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Things to know about KYC in finance

· 3 min read
Clay Raterman
COO @ Fina Money

Know Your Customer (KYC) describes the key process used in financial services to identify and verify customers, in order to protect against potential risks and serious legal offences like fraud, corruption, and terrorist financing activities. It goes without saying that KYC has a huge part to play in keeping transactions secure and above board – but what else should we know about them?

In this blog post, we break down three things both industry professionals and consumers will find useful to know about KYC in finance.

The Best Personal Finance and Budgeting Apps for 2025

· 7 min read
Shawn Cao
Founder @ Fina Money

Personal Finance Apps

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There are hundreds of Personal Finance Apps, choose the one that works the best for you!

Check out Top Personal Finance Apps for a quick comparison.

Personal finance and budgeting apps have become essential tools for managing our finances in today's digital age, but this market is so crowded that it is hard to choose the best one for you.

Companies are competing to provide the best features, user experience, and integrations with banks and financial institutions. When you search for the best personal finance apps, you will find a lot of articles and reviews, but they are often biased or outdated. In this article, we will explore the key features that make a personal finance app the best choice for you, and why Fina is the best personal finance and budgeting app in 2025.

Why Financial Literacy Matters

· 5 min read
Shawn Cao
Founder @ Fina Money

Financial Literacy

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Financial Literacy is an understanding of the various financial skills, such as personal financial management, budgeting, investing, and applying them effectively.

When you hear the term "financial literacy," what comes to mind?

It seems an overwhelming complex topic, but in fact, it comes down to a few key concepts that everyone can understand and apply in their daily life.

Build Your Own Finance Tracker

· 5 min read
Shawn Cao
Founder @ Fina Money

Maybe you just started your career as a young professional, maybe you're managing big investments and assets in mid-life, or maybe you're thinking about retirement planning soon…

No matter what stage of life you're at, finance is one of the most important parts of it. Managing your finances well lays a secure foundation for a happy life.

You need a finance tracker.

A finance tracker not only keeps you on track with spending and budgeting but also gives you comprehensive financial clarity to feel financially secure.

How to Implement the Zero-Based Budgeting Method in Fina

· 6 min read
Shawn Cao
Founder @ Fina Money

Zero Based Budgeting

Zero based budgeting is very popular in personal finance, because it is very simple but effective. Most of people can understand it easily and implement it in their daily life.

Budgeting tool like YNAB (You Need A Budget) is built around this concept, and it has been adopted by many people to manage their finances.

However, if you do not want to manage your finances in a religious way, you may find it hard to stick, and may not want to continue paying a high subscription fee for it.

Fina is built to be a flexible and powerful tool for personal finance, and we can implement it easily in Fina and use it in a flexible way.

Tips for Managing Debt Effectively

· 5 min read
Shawn Cao
Founder @ Fina Money

Repaying your debt can often feel challenging. That’s why making a plan to manage your payments and balances can help. Take a look at these tips and discover some small steps you can take today that may make managing your debt easier.

I like this quote from Wells Fargo and found it's relevant to Fina users. So here are expanded tips for managing debt effectively, along with how Fina can help you in each step.

Manage Your Merchants on Fina

· 2 min read
Shawn Cao
Founder @ Fina Money

At the heart of personal finance management is one essential task: tracking your transactions.

A big part of that is understanding your spending (or earnings) by merchant—so you can answer questions like:

  • How much have I spent with a specific vendor?

  • What does that look like over time?

  • How does it break down by category?

Use Tag to Thread a Financial Story

· 4 min read
James Han
Financial Coach @ Money Mastery

Why Tags are Awesome?

Unlike categories, tags offer freedom by nature. Whenever an idea or thought comes to mind, you can instantly add a tag to capture it.

Because of their flexibility, the most effective way to use tags is to map them to specific financial stories—real-life events that you want to track closely.

My friend Shaw once told me that his parents-in-law would be visiting in a few months. He’s super excited to share his life with them, but he also wants to keep an eye on how much he’ll spend—on hotels, meals, travel, fun activities, and more.

Categories are not enough for this purpose.