[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/the-new-koho-app-will-help-you-get-your-finances-in-order\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/the-new-koho-app-will-help-you-get-your-finances-in-order\/","headline":"The New KOHO App Will Help You Get Your Finances In Order","name":"The New KOHO App Will Help You Get Your Finances In Order","description":"The New KOHO App Will Help You Get Your Finances In OrderWatch this video on YouTube This video episode is about helping you get your finances in order and introducing you to a new powerful budgeting and savings app from KOHO. The app has a very unique way to help you save money on autopilot. [&hellip;]","datePublished":"2020-02-26","dateModified":"2024-04-19","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/author\/adrian\/#Person","name":"Adrian","url":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/author\/adrian\/","identifier":11,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83c9d81e4aa2dc5936e06b9059fd4e195f1f91bcd60ccfc5e28f98dd86bae8b8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83c9d81e4aa2dc5936e06b9059fd4e195f1f91bcd60ccfc5e28f98dd86bae8b8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Richard Killen and Associates","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/landscape-logo-12345-for-web.png","url":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/landscape-logo-12345-for-web.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/the-new-koho-app-will-help-you-g.jpg","url":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/the-new-koho-app-will-help-you-g.jpg","height":720,"width":1280},"url":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/the-new-koho-app-will-help-you-get-your-finances-in-order\/","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m4RBdJcYelQ#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m4RBdJcYelQ","name":"The New KOHO App Will Help You Get Your Finances In Order","description":"https:\/\/theglassishalffull.tv\/ This episode is about getting your finances in order and introducing you to a new powerful budgeting and savings app from KOHO, a new digital bank in Canada.\n\nMy guest today is Silvi Pukitis, a financial coach with KOHO. She helps people take control their budget and hit their financial goals. Hosted by Richard Killen, a Toronto Licensed Insolvency Trustee and author of the book \"The Glass Is Half Full\".  \n\nSome of the topics they discuss are:\n\u2022 The difference between a financial coach, financial advisor and a financial planner.\n\u2022 How to tackle credit card debt.\n\u2022 The KOHO Online Bank explained\n\u2022 How you can benefit with the KOHO budgeting and Saving App.\n\n\nListen to The Glass Is Half Full Podcast https:\/\/theglassishalffull.tv\/podcasts\/ \nContacts:\nSilvi Pukitis\nsilvi@wildonewealth.com\n416 888-9237\nhttps:\/\/www.wildonewealth.com \n\nSilvi Pukitis, a financial coach with KOHO. She helps people take control their budget and hit their financial goals. \n\nRichard Killen & Associates Ltd Scarborough West\nhttps:\/\/www.g.page\/killenscarboroughwest\nLicensed Insolvency Trustee and Licensed Consumer Proposal Administrator\n2130 Lawrence Ave, E  #402, Scarborough, ON M1R 3A6, Canada\nTel: +1 416-285-9511\nhttps:\/\/rkillen.ca\nPersonal bankruptcies, consumer proposals and debt counselling. \nContact us for a fresh start (888) 545-5365\nThis may be the most stress-relieving call you will ever make!\n\nThe Glass Is Half Full To be a guest on the show, please visit https:\/\/theglassishalffull.tv\/be-a-guest\/","thumbnailUrl":["https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/m4RBdJcYelQ\/default.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/m4RBdJcYelQ\/mqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/m4RBdJcYelQ\/hqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/m4RBdJcYelQ\/sddefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/m4RBdJcYelQ\/maxresdefault.jpg"],"uploadDate":"2020-01-21T06:24:25+00:00","duration":"PT26M23S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m4RBdJcYelQ","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCBnlR4W4vfP3HN-fTV8pH8g#Organization","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCBnlR4W4vfP3HN-fTV8pH8g","name":"The Glass is Half Full","description":"Richard Killen is a Licensed Insolvency Trustee who has seen first hand many people struggle with debt and the stress that financial problems generate. Many families are living paycheck to paycheck and this weekly show is all about helping people in this community with little or no money to do more with less.