There are a variety of financial management tools and applications available today that can be used to help you manage your money. From software applications to phone apps, there’s no shortage of help available.

Unfortunately, those apps and software programs can only do what you set them up to do. And all the apps and software products in the world will make no difference in your financial situation if you don’t do the following:

1. Set financial goals. Be bold, be brazen, be confident. If you want to create wealth, you have to have a plan, and a goal.  Set a year-end goal, a five-year goal, and a retirement goal. Take those goals out periodically and examine them, adjusting them accordingly if necessary. Like anything else in life, you can accomplish more when working towards a specific goal.

With the rise in popularity of financial planning robo-advisors, many experts predicted the beginning of the end for financial advisors. But as many investors are starting to see, there are distinct advantages to speaking with a live person when determining just how you should invest your money.

While robo-advisors can be a good solution for those with limited funds who want to get their feet wet in the investment arena, the problem is the lack of a personal relationship can prove to be detrimental.

There are other reasons why using a financial advisor is a good idea. Here are a few of them:

We all have our own unique relationship with money. We certainly have our own unique way of both spending and saving money.

However, if you’re ready to start putting some money aside, or looking for tips on money management, or even the best way to pay your bills, the following tips may provide a little bit of help: 

If you’ve ever played the Game of Life board game, it becomes clear that compressed into the colorful path there are various stages of life. Each stage holds its own major financial challenges as well as prospective profits in addition to surprises (new baby!) and forks in the road. In the real world game of life, much is the same, but with sound financial planning throughout the different stages of life, you can have much more control over how much you retire with (as opposed to those random tiles you collect throughout the board game). And, along the way there should be a trusted financial advisor to help give advice and direction on important investment and other monetary decisions. Here are a few of the primary segments of an adult’s life and the financial decisions associated with that general age.