These TikTok creators can help you get on top of your personal finances
Far from being boring and miserly, learning to save money through TikTok tutorials can actually be a whole lot of fun, says The Independent’s tech editor Andrew Griffin
Saving money can sometimes feel like the absolute opposite of fun. Just the phrase alone conjures images of penny-pinching, spreadsheets and saying no to nice things.
But it can be lots of fun, when done right; a way to finally take control of your financial life and make the most of everything else. And there’s no better place to make sure you do that than TikTok.
The platform is host to a thriving community of incredibly smart people, on finance and much more besides, who are giving away – for free – all kinds of information that will let you get on top of your finances.
You can find them through the search tool – and once you’ve found one, the "For You Page" feed and the comments can be an incredible way of getting more information and more people to follow.
@peaceimman is a young creator whose focus is on "money, mindset and levelling up". Her focus is not only on saving you money but also making sure that your life is set up best to enjoy that financial freedom. In one video she advises people to "eat the frog", or take on those difficult jobs first, to avoid the pain of thinking about and procrastinating on them. This advice could save you money by ensuring you actually get round to bills, but will apply to the rest of life, too.
Sometimes, financial planning and advice can feel depressing: you can feel like you are endlessly finding ways to save money, and not to find joy. One of the most comforting things about Peace is that her finance tips are interspersed with the kinds of comforting and liberating personal tricks that can make you feel so much better generally.
In one video, for instance, she highlights "little ways to create beautiful lives for ourselves". She points to a number of personal choices – such as "time to not grow" or "adult half-terms", by which she means giving yourself allocated time where you can focus on yourself, and not feel like you’re always having to hustle or expand.
Saving money often means getting organised, and it can sometimes seem impossible to know where to start. Thankfully, @wellpowerplan makes getting going incredibly easy, by offering the kind of advice that is simple but not always obvious.
They offer a straightforward way of taking control of your finances through different ways of organising yourself. In one post, for instance, they describe how to create a budget – and the kind of task that might seem worryingly overwhelming becomes comfortingly straightforward.
This kind of organised, sensible approach is seen throughout their account, which offers a variety of neatly organised approaches to difficult questions. They include tracking how long it will take to save for specific goals, for instance – which always seem to prove incredibly popular – or how to review bills to make sure that everything is in order.
Trying to understand personal finance can sometimes feel like everyone is in on some kind of secret that you never got the chance to be taught about. But @dantalksmoney – Dan Martin – boils down those dizzyingly complicated concepts into things that actually make sense.
He takes the kind of complex issues you feel you should understand but don’t, and makes them actually make sense. His advice includes everything from finally understanding what exactly a credit score is, how it’s important, and what to do with it – to much deeper conversations, like how to avoid overspending when you have poor mental health.
Taken together, it is like having a wise friend who will answer all of the questions you have about money but always felt too silly to ask. And, as Dan often shows, the answer is both easier to grasp and more important than you might ever have realised - and getting that information will make you feel dramatically more in control, financially and otherwise.
Don’t do it yourself, do it with TikTok. To learn more visit: https://www.tiktok.com/tag/savingmoney