When our founder and CEO, Melissa Pancoast, was a teacher, she noticed that her community’s stress, from the teachers’ lounge to her students’ parents, had financial roots. She was bothered that many of her friends were working long hours and not able to enjoy their hard-earned income. 

It’s probably not surprising that money is currently ranked as the number one cause of stress in the U.S., surpassing health, family, and even work. According to the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America survey, despite lower post-recession stress levels, many Americans continue to feel substantial stress about money.

After teaching, coaching, and working in education policy, Melissa followed her concerns to graduate school where she studied financial behavior at The University of Oxford. Upon graduating, she joined a team of researchers designing and testing programs that aim to reduce stress for families. Working with a talented team under Dr. Lucie Cluver, Melissa proposed and developed a series of “Economic Strengthening” workshops to address the financial weight families feel. These workshops combined strategies tested in communities around the world with a new component—Visual Financial Planning.

This new component was inspired by the time Melissa spent as a math teacher. Visual Financial Planning uses creativity and visual representations of money to make financial planning more interesting and accessible. 

Melissa saw that the Economic Strengthening workshops were popular and effective. She hoped to make the experience accessible to more people, and realized that it could be done at scale with technology while maintaining a human touch. 

At the time, San Francisco was the best place to start a tech company. Melissa moved there and lived on a friend’s couch, “with no money, no network, and enormous student loans.”  The Beans was born amidst managing her money in a new city. The company is named in honor of the dried beans used in Visual Financial Planning and serves as a reminder of her time in South Africa. 

Since leaving Oxford, Economic Strengthening has been tested in numerous RCTs and has been proven effective in reducing financial stress and abuse in families. It is now part of an intervention that has been rolled out by the World Health Organization and United Nations to 400,000 families in 22 countries.  

Who We Are

Today our mission stays true to The Beans’s founding philosophy: Simplify the path to financial balance through design and technology, so that people can stress less about money and focus on what they love. 

“Psychology and technology are used in marketing to get us to spend money, in ways that don’t help us achieve financial success. We’re flipping the script so people can protect their own best interests and find financial balance,” Melissa explained. 

Maybe you’re a teacher who wants to save more but is held back by high costs of living, or a young doctor struggling to pay off student debt. With The Beans, you can manage your monthly expenses and achieve your financial goals.  

What We Do

Research shows that having a plan, having some savings, and saving and spending according to your values are key steps to financial wellness. We used these proven, evidence-based solutions to build The Beans. 

We build personalized, visual financial Plans and help you stick with them through positive, proactive messages. As you reach financial milestones, your Plan will evolve to support your efforts toward savings, debt pay-off, and growth, to strengthen your relationship with your money. 

The Beans is a simple, effective way to manage your money and follow your passion. 

“We get more joy for each dollar we spend in alignment with our personal values — that’s what we want, we want you to get more joy per dollar,” Melissa said.

How It Works

To get started with The Beans:

1. Download the app and create an account for free.
2. Answer a few questions about your lifestyle/goals and securely connect your bank accounts. 
3. We’ll create a personalized Plan designed around principles proven to improve financial wellness.
4. You personalize your financial Plan, commit to it, and we’ll back you up with positive, proactive support.
5. Check in, as you and your finances evolve, so will your Plan.

We’re with you every step of the way so you can stick to your Plan and continue spending on things that bring you joy. Ready to get started? Download The Beans app and start stressing less,  spending smarter, and doing what you love. 

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We humans are unique, complicated, and beautiful beings — all with things we love about ourselves (and maybe a few things we’d like to improve upon, too). Our strengths can be found in many areas: physical, mental, emotional, professional, interpersonal, and beyond. But there’s one strength we all must master to achieve success in the other areas of our lives, and that strength is financial balance. 

Our money (and how we feel about it) can enhance or disrupt our lives, allowing or preventing us from digging deep into our core values and living the lives we dream of. In the new year, we want to give you the tools you need to fine-tune your abilities and achieve financial balance — so you can achieve those other goals on your bucket list, too.

Finding Financial Balance in 2020

It’s no secret that many of us have a complicated relationship with our money. A recent survey reported that 70% of Americans have trouble with at least one aspect of financial stability, with about one in five middle-income earners spending more than they make. 

Even with a stable job (or two), it’s easy for the cost of living, unexpected expenses, and other circumstances to undermine your best efforts at achieving financial balance. Luckily, there is a solution — one that can help break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, set you up for savings, and pay off your debt. Best of all, achieving this kind of financial balance frees you up to spend your time and money on things you love. 

So whether it’s fostering dogs, building custom tables, traveling abroad, biking across the state, launching a passion project, or spending more time exploring your city’s culinary scene, here’s how to strengthen your money skills and master financial balance in 2020. 

The Path to Success

There’s no GPS for financial balance (yet!), but the Path to Success comes pretty close. Here’s the roadmap to succeeding with your money and why each step will keep you on track. 

1. Have a plan. 

Everyone has to start somewhere, no matter where you are starting, having a plan in place is the first step. 

Why have a plan? People with plans are 10 times more likely to succeed financially. Planning (even thinking about planning) clarifies our priorities and increases the likelihood of getting important things done. With the Beans, we’ll do the work of creating a simple Plan for you and invite you to personalize it. From there, we’ll keep you up to date with how much you are Free to Spend so you’re always on top of your finances, not the other way around.

