Budgeting

Creating your first budget is a hard task…especially when many college-aged students live paycheck-to-paycheck. In budgeting, you want to talk about the following: 50% of a budget should go to needs – housing, utilities, food. 30% to wants – eating out, memberships, vacations, entertainment and 20% to financial obligations – debt, retirement

Debt

How do credit and debit cards work? 

What are strategies for paying off bills?

These are both common questions asked. Make Cents seeks to illustrate concepts like how paying off more than the minimum payment each month can save you a lot of money over time.

Investing

Make Cents wants to take the idea of investments (and letting them sit over time) and show how that money can grow when it is invested. 

($5,000 @ 5% = $6,700) – one time investment = Profit of $1,700

8% Return + $10,000 + 10 years = $20,000 That’s $10,000 of profit over 10 years!

Taxes

Ah, taxes. While every has to do them, most of the people surveyed, feel like they don’t understand the process of doing taxes, know deadlines, or understand any of the paperwork. Make Cents is a great place to start, and it can direct you to other services to help you execute the process, if you decide to do your taxes yourself. 

The Lingo

There’s nothing worse than going into a bank and hearing them talk about “dividends” and “principle” and you have no idea what they are talking about. That’s why Make Cents has a built-in glossary of all of the most common finance terms. Better yet, throughout the app, clicking on a colored word will show you that definition on the spot.

Advertising

The Campaign

The advertising for Make Cents needed to grab the attention of busy college students and recent grads, but also approach finance in a non-threatening way. No one really wants to talk about it…so by using acronyms such as WTF, FWB, FML, and IDGAF, we are able to grab the attention of millennials in by speaking their language…then reminding them that the “F” really stands for Finance.