Personal Capital Review: Is It Legit?

Let me start off with a quote. “What gets measured gets improved ~  Peter Drucker”. Do you know what that means? Basically, if you want to improve something, then you need to keep track of it. Your net worth works the same way. The only way you can improve it, and better your finances, it’s by keeping track of it and working on it. Apps like Personal Capital do just that, so let’s review it!

Your net worth consists of more than just the bank balances in your accounts. It’s a combination of Cash, Investments, and Equity in assets, then subtract your liabilities. All those things combined give you a clear picture of your financial health.

So let’s look at and review Personal Capital. An app that not only helps you figure out your net worth, but gives you a better understanding of your spending habits, budgeting, and helps you set financial goals.

What is Personal Capital?

Personal Capital has two very distinct features /services in one. Firstly, Personal Capital has a free financial tracking tool that keeps track of your finances. This includes monitoring your cash spending, credit card spending, investment accounts, assets, to name a few.

The biggest feature I personally love is its ability to help you calculate and figure out your net worth. Your net worth is defined as the value of assets a person owns minus the liabilities they owe. So, while personal capital is able to track your assets and spending, it’s also able to track your debts and liabilities.

The second distinct feature that personal Capital has is its Financial advisory service. This feature is paid. By paying for this additional feature, you can have personal consultations with advisors at personal capital. These advisors help you figure out your best investment strategies, develop a financial plan, and help you comb through the numbers.

Personal Capital is super well-rounded and is a one-stop-shop to better understanding your finances and improve your financial picture.

What are the features of Personal Capital?

Well, I’m glad you asked! Personal capital is loaded with fantastic features. Let’s try and go through some of the very unique features of Personal Capital in this review:

Budgeting Planner: By using the built-in cash flow analyzer spending tool, it’s easy to get a good look at your spending habits. This gives you a clear picture where you are spending too much or maybe saving too little. It also has automated budget suggestions that it gives you to better allocate your finances and meet your goals.

Investment Checkup: Personal Capital also helps to analyze and monitor your Investments. It takes a look at your investment allocations and recommends asset allocations based on your personal preferences and risk tolerance.

Retirement Planner: This is a fantastic feature! Instead of completely guessing how much you need in retirement and how much you should save to reach that goal, Personal Capital helps you figure that out. It gives you actual numbers to target and work with.

401(k) Fee Analyzer: Did you know that statistically, 63% of Americans have no idea how much they are paying for their 401(k) fees? By using personal capitals 401(k) fee analyzer, it helps you understand exactly how much you are paying towards fees.

Upcoming Bills Notifier: I’ve written an article addressing just how easy it is to you accidentally forget upcoming bills. Well, Personal capital has a little neat feature that shows upcoming bills and their due dates. That’s just one less thing to worry about!

Personal Capital Cash: One of its newest features is personal Capital cash. This is basically a free cash account that pays pretty decent interest on the money you save there. You pay no fees, it’s FDIC-insured, no minimum balance, and as unlimited monthly transactions. A pretty good deal.

Is Personal Capital Free?

Oh yes, Personal Capital is free to use.

All of the features I’ve listed above, which are pretty much the most important ones, are completely free. You can optionally pay for their financial advisory service.

The financial advisory services are consultations that you have with real people. You don’t have to do this, but if you want a professional to go over your finances and give professional advice and recommendations, then feel free. At the time of writing this, your first consultation is free as well!

You can link as many bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, and even mortgages as you want. All of this without paying a dime. Signing up is super easy and is completely free. Definitely worth a try 🙂

Is Personal Capital Safe?

One word, absolutely.

Personal Capital has been around since 2009. Over the last decade, they have garnered a huge following and a huge user base. They currently have over 1.7 million registered users that use their free dashboard features I’ve listed above.

As of June 2020, Personal Capital’s assets under management have reached over 12.5 billion dollars. This means that a lot of individuals have put their trust in personal capital and helping them manage their finances.

All the information that the service collects is completely read-only. This means that no money can be withdrawn from your accounts, and no transactions can be performed. All it does is it reads the information from your accounts and that’s it. So your finances and accounts are safe.

Final thoughts

You know what the best thing about technology is? You can leverage it when it comes to your finances! This is especially true when we’re talking about such a fantastic tool for absolutely $0.

Unlike other investment platforms like Wealthfront, Betterment, and even Mint.com, Personal Capital puts it all together. Not only is it super easy to use, but it gives you a good look and a better understanding of your financial position.

If you are new to investing, or even seasoned but need a better understanding of how to allocate your Investments, then Personal Capital is definitely for you.

I have used it for the last 5 Years to track my net worth. As time goes by and that number grows, it’s a testament to the quote I started off with. “What gets measured gets improved.” If you are not measuring and paying attention to your net worth, it’s much harder to make it grow.

You lose nothing giving this a shot, so I highly recommended that you sign up. You will thank me later 🙂 Hope this review of Personal Capital was helpful, and you enjoy using it!

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