\n\nIn this show, Richard and his guests will share their expertise and share their stories. Some topics may include:\n\nHow to get out of debt\nHow to reduce stress caused by financial problems\nHow to buy products and services for less\nVarious ways to save money\nHow to enjoy life and have fun with little or no money.\nInexpensive vacations\nPeople sharing stories on how they overcome obstacles\n\u2026 and endless other topics\nThe show is an interview style talk show that is filmed locally in Toronto or via Webinar for guests that are from outside of Toronto.","logo":{"url":"https:\/\/yt3.ggpht.com\/ytc\/AIdro_nNWVcqPrZwGj4XwfnZ4zMT-Dm31Nb9WA0WhjYioTpT2A=s800-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj","width":800,"height":800,"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m4RBdJcYelQ#VideoObject_publisher_logo_ImageObject"}},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m4RBdJcYelQ#VideoObject_potentialAction","target":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m4RBdJcYelQ&t={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"},"interactionStatistic":[[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m4RBdJcYelQ#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_WatchAction","interactionType":{"@type":"WatchAction"},"userInteractionCount":136}],{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m4RBdJcYelQ#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_LikeAction","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}]},"about":["Finances","Financial Advice"],"wordCount":4197,"articleBody":"The New KOHO App Will Help You Get Your Finances In OrderWatch this video on YouTubeThis video episode is about helping you get your finances in order and introducing you to a new powerful budgeting and savings app from KOHO. The app has a very unique way to help you save money on autopilot. KOHO is a new digital bank in Canada.RichardToday we are going to be talking about getting your finances in order. I&#8217;m going to introduce you to a new powerful budgeting app, from KOHO, K O-H O. Did I get it right?SylvieThat&#8217;s right.RichardWhich is new, it&#8217;s a new digital bank in Canada. Now, my guest and the girl I&#8217;ve been talking with is Sylvie Pukitis. Did I get it right?SylviePukitis, but close.RichardSorry, I want to say I for some reason. Okay, Pukitis, sorry Sylvie, I know I asked you that before, but at my age, I forget things very quickly. You&#8217;re a financial coach with\u00a0KOHO. Sylvie\u00a0has been an investment analyst with some\u00a0major corporations and\u00a0a financial planner,\u00a0and now, with\u00a0KOHO a\u00a0financial coach. She helps people take control of their budget and hit their financial goals,\u00a0basically. So, Sylvie, welcome to\u00a0The\u00a0Glass\u00a0Is\u00a0Half\u00a0Full.SylvieThanks for having me, appreciate it.RichardNow, I&#8217;m going to want to find out all about KOHO in a minute. But first, I&#8217;d like to find out exactly what a financial coach is?\u00a0That&#8217;s what you do,\u00a0financial coach?SylvieYeah.RichardAnd,\u00a0people might\u00a0have some\u00a0weird ideas. What&#8217;s the difference between a coaching planner and adviser,\u00a0and all that?\u00a0So what can you tell us\u00a0is the basics\u00a0between a financial coach and say, financial advisor, financial planner?SylvieFor sure. So I&#8217;d say the biggest differences between a financial planner or coach and a financial advisor,\u00a0and that&#8217;s because as\u00a0a\u00a0financial planner or coach you&#8217;re essentially helping people manage their money and giving them an unbiased financial plan on things such as how to tackle their debt or how to save up for retirement or potentially creating a budget, but you&#8217;re not actually managing their investments. So traditionally a financial advisor&#8217;s\u00a0job is to\u00a0buy and sell investments that basically help someone with savings achieve\u00a0their goals. Whereas financial\u00a0planning,\u00a0you&#8217;re not touching that,\u00a0it requires a lot of regulation, and you have to be part of an\u00a0IIROC\u00a0regulated firm, so it&#8217;s just a little bit different.\u00a0The other thing is how you&#8217;re paid. So generally, financial planners or coaches\u00a0are\u00a0fee-for-service. So a flat fee, either based on the service or based on the number of hours you work. And it\u00a0keeps it\u00a0unbiased, you&#8217;re not selling products. So you&#8217;re not paid a commission.