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Allo Is a Holistic Finance App—No Budgeting Required

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Allo Is a Holistic Finance App—No Budgeting Required

My finances are a little messy. Tracking what I spend and covering all my expenses seriously stresses me out. I’ve tried multiple budgeting apps in vain. There’s always a honeymoon period with the software where I spend hours filling out detailed budgets—only to shamefully give up a few weeks later after some surprise expenses.

But I’m not yet ready to go low-tech and try that cash-stuffing trend from TikTok. So when the founders of a finance app called Allo (Android, Apple) reached out, offering to show me how their app was different from others, I decided to try it out. It’s a rare finance app that doesn’t ask you to build a budget. Instead, the software focuses on aligning your money habits with your values.

“It’s trying to be holistic about your entire life,” says Paul Montoy-Wilson, cofounder of Allo. “Helping you think through all the different areas of your life that you spend time and money on, and what’s important to you in this moment.”

Even though the app’s less strict approach may not be for everyone, my experience with Allo has been quite positive. I feel more cognizant of my overall financial situation while using it. Here’s what you can expect when getting started and a few tips for using the app.

Align Your Spending With Your Values

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At the core of Allo is its “mindful money practice,” which emphasizes value alignment, awareness, and reflection over financial embarrassment and shameful avoidance. While a subscription to Allo costs $50 a year, WIRED readers can use the app for free for three months with a special promotion.

After downloading the app, you start off with five onboarding lessons that explain how to get the most out of Allo. Don’t rush these! In the first lesson you’ll lay out what’s most important to you for multiple value categories. For example, under Health, I selected exercise, therapy, and sleep as priorities that I want to spend my limited income on.

In the second lesson, Allo asks to view your bank transactions, using Plaid, in order to help you examine your spending habits. When reviewing recent transactions, Allo lets you tag expenses that contribute to your values and flag ones that don’t—for further reflection.

Once you complete the onboarding, you get to choose how often you’d like to interact with Allo: daily, weekly, or monthly. I like the cadence of checking the app weekly; it’s not an overwhelming chore to do every day, and it’s more involved than a monthly check-in.

Tips for Using the App

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For more concrete calculations about your finances, check out the Timeline tab at the bottom of the screen. Here’s where you can see what your income, expenses, and overall cash flow were for the last month. Scroll down and you can compare what spending tags you used most often.

Want to adjust your priorities? Tap on the Values tab at the bottom of the screen to make tweaks. Don’t see a tag that perfectly captures what you want? Allo lets you add custom spending tags.

Every expense that you Flag is collected and available to review in the dedicated tab. In addition to marking expenses that you don’t feel great about, you can use this feature to highlight items where you need to pester friends to get paid back, submit reimbursements, or any custom category you’d like to flag for attention.

Finished with your spending review and want to discover even more financial advice? Visit the Resources tab, where you can find recommendations for good books and podcasts. This section also includes blogs to read and YouTube videos to watch, sorted into topics like investing and abundance mindset.

I can be cynical when it comes to money advice, and I’m skeptical of financial narratives like the abundance mindset. (You’re telling me I’m poor because I’m ungrateful?!) But Allo feels genuinely helpful without resorting to a hardcore budget. Instead of experiencing shame after checking the app, I close Allo feeling like I have a firmer grasp on the chaos and what I value most in life.

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Trump bull market is just beginning: Fmr. TD Ameritrade CEO

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Trump bull market is just beginning: Fmr. TD Ameritrade CEO

Corporate America is gearing up for Trump 2.0, having already gotten a flavor of what Trump has in mind. Potentially crushing fresh tariffs on China, even if it means higher levels of US inflation. Mass deportations come with their own set of economic risks. And soon, potentially, a new leader atop the Federal Reserve. Is there any way a top executive could prepare for uncertain outcomes tied to these initiatives from the Trump administration? How does one lead their teams when uncertainty begins to reign supreme again? Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi sat down with former TD Ameritrade CEO and former head football coach at Coastal Carolina University Joe Moglia. Moglia is not only considered a market master for his work from 2001 to 2008 building TD Ameritrade into a trading powerhouse but also a leadership expert. Moglia shares his perspective on the record-setting year for markets, what’s next for investors, and how to lead with a clear focus in 2025.

