The Secret Weapon to Wealth Building...

The Secret Weapon to Wealth Building...

Growing your wealth these days isn’t as simple as it once was. To many Americans, investing can feel more like running in place on a treadmill than gaining ground and putting one foot ahead of the other.

And the real irony? The more progress you make, the more difficult it becomes to manage your money and make solid investment decisions.

The good news is that these challenges can be overcome, if you can identify the key problem areas and find a way to remedy them.  There are three main pitfalls Americans are most likely to run into:

Pitfall #1: Scattered accounts

In order to make great investment decisions, you need to be able to see a snapshot of your entire financial situation. Yet most of us have our finances set up in a way that doesn’t easily allow this.

Having multiple, fragmented accounts (banking, lending, brokerage, credit cards, stocks, 401k) on different sites runs counter to the principles of smart investing. It’s hard to keep track of everything. You’re forced to make financial decisions based on just one piece of the puzzle, rather than the big picture.

Pitfall #2: Inflated fees

The second big problem is that most people simply pay too much to have someone manage their investments for them. Mutual fund fees and brokerage commissions really eat away at your returns.  And many experts have long been of the opinion that fees and commissions have grown out of control. Yet it doesn’t appear they’ll be going away anytime soon, as most investment companies believe they provide necessary incentives to sell funds.

Pitfall #3: Biased financial advice

When it comes to accepting financial advice from brokers, you may not always get guidance that’s necessarily in your best interest. Brokers make money on everything in your account, so they may have hidden conflicts.

 Personal Capital solves all of these challenges in 5 minutes.

To combat these the challenges and even out the playing field for the individual investor, there is a free app available called Personal Capital.

Personal Capital lets you manage all of your accounts on one single platform, giving you the key data you need to make informed investment decisions. Personal Capital like having a financial GPS at your fingertips; you can see all of your accounts right on one screen, from your computer or mobile device, complete with graphs, charts and reports that are intuitive and easy to understand.

Personal Capital also highlights all of the fees you’re paying, helping you analyze them and figure out where you can reduce those charges.

You can even use Personal Capital to get customized advice on optimizing your investments, from a trustworthy and impartial third party - rather than an investment salesperson trying to increase their commission.

See for yourself why Personal Capital has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, Time, and more - and was named by Macworld as “The best free finance tracking app available”. To set up your free account quickly and easily, go to PersonalCapital.com.