\u00a0And, whereas a financial adviser,\u00a0you&#8217;re generally paying a percentage of however much of your assets they&#8217;re managing.RichardSo a financial coach isn&#8217;t telling people what to do with their money, it&#8217;s telling people how to do with their money. That it?SylvieI would say,\u00a0yeah, you could say that.\u00a0So, we would touch everything up to actually the investment. But we could say, you know, Richard\u00a0based on what your goals are, and your financial picture looks like, pretty simple. I think you&#8217;d be best off with an online investment platform. You know that needs keep your investments in there for 10 years and they will tell you exactly what to invest in. But I think that would help you achieve your goals versus I&#8217;m not taking your money and buying and selling stocks,\u00a0in that sense.RichardYeah, and\u00a0of course\u00a0is, as such, there&#8217;s no manipulation of money that way, just basic fundamentals, basically, right?\u00a0Where you&#8217;re teaching people how to manage money without\u00a0being specific as to where to put it.SylvieYeah, that&#8217;s exactly right. It&#8217;s the goal is to helpRichardWith some exceptions obviously. Like if you, if you thought that would be a good idea, that I would get\u00a0an\u00a0RRSP, for instance.SylvieYeah, I can\u00a0tell you what accounts. So whether it&#8217;s a savings account or\u00a0an\u00a0RRSP or what order to tackle your debt, but wouldn&#8217;t go beyond that other than, say, why don&#8217;t you look at these institutions? I&#8217;m unbiased. I think they&#8217;d all be good options for you.RichardRight. I think that&#8217;s pretty clear.\u00a0Now, in my business,\u00a0and we&#8217;ve talked about this before Sylvie,\u00a0the\u00a0main thing I see\u00a0of people,\u00a0they get\u00a0into financial trouble, is the inability to control their credit card debt.\u00a0Right?\u00a0Now, a lot of people have a hard time with this\u00a0obviously,\u00a0this is not new. Everybody has some difficulty with it\u00a0to some extent.\u00a0But, some of the things that they run into, things and getting in trouble, is\u00a0the interest rates they pay, is\u00a0the type of credit cards that they&#8217;re using, they get kind of drawn in by certain offers and\u00a0things like that.\u00a0Do you help\u00a0them with this?SylvieYeah. We try and basically help them understand what they&#8217;re spending sort of personality or tendencies are. And then, based on that, figure out what financial products would work best for them. So a common thing that I see specifically when I&#8217;m working at KOHO, is that people have in the past used credit cards and to your point, without sort of a hard limit on how much you can spend, you can end up overspending.\u00a0And, they all come to KOHO and\u00a0they&#8217;ve actually decided, &#8220;You know what? I need to start tackling my credit card balance and I can&#8217;t use it anymore&#8221;. So they&#8217;ll put their credit card, for example, in their drawer or someone that I know,\u00a0got rid of their credit cards and they started using\u00a0KOHO\u00a0because\u00a0it&#8217;s a cash account like a chequing account where you put money on it and you can&#8217;t go beyond that limit.\u00a0And so that works for certain people if they want a preload their budget or put their paycheque\u00a0into an account where you can&#8217;t spend more than you have,\u00a0and you actually start to get in the hang of living, you know, having more control over your money. So that&#8217;s\u00a0one\u00a0thing. But if there&#8217;s something else that might suit their personality a little bit better, we&#8217;ll certainly look at that and figure out what the best way for them to organize their finances is.RichardThat sounds an awful lot like a debit account. Right?SylvieYeah, it so it&#8217;s very similar. Essentially, it&#8217;s just like a debit account, but it&#8217;s running on the network of Visa, which\u00a0means that you can use it wherever credit is accepted, so,\u00a0if I went to the cash register and someone asks me what form I&#8217;m paying with, I would say credit, but it&#8217;s really my\u00a0KOHO\u00a0chequing like account.\u00a0The\u00a0nice thing about that\u00a0is that you can use it online, and you get a 0.5% cashback for all of your transactions. So it&#8217;s\u00a0not as\u00a0high of rewards\u00a0as a credit card, but\u00a0it&#8217;s\u00a0better than a debit card.RichardBut you actually have a card.SylvieThat&#8217;s right. I really find theRichardAs far as the rest of the world is concerned, it looks like a credit card?SylvieYeah.RichardSo, you go to\u00a0Walmart, they say,\u00a0&#8220;How are you paying?