One of the most common emails we receive goes something like, “What do you guys use for [insert financial or blogging-related verb here]? Also, did Johnny eat paint as a child?” For starters, we’re flattered that anyone would care to ask, so thanks for trusting our opinion. As for the second part of that question… no comment.

Since we’ve spent our fair share of time researching a ton of financial products, apps, institutions, etc., we definitely do have opinions. So to save you an email, here’s a fairly comprehensive list of OFB recommendations.

*Heads up: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you click one and sign up, we get a little Diet Coke money (not buy-a-house-money). This did not factor into what products and services we chose to include in this list. Domo arigato.

FINANCIAL STUFF

Budgeting

HomeBudget app

Everyone has a budgeting process that works for them. This is ours. HomeBudget requires manual entry of expenses, which is what we prefer. The design and flow is intuitive and pretty easy to set up. But the biggest draw has always been that it syncs our budget in the cloud so that we’re always on the same page on our separate phones.

Savings

Qapital

This app is on an island of its own. It’s beautifully made, it’s simple, and it’s a brilliant approach to saving. Qapital encourages users to create goals and find creative ways to reach them by creating savings “recipes” or rules. When a rule is triggered, those savings get automatically put aside. So if your savings need a kick in the pants, or you’re just looking for a fun way to save for a goal, this app’s got your back.

Digit

If we had a Black Magic section, this would probably fit better there. With Digit you connect your bank account (don’t worry, it’s safe), and it will automagically start analyzing your spending. And every 2 to 3 days, it will start putting aside small amounts of your money and moving it into a savings account. The magic part is that their algorithm knows how much to set aside without you even noticing that it’s missing. So if you just need something that helps you save while you sleep, you can’t go wrong here.

Money Management

Mint.com

There are few sites we visit more frequently over the course of the month than Mint. While we don’t use Mint as a budgeting app (you can read about why here), we love using it as an at-a-glance look at all of our accounts and transactions. If you’re not on the Mint train, you’re missing out.

Personal Capital

This is like Mint on steroids. If you’re already investing and starting to save for retirement, this is probably better suited for tracking your money. Personal Capital offers some awesome tools like net worth analysis, a goal tracker, ideal investment allocation wizard, and more. And if you’re starting to feel out of your depth or lacking the time to manage your portfolio, they’ve got a team of financial advisors ready to help.

LearnVest

So these folks just get our generation. Most of us are too busy or lazy to do anything that isn’t on our phone. LearnVest runs all of their budgeting, account management, and financial planning right on your phone. For a monthly fee, they’ll look over your money and accounts and help you put a plan into action. So if you’re lacking some direction and accountability (which is HUGE), give them a look.

Investing/Retirement

Vanguard

When it comes to investing, there are few companies more respected and trusted than Vanguard. They have some of the lowest cost fund fees (less fees = more money in your pocket) in the industry and offer great index fund options. We park our Roth IRAs here.

Betterment

I don’t know what Betterment’s tagline is, but if I could take a stab at it, I’d go with something like, “Investing doesn’t have to suck!” Here’s another mostly foolproof way to get your money in the markets with very little effort or investing knowhow. Answer a few questions regarding your investing goals and they’ll give you your own customized portfolio. Slick stuff.

Motif

Like Betterment and Acorn, Motif fits the simplicity bill to a T. And unlike Acorns and Betterment, which are slightly more automated in choosing your investments, Motif offers over 150 different themed investment options, including Battling Cancer (companies that are working toward finding cures), Eating Out (dining establishments), Housing Recovery, World of Sports, etc. Now you can be purposeful about your investing while still being a noob.

Acorns

This is one of the smarter and easier ways to start investing. Acorns rounds up your daily purchases, takes the difference, and invests it automatically for you. Short of me going into your home, taking all the money out of your wallet, and then investing it for you, there’s really not an easier option to get started investing.

Banking

Aspiration

Aspiration is one of our favorite companies we’ve been introduced to recently. First and foremost, their Summit Checking Account boasts a 1% yield, nearly 100x better than the big banks out there. Beyond that, they’re a bank with a heart giving 10% of all profits to charity and asking customers to pay-as-they-wish for fees. We’re not alone in our recommendation as they recently won Best Checking Account in America by Money Magazine.

Ally Bank

These are our banking peeps. Ally exists on the Internet and that’s it. Everything we do with our bank accounts is done via their website and app. While still painfully low, their savings account interest rates are some of the highest rates out there.

