Cleo: The Savings App Designed with You in Mind

If you’re tired of having no savings, or you’re the kind of person who does your budgeting in your head, you’ve come to the right place.

If you didn’t already know, our little money app Cleo can help you with everything from budgeting to covering you if you need a quick cash spot. You can type what you need into chat, and Cleo uses AI technology to answer all your questions– kind of like having a virtual, 24/7  money assistant.

In this blog, we’re gonna talk about how Cleo can help you start effortlessly saving money, by analyzing your spending habits and automating your savings.

To start your savings glow-up, you’ll have to take a big-picture look at your finances. Then, you can set your goals, and build a budget to work towards them.

Let’s jump in.

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Building an Emergency Fund

To start saving money, you need a SMART goal. (If you’re not a massive nerd and don’t know what SMART stands for, it’s Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Bound)

If you have a realistic goal, you can make a realistic plan to meet it. The looser your savings goals are, the easier they are to abandon.

The best place to start? An emergency fund. If you don’t have one already, this is what you’re gonna save towards first.

An emergency fund should be 3-6 months’ worth of living expenses. After this, you can start saving towards other goals (more on that in the next paragraph).

Not only is this good for your peace of mind and security, but savings-wise, once you’ve built and ringfenced your emergency fund you can ensure emergency expenses don’t blow your entire savings.

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Setting Goals

After your emergency fund, make your other savings goals smart. Whether that’s a vacation next summer, a new car or even a down-payment on a house, be specific. Set an exact sum you’re aiming toward, and figure out how much you can afford to put towards this each month.

Type the amount of money you want to save into chat with Cleo, and she’ll take you where you need to go to make that happen.

Here’s where the 50/30/20 method comes in.

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The 50/30/20 Rule

One popular budgeting approach is the 50/30/20 rule, and Cleo can help you implement this strategy. The rule basically involves allocating 50% of your income to necessities, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings.

With a personally-tailored Cleo budget, she’ll analyze your cash flow, categorize your spending, and suggest limits for each category.

You can go back and tweak this to make sure it 100% works for you.

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Here’s what you need to do:

Get Connected: Download Cleo, sign up, and connect your checking account.

Income: Select your latest paycheck(s) so Cleo knows when you get paid.

Bills: Add your bills and double-check to ensure they're tracked correctly.

Spend Limit: Set a realistic spend limit to stay within your means, or go with Cleo’s suggested amount.

Each month, Cleo will provide you with a clear overview of your income and expenses. She'll DM you when bills are due and provide insights into spending categories like bills, groceries, bank charges, loans, transport, and shopping. Basically, she’ll make sure you’re staying on track.

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Cleo's Autosave Feature: Effortless Saving, Tailored to You

With Autosave, Cleo intelligently stashes away small amounts of money for you each week, removing the need for manual transfers. You just sit back and watch your Cleo wallet grow as you get closer toward your goals.

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Cleo offers four distinct savehacks, each catering to different saving preferences:

Set & Forget: Choose an amount (up to $24) and Cleo will set it aside weekly.

Round Up: Cleo rounds up your transactions and saves the change.

Smart Save: Cleo uses advanced algorithms to determine a suitable savings amount.

Swear Jar: Receive a "fine" for spending at selected retailers, with the fine deposited into your Cleo Wallet weekly.

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To activate Autosave, just type "autosave" to Cleo in the app, and watch as your savings grow.

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Haggle it

Like we said, building savings involves a holistic approach to your finances. As well as automating your savings, creating a tailored budget, and holding you accountable to it, Cleo can help you save money on your rent and bills.

With Haggle It, you let Cleo know what expense you want to haggle down, how firm you want the tone to be, and she’ll generate you a good-to-go letter to send to Whom it May Concern.

One in three survey respondents said they managed to cut down on an expense with Haggle It. We think those are pretty good numbers.

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There’s only one thing left to do.

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Enjoy this post? Give it a share or send it along to a friend. You never know, it could make a big difference. Big love. Cleo 💙