&#8221;, you say\u00a0credit, whip out\u00a0this particular card and you&#8217;re essentially operating, in a very\u00a0very different way, but on the same lines as the Master\u00a0credit cards.SylvieThat&#8217;s exactly right. And I think people, the industry has changed\u00a0so that the people are so used to using\u00a0credit that they feel almost ripped off if they&#8217;re not getting any rewards.\u00a0So that\u00a0little bit of cashback helps. And then ultimately, if you look at the numbers, often\u00a0people will spend about 10% to 15% less when they&#8217;re using a KOHO or a debit card. So think\u00a0of that, like a 10% or 15% difference, and that&#8217;s a really awesome reward. If you flip it that way and think about your rewards coming from actually having more savings just because you&#8217;re notRichardLike making 10% to 15% interest?SylvieExactly.RichardIs it hard for people who\u00a0get the hang of this?SylvieI would\u00a0say,\u00a0in the sense that because Canada has five really entrenched banks, it&#8217;s hard for people to sort of wrap their heads around using anything else.\u00a0What we see is that often people will start small. So one of the things that I do is help people set a budget, which would be, you know, look at your income,\u00a0what are your bills and then your savings or debt payments? And then whatever&#8217;s leftover is kind of your personal spending money, which is usually the hardest to control. So they might start by this putting that on\u00a0KOHO, or they might even start smaller, saying,\u00a0&#8220;It&#8217;s going to\u00a0be my card for restaurants and entertainment&#8221;, and they put on, say,\u00a0$300\u00a0month, and they kind of get the hang of it that way. And then I think once they, you know, we haven&#8217;t talked about it yet,\u00a0but there&#8217;s an app that&#8217;s associated,\u00a0that basically tells you in real-time where your money has been going and how much you have left and also some little ways to stash away\u00a0change. So once they get the hang of that and see themselves in someone that&#8217;s more in control and maybe actually saving a bit, then\u00a0they will put\u00a0more spending on to it. But it certainly there is friction, like in Canada\u00a0especially, people don&#8217;t really want to change financial institutions.RichardReally?\u00a0Canadians\u00a0are conservative. How about that?SylvieExactly.RichardI&#8217;m\u00a0intrigued by\u00a0KOHO\u00a0itself. It&#8217;s a new bank, right? And it has features that you just mentioned here, I&#8217;m just reading it,\u00a0apps, various other forms of assistance, they are\u00a0giving\u00a0people for their investing and whatnot, but no branches, unlike a traditional bank, it&#8217;s not,\u00a0it&#8217;s not a visible bank.\u00a0You&#8217;re offering the same services basically,\u00a0like\u00a0a regular bank?SylvieYeah, for the most part,\u00a0so we&#8217;re not, so KOHO itself isn&#8217;t actually a regulated bank,\u00a0but what we do is we,\u00a0we left,\u00a0we partner with a bank out of Vancouver called People&#8217;s Trust that actually holds the funds. And then we&#8217;re the, you know, the institution that basically\u00a0moves the money.\u00a0So, for example, if something were to happen to\u00a0KOHO, you basically have a\u00a0People&#8217;s\u00a0Trust bank account,\u00a0that&#8217;s insured, and your money wouldn&#8217;t be going anywhere.RichardThey are regulated by the Bank Act, and all that, right?SylvieThat&#8217;s exactly right. So,\u00a0that&#8217;s just to address that,\u00a0but in terms of everything else, for the most part, it&#8217;s the same. You can send e-transfers, pay bills, do whatever you like to do. If you want to\u00a0pay your credit card\u00a0bill, you can do that.