For many investors, the financial market is a complex landscape, and taxes can often eat into potential returns. Playbook was designed to help solve this problem. This fintech app offers a solution by carefully analyzing your portfolio and suggesting tax-efficient strategies and opportunities for tax loss harvesting.
In this Playbook review, we’ll break down its features, benefits, and look at Playbook reviews and ratings. Keep reading to find out more.
What is Playbook?
Located in San Francisco, Playbook is a fintech company designed for households with an income of over $100,000 annually. Their main goals? To help users reduce their tax liability, provide a clear net worth plan, and offer automated investment portfolios.
With Playbook, users can easily assess their taxable income, estimate their net worth, and set savings goals. One of Playbook’s standout features is its thorough review of users’ financial accounts, including bank, brokerage, and current accounts. It identifies areas where users might be missing out on tax advantages. The platform is also great at handling self-employment income and considers income limits, offering a tailored approach that sets it apart from other financial planning platforms.
How Does Playbook Work?
Playbook’s system is structured yet straightforward. To get started, you first link your banking and investment accounts using Plaid, a trusted third-party tool used by numerous finance apps. This ensures that your data is kept secure at a bank-level.
Once you’ve linked your accounts, it’s time to enter some important financial details. This includes your total annual household income, monthly expenses, estimated yearly taxes, contributions to your 401(k), and any employer matching. These details lay the groundwork for your financial plan.
With the foundation in place, you can start setting your financial priorities. Playbook helps you evaluate your emergency funds, advising you to have six months’ worth saved — two months in a traditional savings account and four months in a brokerage account. Beyond that, you can set long-term goals like saving for major life events. Once these goals are set, Playbook allows you to balance between tax savings and your other financial priorities.
For those interested in investing, Playbook offers a passive investment portfolio primarily composed of Vanguard stock and bond index ETFs. It’s important to note that this platform is geared towards passive investing, so if you’re looking to actively manage individual stocks, you’d need a different platform.
Lastly, Playbook coordinates monthly transfers. After setting your financial plan, Playbook manages transfers to your savings and investment accounts every month. Your dashboard updates after each transaction, and if life changes, you can easily adjust your plan accordingly.
To sum it up, Playbook operates on four main principles:
- It identifies optimal tax strategies based on your finances.
- Using your details and potential tax advantages, it constructs a comprehensive financial plan.
- Playbook’s tax-optimized investing system is activated to minimize tax burdens and boost portfolio growth.
- With Playbook’s automation, you consistently direct savings to beneficial accounts, adjusting as needed based on any changes in your financial situation.
Playbook Reviews and Ratings
At the time of writing this, Playbook has a respectable overall score on Trustpilot of 4.3 out of 5. Lets see what users are saying about Playbook:
Clarence William Stone
Jul 24, 2023
Amazing Product Backed by Even Better Service
Amazing product, even better team, and an organization that is dedicated to continually providing better experiences. I have used Playbook for over 2 years and I have seen the feature sets expand while the support team continues to work even hard to resolve niche financial challenges that I have. You won’t find a better experience from any of their competitors. I know, because I have tried most of them.
Date of experience: July 24, 2023
Brian Sullivan
Jun 5, 2023
Set it and forget it money management.
Great little company. They take some simple money management strategies and make it easy and automated to setup and achieve. Set it and forget it.
Perfect for anyone who doesn’t want to spend the time moving money around to where it’s most advantageous or for those who don’t know where to start with managing their money.
Great customer service as well. I had a small issue changing from their monthly plan to the annual one. They got back to me in a reasonable time and helped me out quickly and friendly.
Date of experience: June 05, 2023
Gabriella Padgett
Mar 24, 2023
A+ customer service
I initially had some difficulty setting up my accounts. The interface was simple and intuitive, but I had a few complex situations that weren’t options. When I got an email offering a live onboarding session, I was pleasantly surprised and even more shocked when a live person hopped on a zoom to walk me through my specific situation ( not a conference call with 100’s of people, but a 1:1 video meeting). Was not sure if this product was right for me, but after the responsive customer service I am really finding the value. I have different tools for tracking my spending and savings, but playbook helps me see if I’m maximizing my investments. Exactly what I was looking for.
Date of experience: March 24, 2023
Final Thoughts
Playbook offers a comprehensive approach to financial planning, marrying intuitive tech with strategic insights. Its San Francisco-based team has designed a platform that not only focuses on optimizing tax advantages but also genuinely caters to those seeking clarity in their financial journey.
From linking accounts effortlessly with trusted tools to prioritizing both short-term and long-term goals, Playbook proves its commitment to guiding users towards financial freedom. For households earning at least $100,000 annually who seek to streamline their finances, minimize tax liabilities, and craft a precise savings strategy, Playbook might just be the perfect tool.
Click here to discover more about Playbook and be on your way to a clearer financial future.