9 high-tech ways to simplify your money

Arnold warns that it's not a good card for light chargers, since you only get the full rebate -- 1.5% on all purchases and 5% on purchases at grocery stores, drugstores and gas stations -- after you've spent at least $6,500. But for big spenders like him, it combines convenience with a decent reward.

As always, the caveat: Rewards cards are for those spenders who pay their bills in full every month. If you carry a balance, you should be looking for the lowest-rate card you can get -- and that won't be a rewards card, which typically carries a higher interest rate.

Free credit scores

I wrote in "The coolest credit card perks" about Washington Mutual's free FICO credit scores, which are available to all of its credit card holders who sign up for online account access.

But a couple of Your Money posters nominated the free FICOs as one of the ways their financial lives have been simplified, so I mentioned it again here.

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Poster "StillOnTheRoad" combines access to the scores, which are updated monthly, with free annual credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com, to create a free credit monitoring system:

"It's nice to track (my credit scores) month to month," StillOnTheRoad wrote, "and since I can get my credit report for free every four months if I alternate which of the three bureaus I pull, it means that I never have to pay a cent to monitor my credit."

Painless college savings

If you register your credit and debit cards with UPromise, your purchases earn rewards that can be deposited in a 529 college savings plan or used to pay down your student loans. (The site makes some of its money by sharing the information it collects about you, but you can opt out; read the site's privacy policy first so you know how your information might be used.)

Poster "cpaballer" takes college savings a step further by using a Citi UPromise credit card, which offers a 1% rebate on purchases. The card "is linked to my UPromise account which is linked to my 529 plan," cpaballer wrote. "Talk about making life easy!"

Automatic re-balancing

Many workplace retirement plans offer "set it and forget it" investing options such as lifecycle funds or target-date maturity funds. These investments do all the heavy lifting for you: They decide how much to invest in stocks, bonds and cash (the asset allocation), and they make sure their portfolios don't stray too far from this balance so you're not taking too much or too little risk.

If you don't have these options or want a little more control over how your money is invested, you may still be able to eliminate the hassles of re-balancing. More than 40% of large-company 401(k) plans offer automatic re-balancing, according to Hewitt Associates, which is about twice the number that offered the feature two years ago.

With automatic re-balancing, you select how much of your 401(k) money you want to put in each investment option (your asset allocation). The plan does the buying and selling to return you to that target asset allocation monthly, quarterly, semiannually or annually (usually, you get to choose).

Online investment advice

That still begs the question of how to figure out the right asset allocation in the first place -- or how to coordinate your workplace retirement plan with your individual retirement accounts and other investments.

Financial Enginesrides to the rescue. This online portfolio adviser, co-founded by a Nobel Prize-winning economist, principally offers its services through 401(k) plans, but individuals can sign up as well for about $40 per quarter.

The service analyzes your current portfolios, including rating your investments, and predicts the probability you'll reach your goal. It then offers recommended portfolio changes and monitors the portfolios' performance, providing e-mail updates if alterations need to be made.

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"It's like having an objective portfolio adviser constantly monitoring your situation," wrote poster "Code_Red," who accesses the service through a 401(k) plan, "and providing helpful advice based on pure investment mathematics, not emotion or bias toward particular products."

Less is more

Choice is lovely, but sometimes you just want to get things done fast. Two posters nominated different services at their banks that make life easier.

Poster cpaballer wrote: "My bill-pay system at my bank (Northwest Federal Savings Bank) has a 'shortcut' link when you access your account. It remembers what bills are normally due at that time of the month. All you have to do is type in the amount and click submit."

And post "vabanker" likes a shortcut on Chase's Web site: "When you log into your online banking with Chase, there is an options you can click that says something along the lines of 'View Fewer Options.' When you click it, it seems like half the page goes away. It's great when you're in a hurry or too tired to try to navigate through a pile of options."

Does your financial institution offer other ways to simplify your life? Share them on the Your Money message board.

Liz Pulliam Weston's new book, "Easy Money: How to Simplify Your Finances and Get What You Want Out of Life," is now available. Columns by Weston, the Web's most-read personal-finance writer and winner of the 2007 Clarion Award for online journalism, appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions on the Your Money message board.

Published Nov. 29, 2007

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