\u00a0You can take cash out of an ATM,\u00a0although we don&#8217;t have our own\u00a0ATM,\u00a0so you would be charged, whatever that out of network fee, that you probably experienced, when you need to get cash and you&#8217;re\u00a0ATM\u00a0isn&#8217;t right there, but for the most part,\u00a0and we&#8217;re continually updating features,\u00a0so I&#8217;m sure\u00a0if we\u00a0talked again in a year or\u00a0so, we&#8217;d probably say,\u00a0&#8220;Yep, we\u00a0do\u00a0everything&#8221;.RichardI\u00a0probably\u00a0will talk in a\u00a0year or so. I&#8217;m reading the list of things that some\u00a0since\u00a0offered\u00a0here. There are\u00a0no\u00a0fees for\u00a0the card.SylvieNo.RichardThis is a fee less\u00a0process, as far as that&#8217;s\u00a0concerned,\u00a0it&#8217;s prepaid\u00a0as\u00a0you\u00a0said?SylvieYeah.RichardYou actually\u00a0load up the thing,\u00a0like you would\u00a0a regular bank account if you&#8217;re using a\u00a0debit card and no interest, obviously, you&#8217;re\u00a0not borrowing any money, and then you got 1% rewards. Why\u00a0specifically 1%\u00a0here? Before\u00a0you mentioned 10% or15%, that kind of thing,\u00a0are\u00a0we\u00a0talking about different things?SylvieI think so. That&#8217;s, I think, just,\u00a0it&#8217;s not 1%,\u00a0it&#8217;s\u00a00.5% on everything. Or if you are signing up for something called\u00a0KOHO\u00a0Premium, you get\u00a02%\u00a0on groceries, restaurants and eating out and then transportation. And that is where there is a small fee. So, basically, for people that spend, the break-even is about $600 a month on those three categories that\u00a0I just mentioned.\u00a0You&#8217;d actually be better off with this premium service where you get\u00a02%,\u00a0but you\u00a0pay\u00a0$9 a month. But for the bare bones and what most people start with its free, no fees and get\u00a00.5% cashback.RichardYeah. How do\u00a0they receive\u00a0these rewards?\u00a0You said, just\u00a0cashback. What happens?SylvieSo on your, on your app, you would see your account balance, and then you see the cashback that you accrue and then it\u00a0accrues\u00a0basically immediately.RichardBy a transaction basis.SylvieYes,\u00a0so you might see that you have $20 in cashback and then you can actually just cash it out, and it goes into your balance on the card.RichardSo your balance just went up to\u00a0$20.SylvieYeah.RichardNot every bank\u00a0does that.SylvieWell, usually it&#8217;s once a year.RichardWell, that&#8217;s\u00a0interesting,\u00a0but\u00a0it&#8217;s a question of visualizing all of this.SylvieI knowRichardIt sounds a little different, right?SylvieI should have\u00a0brought with me my card because they&#8217;re these funky two-toned cards, and you can actually pick\u00a0the colour that you want. They all have\u00a0a kind of\u00a0fun and personality behind them. So I have blue\u00a0and kind of\u00a0iridescent silver. But you can get\u00a0lots of\u00a0different colours and then, yeah, the app I can even, I know people if it&#8217;s audio, can&#8217;t hear this,\u00a0but or\u00a0see this, but you can see the\u00a0app\u00a0kind of\u00a0shows your balance,\u00a0and then there are\u00a0different savings features, including\u00a0your\u00a0power-ups\u00a0is the cashback.RichardFlip it around a little bit.SylvieOh, there we go.RichardSometimes theySylvie(Screenshot)RichardSometimes the writing\u00a0doesn&#8217;t show up\u00a0there, anyway it doesn&#8217;t matter.SylvieYeah.RichardThey get the gist of it.SylvieYeah, it&#8217;s kind of\u00a0tech,\u00a0it&#8217;s a techie feel.RichardVery 21st century-ish, right?SylvieYeah, that&#8217;s what we go for.RichardCutting edge. And I guess the other thing that comes to mind is,\u00a0how usable is this?\u00a0Is this the\u00a0kind of thing that\u00a0you\u00a0run into problems with?\u00a0Places saying,\u00a0&#8220;What is this?&#8221;\u00a0Being doubtful about being\u00a0able to use this?SylvieSo it&#8217;s, the adoption is pretty great by merchants because what they see is, just all they see is, prepaid Visa, and that&#8217;s accepted nearly everywhere. Not if it&#8217;s a debit,\u00a0only merchant, then you wouldn&#8217;t be able to.\u00a0What else? I guessRichardIt&#8217;s where people accept credit cards, right?SylvieYeah, exactly right. A couple of things to be mindful of his,\u00a0when you&#8217;re travelling, where it&#8217;s actually accepted worldwide,\u00a0but sometimes, you know, as with most cards, if you&#8217;re in different countries, sometimes it doesn&#8217;t work,\u00a0so I&#8217;d always bring a backup one. And also, you know, when you book a rental car or a hotel, and you might\u00a0have to put down a deposit, say\u00a0$500,\u00a0the funny strange thing\u00a0about prepaid\u00a0Visa,\u00a0sometimes that actually goes through as an\u00a0authorization where it would say,\u00a0okay, you just spent $500\u00a0and\u00a0it will go away,\u00a0but you have to wait a couple\u00a0of days. So, when you&#8217;re renting, when you&#8217;re putting down a safety deposit, usually we&#8217;d say don&#8217;t use a prepaid card. Well,\u00a0I use\u00a0it all day, every day,\u00a0for all my transactions.