalty Cards, you can share just the Shopping Lists module without sharing any of your accounts. This makes it easy if you are shopping as part of hosting a larger event or dividing the work of shopping between friends, roommates or colleagues. Thus, you retain all control over what part of your finances are being shared with others.
7.Split Bills And Plan Payments With Friends: Not just with your family, you can share finances with your friends, colleagues or roommates. In this case, you can create and share specific accounts with them.
You can track, budget, and even plan payments to avoid awkward conversations about money. Another feature that is really useful for friends is the debts feature. By using Group Sharing, both the lender and the borrower can be on the same page on the amount of money owed and the payments made till date so that there are no arguments or awkwardness between both parties.
8.Give Your Employees/Contractors Access To Business Budget: Even small businesses can use this Group Sharing feature to their benefit. You can share your budgets, goals or expense reports with core members of your team. Or you can track expenses on specific projects by creating different accounts for each contractor or freelancer you’re working with.
On the other hand, even freelancers can track multiple projects or clients with Wallet by sharing specific accounts. With monthly reports and charts, freelancers and employees can easily present visual analysis and proof about the way financial resources were used for the project.
Over To You
This is not a comprehensive list as many of our users are using the Group Sharing feature in many different ways to suit their individual needs. So go on, tell us how you use this feature, what you like about it and what more you would want to see in it. Let us know your suggestions, ideas and feedback in the comments section below.
DID YOU KNOW? Group Sharing is now available on Wallet for iOS. This means you can share your finances across devices and platforms! Start building stronger relationships now!
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