Chase

While we stick to Ally for 90% of our banking, we still like having a brick-and-mortar option for those random times you need a certified check or large cash withdrawal. They’ve also got a much faster clearing time on eDeposited checks via their app.

Credit Cards

Chase Southwest

We’re huge fans of Southwest Airlines. Super affordable, two free bags, no assigned seating (great for families), family boarding, etc. We have their Plus card ($69/annual fee) card and timed it so that the sign up promotions lined up just right to score a Companion Pass for Joanna for almost two years. Read all about it here.

AMEX Simply Cash Business

If you run any sort of business or have a little side gig, it’s nice to have a separate card to tidy up your bookkeeping. This card has no annual fee and offers pretty decent cash back perks, especially for business-related expenses like cell phone bills, office supplies, and gas. For a no-fee card, this is our favorite option.

Insurance

AccuQuote

KAYAK is to travel search as AccuQuote is to life insurance. While we’d much rather spend our time searching vacations, AccuQuote won our hearts for two reasons. One, they deal almost exclusively with term life policies (our recommendation). Two, once you fill out your information, they actually give you quotes on their site from reputable providers instead of having to wait for a salesman to call you. If you want more info, check out our life insurance how-to guide for millennials.

GEICO

We’re not sure if it was the gecko or the hump-day camel or the cavemen or any of the other 70 characters that GEICO has rolled out in their commericials, but we’ve always used GEICO for car and motorcycle (okay, Vespa) insurance. It’s budget-friendly and our interactions with them have always been pleasant. I’ve shopped around for better premiums and no one has gotten very close to their rates.

Reading Material

The Total Money Makeover

This is pretty much where it all started. We’ve adapted some of Sir Ramsey’s rules (see here), but this is a step-by-step guide that takes you from getting out of debt to investing for your future. There are few books we’ve read that have been as motivating to actually get crap done.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich

If the idea of reading a personal finance book in your free time sounds awful, this might be a good place to start. It boils down basic principles and real-life, practical applications of things you can do today to improve your financial wellbeing.

The 4-Hour Work Week

A word of caution: this book will make you reconsider everything you’re doing in life. Few books we’ve read have caused as much late-night discussions and plotting and quarter-life crises as Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Work Week. If you’re looking to design a more meaningful, purpose-driven life, start here.

Discounts, Coupons & Deals

Ebates

This site is a total no-brainer. Before you buy something online, head over to their site (or use their nifty browser extension that flashes when you’re on a cash-back site), click a link to that online store, and they’ll hook you up with a few percentage points of cash back. There’s no catch, no strings attached. Just shop like you normally do and score some extra savings. Score.

SlickDeals

If you’re trigger happy to buy things any time there’s a deal to be had, it’d probably be best to steer clear of SlickDeals. Seriously, though. On any given day, they’ll publish dozens of crowd-sourced deals. We follow their Twitter account and only click through when something comes up that’s free or we see something we were planning on buying anyway.

CamelCamelCamel

This tool makes me feel super sneaky. Not sure why it’s named what it is, but they keep historical data on every item on Amazon and a few other sites. That way, you can check to see if you’re actually getting a good deal and whether you should hold off for a better deal. We use their notifications to let us know when certain items go below a certain price. Sneaky, right?

BLOGGING & PRODUCTIVITY

Blogging

ThemeForest

Our site is run on WordPress, and getting it to do exactly what you want it to do and look like is tricky. So we rely on ThemeForest for our initial theme designs, and then we put our nerd caps on and edit things up to match what we need.

Harvest

For the freelance/consultant/side gig’ers out there — sup. When it comes to time tracking and invoicing, we’re big fans of Harvest. It’s a lot simpler and sleeker than everything else we’ve tried and is reasonably priced. So check it out and then go back to making that cheddahhh.

Re:splashed

Are you looking for stock photos of a stale workplace, two frumpy people jumping and high-fiving, or a clipart bag of money? Don’t go to this site. Re:splashed is all about high-rez, high-quality stock photos that are freeee. You’ll probably see a few images over there that we’ve used on our site.

Flickr Creative Commons

When we don’t have time to make our own image and re:splashed doesn’t have what we’re looking for, we cruise over the Flickr. But thanks to a thing called copyright, you can’t just rip anyone’s photo and throw it on your site. Seriously, that ain’t cool. But this link takes you to a search of all Creative Commons licensed photos, which means they can be used with fewer copyright restrictions.