\u00a0We have a free joint account\u00a0too,\u00a0so I use that,\u00a0using\u00a0Apple\u00a0Pay and pay everywhere, I don&#8217;t have problems.RichardThere&#8217;s no, very little problems and no negative feedback, kind of thing?SylvieYeah, we&#8217;re lucky. Now, I feel like\u00a0the base of the payment\u00a0just come so far, right? Dollarama\u00a0even\u00a0accepts credit cards now. I used my card yesterday there.RichardNow, I know from experience that\u00a0getting people to get the gist\u00a0of\u00a0budgeting and be able to impose this,\u00a0the disciplines and self-discipline\u00a0involved in,\u00a0in the proper or successful budgeting\u00a0which they do.\u00a0It&#8217;s a tough road at home.\u00a0People, if this hasn&#8217;t been\u00a0inculcated into\u00a0them when\u00a0they&#8217;re\u00a0children, don&#8217;t\u00a0grow up with that kind of attitude towards money,\u00a0it&#8217;s a learning process,\u00a0and\u00a0a tough one for some people. Some banks offer budgeting, online budgeting help, things like that. But you have an\u00a0app we&#8217;ve\u00a0been\u00a0talking\u00a0about.SylvieRight.RichardWhat I understand, this takes it to a new level.\u00a0Can you\u00a0explain the differences?\u00a0So, where your app differs from the\u00a0others?\u00a0Go ahead.SylvieSo, I would\u00a0agree with you that budgeting is generally a feared topic. And honestly, we don&#8217;t love the word either, but it does resonate with people. But if you kind of think of, like, why do people\u00a0budget,\u00a0usually the kind of things that come to mind are,\u00a0one, to control your spending and spend\u00a0within your means and two, to actually save or start putting away money towards,\u00a0maybe it&#8217;s your payment plan to pay off a consumer proposal.RichardI&#8217;m glad you mentioned that.SylvieSo yeah, but I&#8217;d love to get, we&#8217;ll get into later. But in terms of controlling your spending, I would say the people that love KOHO the most, is people that,\u00a0as\u00a0I said before, we&#8217;re just using credit, and they&#8217;re finding that they can&#8217;t get their balance\u00a0down there in the red every month. So when they switch to using\u00a0KOHO,\u00a0either for their whole paycheque\u00a0or just that fun, a discretionary budget, then they have guardrails. So basically, when the money is gone, it&#8217;s gone, and they just basically have a hard\u00a0stop\u00a0for them.\u00a0And of course, that sounds pretty abrupt, but the nice thing about the\u00a0app\u00a0is that it shows you, like I was saying\u00a0before, where your money is going. So say you set a budget for $100 a month on eating out and entertainment.\u00a0You could go into the app and check here, is called\u00a0the Insights,\u00a0and\u00a0see, I&#8217;ve spent\u00a0$75 this month. Like this is where I&#8217;m at. We don&#8217;t have it yet where you could set a budget, and then it would give you\u00a0a\u00a0hard\u00a0stop. But that&#8217;s something that we&#8217;re hopefully going to come out with next year. SoRichardThat might be embarrassing.SylvieNot a hard stop\u00a0at the merchant, but just like a little notification\u00a0or something,\u00a0because I agree. But so that&#8217;s going to\u00a0enter,RichardLike a very prominent red flag.SylvieYeah,\u00a0you\u00a0have to\u00a0keep your dignity. Even if you&#8217;re nothing, no one can budget in a straight line. Life doesn&#8217;t happen that way.RichardThis program is about anything, it&#8217;s about dignity.SylvieYeah.\u00a0Most people, they start using it,\u00a0they feel in control of their spending because there&#8217;s, their credit card balances not going up anymore,\u00a0and that&#8217;s the most\u00a0important thing. And then\u00a0the\u00a0flipside is in terms of saving. We have a couple\u00a0of tools that\u00a0help you automate your savings because one of the oldest, sort of tricks in the book for saving is, just pay yourself first and automate, and you tend to save twice as\u00a0much.\u00a0So, one of them is called\u00a0Round-Ups,\u00a0and what that does is, if you bought, say, a\u00a0$1.75 coffee, it would round up to the nearest dollar, so to\u00a0$2, or you could set it to the nearest\u00a0$2,\u00a0$5\u00a0or $10 so\u00a0it\u00a0could round up to\u00a0$5. And then that extra money goes into the special savings pocket, so you don&#8217;t see that money in your balance anymore. And so as far as you&#8217;re concerned, that money&#8217;s not there,\u00a0but it&#8217;s gone into this little savings pocket, and that&#8217;s\u00a0there are also people\u00a0that just like, they&#8217;re new to\u00a0saving,\u00a0they&#8217;ve never done it at all.RichardIt&#8217;s\u00a0the, in a sense of forced savings, but not quite force. It&#8217;s more like\u00a0an\u00a0invisible savings model.SylvieThat&#8217;s exactly right.