Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Digit and I are no longer.
Digit and I are breaking up because our relationship is no longer working in a manner that feels beneficial or healthy to me. I have documented our time together in exacting detail, but the key moment for me came when I finally emailed them to corroborate what I had suspected: the app wasn’t saving any money for me because I was somehow spending more.
This is the response I received to the very polite email I sent after checking my savings account with Digit and realizing that the app hadn’t saved money for me in a month.
I took a look at your account and the good news is, Digit is still trying to find automated savings for you, but it hasn’t found a good time to do so recently.
I can’t see specifics, but from what I can see, Digit seems to think you may have had a regular recurring bill or bills that it was expecting to hit that hasn’t hit yet that if it did, could have brought your account into the negative. This generally could be something big like a credit card payment or rent, etc.
It can also be caused by changes in your spending habits or large upcoming bills.
The reasons for why the app decided not to save any money for me in an entire month makes sense. I looked carefully at my spending and noticed that yes, I have been a bit more reckless, maybe. I’m paying my student loans again and continuing to pay down my credit card. I bought new glasses and took $200 out of an ATM a couple weeks ago because sometimes I like to experiment with just using cash. The stupid boots I bought that I still love cost me $180 — a casual amount to drop on a Friday, and out of character for me, I guess. I have bought flowers. None of this spending felt out of the ordinary for me, but apparently the algorithm felt otherwise.
Automating tasks like saving money and paying bills is the key to making sure they actually get done; I will not remember to save money or pay a bill without spiraling into an hour-long meditation about whether or not I’m making the right choices. Digit’s utility for me was this automation, like a CrockPot for money: set it, forget it, and reap the rewards. What I didn’t expect was the weird sense of shame I felt when the app clocked me and made adjustments accordingly. Whether it’s intentional or not, it seems that a part of the algorithm’s functionality is to create awareness. When it works in my favor — saving the money in a way that I view as acceptable — I can assume that my life and my finances are trucking along at the pace that they always have. When it stops saving money, that’s a warning sign — but not one that I need from an app or from anyone else.
The money that I’ve saved in Digit is going towards a plane ticket to Taiwan in the fall. I’m bad at going on vacation and even worse at saving for it, because the physical act of saving money feels like work. As of right now, I’ve basically made the ticket. I can make the $300 or so extra I’ll need to pay for it in full. I have time to do so, and luckily, I also have a plan.
I am not a genius, so I will not be able to write an algorithm that removes a “painless” amount of money from my checking account, but I can make an educated guess as to what feels bad and what feels just fine. I’ve withdrawn the money from Digit and when it hits my account, I will put it in the savings account I’ve just created. Every month, a few days after I get paid and the dust has settled, I will automatically transfer money to that savings account and do my best to pretend like it doesn’t exist. Yes, this is what I should have done in the first place, but “should” is relative and anyway, now I know.
Support The Billfold
The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.
Comments