2. Have some savings.

We often hear that you should have “3-6 months’ worth of living expenses saved in your emergency fund.” While that’s a great destination, in reality, it would take most of us months to achieve. We recommend starting with a much more achievable goal: your Essential Savings. 

Why are savings so important? Just a couple hundred dollars in savings makes an actual difference in your day-to-day financial decision making. When we are stressed about our finances, we make less healthy financial decisions. However, when we have cash reserves, even small ones, we feel more secure — which lets our brains relax. When we feel more secure, those relaxed brains make healthier financial decisions. The great news is that The Beans can get you started right away on your Essential Savings. 

3. Spend intentionally. 

Ultimately, spending intentionally helps you scale Maslow’s hierarchy. When we work, we trade our time and talent for money. When we spend money, we are trading our time and talent for things. It sounds crazy, but when we exchange our work (money) for something (a purchase), that thing becomes a part of us. If it’s something you feel great about, like buying fair trade, or it amplifies who you are in the world, like a new guitar pedal, you’re making yourself bigger in the world. 

Why does spending intentionally matter? In our parents’ generation, economists treated each dollar as equal, and in a math way, we can see how they got there. Modern research tells us something different and significant: When you spend in alignment with your personality and values, you get more for each dollar. The Beans wants you to get more out of each dollar you earn and will be by your side, sending positive, proactive updates that build your awareness.

Real-World Financial Balance within Reach

The Path to Success is simple yet effective, with proven results in the real world for real people looking to achieve financial balance. One of our members, David, is a teacher living in Atlanta who was looking to get a better handle on his finances. After joining The Beans, David has paid off his credit card debt and is paying for graduate school to open up more opportunities in the education field. 

Are you ready to strengthen your money skills and achieve financial balance in the new year? Learn more about The Beans here, or download The Beans app to get started now.

Hundreds of feet in the air, a tightrope walker balances precariously on a wire that’s less than an inch in width. She moves slowly, with grace and care, yet one wrong move could send her toppling down. 

Sound familiar? That’s because finding balance in our everyday lives is not unlike the job of the tightrope walker. We take care to manage our priorities and to achieve some semblance of balance among work, family, and finances, only to be derailed by an unexpected cost or expense that sends us spiraling back to where we started. 

As we enter a new decade, it feels all the more important to follow through with a resolution to find work+life+financial balance. Now, we know what you’re thinking: New Year’s resolutions never stick. In fact, research has shown that even though 60 percent of us make resolutions, only about eight percent see them through. And if your goal is to improve your financial wellness in the New Year, you have an even smaller chance of success: Saving money is one of the top five most commonly failed resolutions. 

But it doesn’t have to be — and we’re here for you. We’ve put together our top three (achievable) New Year’s resolutions geared towards improving your financial wellness while finding balance across all aspects of your life. The ultimate goal? Walk the 2020 tightrope with ease and assurance instead of fear, so that even if you slip, you’ll have a safety net to break your fall. 

Resolution #1: Master the elusive work + life + financial balance. 

Maintaining work+life balance is beneficial in more ways than one: It can reduce stress, prevent burnout, improve productivity, and increase job satisfaction. Yet many of us in the workforce struggle to achieve it, partly because “work” isn’t necessarily limited to what you do at the office — it includes your obligations at home, too. If tackling bills and managing your budget are taking up too many non-office hours, it might be time to make a change. 

That’s where The Beans comes in: We’ll build you a plan for your money so you can focus on the life part of work+life balance. Other ways to achieve work+life balance include:

• Schedule time for you the way you’d schedule time for a meeting. 
• Leave work at work. Make it a priority to not check your email at home or past a certain hour. 
• Optimize your workspace for your needs. 
• Set (and stick to) working hours when possible. 

Resolution #2: Plan for your financial wellness so that you can plug in when you need to and unplug when you’re done. 

Our lives are endlessly busy these days, and it’s hard to find the headspace to tackle every task on that to-do list. Our resolution? Tap into The Beans to save time and get your finances on track. That way, you can plug in and focus at the office and then easily unplug after working hours. 

This type of financial planning can also come in handy when you’re faced with unforeseen costs. Whether your car breaks down, your dog needs emergency surgery, or every one of your friends invites you to be in their wedding this year, having a plan means you’ll be able to work through these unexpected expenses without feeling totally overwhelmed.  

Resolution #3: Spend less time stressing about your money and more time pursuing your passion.

Do what you love, love what you do: Now that’s a New Year’s resolution we can get on board with. And yes, it is possible to achieve financial balance by spending smarter and managing your money. 

How? At The Beans, we’ll build you a financial plan that feels right and allows you to do the things you love (like volunteering at the animal shelter and hanging with friends) without a second thought. In addition, there are tons of balance-friendly ways to have some fun: 

• Instead of going out to brunch, invite your friends over and make this epic french toast casserole (seriously, it’s worth it).
• Catch an early bird movie — theater prices are often discounted before noon. 
• In lieu of happy hour, go for a walk, hike, or bike with friends. Split a bottle of wine at your place after. 
• Institute a weekly game night with your favorite classic board games.
• Love to travel? Sign up for airfare alerts and find out when flight prices drop. 

The Beans was created to easily and effectively help you find money + life balance through personalized visual financial plans, and we hope these resolutions shed some light on finding that balance in the New Year ahead. If you’re interested in learning more about The Beans or want to try it for yourself, sign up for our waitlist and be the first to know when it launches.