For full episodes of Opening Bid, listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on our website.

Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid is produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

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UK finance minister to revive regular economic talks with China in January trip, sources says

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UK finance minister to revive regular economic talks with China in January trip, sources says

By Joe Cash

BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain’s finance minister Rachel Reeves will visit China on a two-day trip in January to revive high-level economic and financial talks that have been frozen since 2019, three people with knowledge of the plan said.

Reeves is scheduled to meet China’s vice premier He Lifeng, the country’s economy tsar, on Jan. 11 in Beijing to restart what had been annual talks known as the Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD), they said.

If those discussions show progress, the two sides could look to re-launch what had been a regular and wider meeting known as the Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO) later next year, the sources said.

British businesses have also pressed to restart meetings of the UK-China CEO Council, a group established by then-Prime Minister Theresa May and then-Premier Li Keqiang in 2018, one of the sources added.

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Reuters reported on Thursday that HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker will lead a business delegation that will visit China next month in a bid to boost trade and investment with a particular focus on financial services.

Reeves will also go to Shanghai, where she will meet with British companies operating in China on Jan. 12, according to the sources, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.

Britain decided to suspend most economic dialogues with China in 2020 after Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong, the former British colony. Since then, spying allegations, the war in Ukraine, and the sanctioning of lawmakers have increased tensions between the two countries.

The Labour government, in power in Britain since July, has made improving ties with China one of its main foreign policy goals after a period under successive Conservative governments when relations plunged to their lowest in decades.

In 2022, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a Conservative, declared the end of a “golden era” of relations with China that one of his predecessors, David Cameron, had championed.

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Over the preceding decade, British and Chinese officials had met annually for high-level trade and investment talks, holding an EFD almost every year and a JETCO every two years.

Those talks resulted in the London-Shanghai stock connect scheme, Britain joining the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and joint investment into green technologies, including the UK’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant.

(Reporting by Joe Cash)

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Bloomberg’s Essential (Aussie) Summer Reading List

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Bloomberg’s Essential (Aussie) Summer Reading List

Hello! It’s Rebecca here with your final Australia Briefing of 2024. And what a year it’s been. From the re-election of Donald Trump and the ongoing slowdown in China, to the blockbuster IPOs and corporate scandals closer to home — 2024 will go down as one for the ages.

Before we all revert to the sanctity of our beach towels, I thought I’d load you up with a selection of my favorite pieces from Bloomberg’s Australia newsroom this year. A stockpile of stories, videos and podcasts to help you while away those days by the pool, at the campsite, or wherever the onset of summer takes you…

Is ‘Bluey’ Ending? Disney’s Worried Biggest Kids Show Ever Is at Risk — Essential reading for anyone with a kid, or honestly, a pulse. Did you know that Americans watched 731 million hours of Bluey in 2023, more than NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy, Gilmore Girls or that perennial of the broadcast, cable and streaming eras, Friends? That’s almost as much as my kids.

Australia Has a Top Pension Program. Why Are Many Retirees Still Struggling? — It’s official: Australia’s retirement system is the envy of the wealthy world. So why aren’t we all diving Scrooge McDuck-style into a vat of cash?

Malaria Rates Surge After Mosquito Net Changes Complicate Global Fight — Travel to the depths of Siar Village, Papua New Guinea with our reporters as they explain why the world is losing its fight against malaria.

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World’s Top Retailer Is Now Trying to Save Air New Zealand — We report a lot on the former CEO of this airline, you may know him as the New Zealand PM. But what do you know about the new one?

Investing for the Ultra-Rich: Family Offices Are Booming in Perth, Australia — Twiggy lives there, and so does Gina — but those two reasonably well-off citizens aside, why is Perth a magnet for family offices?

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