\u00a0And then\u00a0you can also set,\u00a0they&#8217;re called savings goals. And so another idea of automation where,\u00a0say you said,\u00a0&#8220;Okay, Sylvie, I need $400 this month to put towards my consumer proposal&#8221;. I would set that goal $400 by the end of the month and then set up when I want to contribute.\u00a0So, it might be daily, just a couple\u00a0dollars\u00a0a day. Or it could be, you can set it to when you\u00a0get your paycheque\u00a0so that $400 goes right in there and then\u00a0again,\u00a0it&#8217;s like invisible savings that you don&#8217;t really realize you&#8217;re doing. And you wouldn&#8217;t believe how powerful that is for someone that&#8217;s coming from being in a debt\u00a0spiral to now, not only not increasing that debt, but then they see they have savings for once in their life. It&#8217;s really, really cool to see that.RichardNow, all banks\u00a0promote the idea of savings.SylvieYeah.RichardMost financial institutions\u00a0promote\u00a0that idea, somehow or other,\u00a0but\u00a0as\u00a0you said, if you could do it, let&#8217;s call\u00a0them\u00a0tricks or,\u00a0you know, the invisible ways to assist a person get into the\u00a0habits of these\u00a0things. You can&#8217;t do anything but win out of that, as far as\u00a0the\u00a0individual is concerned. But,\u00a0well, you&#8217;ve written a number of articles,\u00a0from what\u00a0I understand on this whole subject and,\u00a0the idea of getting through to people that what\u00a0they can do and to actually do something, right? Now, let&#8217;s start with where can\u00a0they\u00a0find these articles?\u00a0Where can they\u00a0get this information from?\u00a0And better yet, where can they\u00a0get your services?SylvieFor sure. So,\u00a0koho.ca\/learn is where the blogs are, or\u00a0if you just went\u00a0home,\u00a0you googled\u00a0KOHO\u00a0and went to the website\u00a0and\u00a0then clicked on learn, you&#8217;d see the blog.\u00a0Where we have different,\u00a0I guess,\u00a0How\u00a0To\u00a0Guides, on different parts of your finances, if you are a\u00a0KOHO\u00a0user and you can\u00a0access financial coaching through this sort of a chat function. I also work outside of\u00a0KOHO\u00a0doing one-on-one financial coaching.\u00a0And so, my company&#8217;s called\u00a0Wild\u00a0One\u00a0Wealth,\u00a0and it&#8217;s Sylvie@wildonewealth.com,\u00a0is where if you wanted more hands-on experience, either in person or on the phone that wasn&#8217;t through an app, then you could access it there.\u00a0Yeah, we&#8217;re just trying\u00a0to,\u00a0I think the niche is people that, you know, don&#8217;t have\u00a0a ton of wealth,\u00a0but of course, they would like some support and some help,\u00a0that&#8217;s traditionally been super hard. As you know, that&#8217;s what your whole business is built on, you know?RichardYes. When people have hit a wall, you talked about earlier, and they have no place else to turn. Usually, when\u00a0people will come to see us, the vast majority of them,\u00a0budgeting is not going to\u00a0be the answer to your problem.SylvieNo.RichardThey have to take some more drastic steps to get themselves back\u00a0where\u00a0their feet are firmly planted on the ground, that&#8217;s where you would take over. Is there anything else that you&#8217;d like to leave people with,\u00a0Sylvie, because\u00a0we are just about running out of time?SylvieYeah, I would say, just as you said,\u00a0it&#8217;s so overwhelming\u00a0to feel like your finances are in disarray. But honestly, the best thing you can do is just not be hard on yourself,\u00a0whatever situation you&#8217;re in, you&#8217;re definitely not the only person in that situation. We all go through ups and downs.RichardIt&#8217;s never too late to start.SylvieYeah, just start. And, you know, don&#8217;t be afraid to ask for help. That&#8217;s what people like you and myself\u00a0are here for, you know,\u00a0you can change it.\u00a0Debt is just a number that you can you&#8217;re in control of and that you can change."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"The New KOHO App Will Help You Get Your Finances In Order","item":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/the-new-koho-app-will-help-you-get-your-finances-in-order\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]