Whatever generation you think of, there seems to be a unanimous image that appears in your mind. An image that defines a generation.
You can imagine a baby boomer with a nice suit, coming back from working at a company where they've worked for the last 50 years. A Gen X, with long, flowing hair, protesting for civil/woman's rights. A millennial surfing the net, thinking up a new way of how it can make them money. A Gen Z with...well, that really hasn't been defined yet, has it?
While the above are just generational stereotypes, the last statement is very much true. We're still making our minds up as to who Gen Z are, what they like and what they do. Right now they're still teenagers. And teenagers, as diverse as they can be, are always going to be the same in a great number of ways. Mopey springs to mind here.
One other thing that you can almost always associate with teenagers is money. Or to be more accurate, their lack of responsibility with it. Not having your financial head completely screwed on when you're still a teenager is by no means a crime, in fact, it's often just passed off as part of growing up.
Growing up, however, is a lot easier these days. There's an app for everything! Did you know that there is an app that helps you through puberty? I don't know how it helps exactly, but it exists and it's available for you to download now. However, I digress. There is an app that helps with anything imaginable, and money is no different.
Advancements in technology have meant have not missed the financial sector, quite the opposite. There is even a whole word used to describe the advancement of financial technology - fintech.
With money making the world go round, how we deal with it has always been the subject of debate, inquiry and advancement. Fintech isn't this new thing, what it is, has just evolved. Technically speaking, the very first cash register was fintech. What we perceive as fintech today, is just its latest incarnation.
And that's what fascinates me about it. What's the next incarnation? Yeah, we can make an educated guess, but ultimately we don't know! Think about it this way. You're a time traveller (bear with me) and you travel even back just twenty years. Try and convince those people that in just a few years, you'll be able to transfer money between your bank accounts using a rectangle that lives in your pocket, by means of an array of satellites put in place to make your life easier. You'd sound crazy. In fact, some of the things that we have available today, and that we arguably take for granted, would be completely incomprehensible to people in the past. And that's what gets me excited about the next big thing in fintech. I don't know what's going to come next, but I'd bet good money on it being good. I'd obviously place this bet using some sort of fintech, of course.
We can guess all we want, there are those out there that will get close - they will have a good idea of what's coming next. However, I don't like guessing. I like surprises. And I also like to focus on the here and now, so looking at the tech available to me and my finances right now seems more appropriate.
One of the more interesting apps, or rather, services that I've come across recently is B. Now, B stress that they are not a bank, but a digital financial assistant, and I like that. The B App works by keeping track of what, when and why you're spending, with ease as you will be using the B cards, and giving you appropriate advice. It gives you recommendations on how to both save money, and how to spend it better. It's essentially the app version of your mother.
There are plenty of similar applications and programs out there, however, I really like the thinking behind this one. Though, to each to their own. There will be something out there that is right for you.
With an increasingly fast-moving sector, fintech, and all technology will surely have a few surprises down the line. It could be something like a chip in your hand that replaces the need for a wallet, but like I said before, I don't like guessing. We'll just have to wait and see what the next big thing is, won't we?