An introduction to Qube Money: A modern digital cash envelope banking and App system
In your day-to-day financial life, knowing what your money is used for and where it goes is an essential piece of your overall finances. This can be tackled through a budget or a spending plan.
Both are the same in essence: You get an overview of how you want to spend your money by category. I like however the spending plan wording better as it sounds more intentional and less constraining than budgeting.
Think of this example: “Hey Susan, we are going to that new restaurant that opened in town on Saturday, their signature roasted chicken is apparently terrific! You should join us!”
- Budget Susan: I am sorry, I am on a budget and will not be able to join this month.
- Spending plan Susan: I’d love to try that roasted chicken but trying out new restaurants is not a priority financially speaking right now.
- Real-life Susan (the most likely answer): That sounds so great but I have plans for Saturday already, next time! (yeah, right 😁)
Spending plan Susan sounds more empowered to me, do you agree?
As the spending plan example shows, planning where your money is going will put you in the driver’s seat, ensure you can face all your bills, it will also help you save more, prepare for emergencies, prepare your financial future and allow you to enjoy more as well! There’s got to be a reward too, right?
Now there are a bunch of different ways you can choose to setup your spending plan and get more intentional with your money: Pen and paper, Excel (how I have always done it) or digital apps.
And with regards to apps, I happen to have met with the folks from Qube Money last year at the Fincon conference and shot a short interview with Shane Walker.
Shane is the co-founder and executive VP of Qube money and in the video below he gives a brief overview of how Qube Money, a complete banking suite can help you save time on your day-to-day money management, achieve bigger money goals and most importantly change your money habits completely!
Key takeaways
- Qube is more than a budgeting app, it is a full banking suite using the cash envelope system digitally.
- Qube Money helps you looking at your budget before you spend money, not the other way around. Which is the big key to spend less in the long run!
- The system is pretty automatic once you have set it up, it will save you time and worries: You set up a financial plan and you follow through.
- This banking solution (app + debit card) has been on the market for about 3 years now following a controlled growth process and so far the average user has spent 440 dollar less per month (or 5 280 dollars a year) on average by being more intentional, how cool is that?
How does Qube Money work?
You can either fund your Qube Money account or link it to your external US bank account. You then build up the spending categories or Qubes. A Qube for groceries, a Qube for utilities, a Qube for your mortgage, and so on.
When you want to purchase something you open the app, select the right Qube, the money of the chosen Qube gets transferred to the card and you can pay, once the transaction is over the merchant gets his money and the balance is sent back to the Qube app. Which is pretty neat as your card will have a $0 balance and it becomes unusable if you happen to lose it.
This promotional video shows best how it works in practice.
What I really like is the proactive aspect of this way of spending your money as shown with the lady trying to buy shoes. It puts you in control of your spending ahead rather than being stressed about overspending or not the end of the month!
Testimonials
Here are a few testimonials of the ProActive Budget users (Qube Money is the new name and it sounds more “Fintechy” as well)
Thank you so much for reaching out! My husband and I are so excited about Qube and are really hopeful that it will help us in a way nothing else has been able to. We are hard core Dave Ramsey fans (no debt, saving for a house, etc) but I just can’t do the cash envelope thing – visits to the bank, hand tracking, etc – and no matter how hard we try, coordinating a budget between two people is rough. I think Qube will be the final tool to help us achieve the financial peace we’re working so hard for.
Katie Todd
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“It is kind of embarrassing, but I guess we can be totally transparent. So, we were overspending between 2,000 and 2,500 per month before ProActive. And for us as soon as we started using it, we didn’t feel a difference, but our bank statements were staying closer to where we wanted them. We were like, what am I buying? How much chocolate at the grocery store am I buying?! How many times am I going to the store? So, it was unreal, right? To look at it and go, ‘Oh my gosh, we are saving $24,000 a year or more just by using this and we don’t feel the difference.’ It was an unbelievable shift for us.”
Jon and Danielle Greaney – real estate and stay-at-home mom, Colorado
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“I’ve tried other budgeting apps, but none of them have a card you can activate and choose which category to spend from before you make a purchase.”
Colton Conway
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“I love this concept. I am a financial advisor and I refer everyone to YNAB. But think this Would be much better for my clients.”
Nathan Lippincott
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Since my spouse and I started using Qube Money four months ago, we have paid off over
$5,000 per month in debt. Every other budgeting idea we have tried has told us what we did with our money. We felt anxious and stressed about spending money. Each month we found ourselves further and further behind. In the end we quit budgeting because it wasn‘t working anyway and it took too much time. Qube guides us in real time what to do with our money. Now we feel purpose and peace with money. We make big headway toward our goals every month and it only takes us 5-10 minutes per month. That sounds crazy, but it is true. It really is miraculous. We would have never imagined how much difference the right budgeting app could make.
App store review by do good
Pricing
You have the choice between 3 plans: Basic, Premium and Family
The basic plan is free and works best for singles: It includes 10 qubes (budget categories), 1 card and manual transfers.
The Premium is $8/month or $216 for the lifetime version (you pay it once, no subscription) and is well-suited for couples: You get 2 cards, unlimited qubes, the savings account, automatic transfers, and earlier access to the app.
The Family plan is $15/month or $324 for the lifetime version, this one is as you can guess for families with kids: In addition to the premium offer you get up to 10 kid cards, and parent overview.
There is a money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the app and the team is pretty responsive in case of issues. And think of it, if you can save even as little $20/month thanks to Qube, it is definitely worth a try! And based on the few testimonials and the average savings of $440/month, it definitely seems like a worthwhile purchase to me!
My take on Qube and “Joney score”
Well I am all for automating one´s finances and helping people save more money for what truly passionates them like a family holiday, paying off debt faster, a new car,…
Qube fulfills that goal and I would warmly recommend it for those who want to take pro active control of their spending.
Who is it for? The spending categorization might not be for everyone but it could help students on a tight budget, younger folks who are receiving their first paychecks and those struggling with budgeting or paying off debt. If you already have a spending plan or automated your finances and it works for you then Qube will not bring any added value to you. Even if they expanded to the EU, I am not sure I would find it useful for my own use for instance.
Living outside of the US, I have not used it myself so I cannot judge the speed, the accuracy and the reliability of the platform which I am sure Shane and his team are constantly working on. However, the concept has proven to be solid and I really like the idea and the passion behind this project so I will give Qube Money a “Joney score” of 4,5/5.
And to go back to our friend Susan imagine Qube Money Susan telling her friend: “Hey, I just checked my “roasted chicken” Qube and I have $50 available, I will gladly join you on Saturday! Isn’t it cool (and nerdy 😉) how she can just confidently say yes to the invitation guilt-free almost instantly?
So in conclusion: If you live in the US and are struggling with budgeting, look no further and give Qube Money a go! If you use my code JON25 until the end of the year (2020), you’ll get 25% off your lifetime Premium membership, sweet right?
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