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The following is a guest post from Earnest, a technology company that uses cutting-edge data science, smarter design and software automation to rebuild financial services. Earnest understands every applicant’s full financial story to offer the lowest possible rates and radically flexible loan options for living life.

Salad instead of fries. Green tea instead of coffee. Debit instead of credit.

We’re all trying to make healthier decisions so we can live longer and with more ease. Your money is no different — making good financial choices is also part of living a happier, better life.

Like eating, the earlier you start, the longer can you enjoy the rewards. But what you might not know is how a new generation of technology can help.

Nearly all of our everyday financial choices — like saving, spending, borrowing, insuring — have become more efficient in recent years with the help of better, more sophisticated software. For you, that means you can use technology to save time and money through better automation, personalization, and efficiency.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can make better financial choices with the help of these new tech-based services.

Better financial choice #1: Stop paying so much interest on your student loans.

For 40 million Americans, student loans are a fact of life — and there are ways to make living with debt better, such as refinancing into better rates. By refinancing student loans, you can reduce your monthly payments or reconfigure the terms of your loans so it fits better with your monthly budget.

You might try: Earnest offers hyper-personalized loans with its Precision Pricing feature. This feature provides you with an interest rate that matches your exact budget so you’re not overpaying in interest.

Better financial choice #2: Automate all your investing goals, large and small.

Investing is not new but using technology (in lieu of a financial advisor or your own time) to manage your investments is a recent thing. Automated investment services, aka robo-advisors, provide online tools to help you customize sophisticated investment portfolios with the right mix of stocks and bonds, and then keep your investments balanced and performing as they should.

You might try: Betterment lets you create multiple investment goals and customize each one for the right mix of stocks and bonds, and has some of the lowest fees in the industry. It also allows you to connect your outside accounts to get a 360-view of your savings and retirement plan.

Better financial choice #3: Only pay insurance for the miles you drive.

New technology helps you match the number of miles you drive with what you actually pay for insurance — especially useful for people who only drive occasionally. With traditional insurance, you might pay $100 a month, no matter how many miles you log. Now tech-based insurance mean you pay only what you use — slashing that $100 bill down to $37 per month, for example.

You might try: With Metromile, you plug a tracker into your vehicle to log the number of miles you drive — and that is the basis for what you pay. The added benefit of the tracker is you can also log you all the trips you’ve taken and see where you’re parked at all times. …

We’ve been making major moves this year, with an East Coast expansion ( Pennsylvania, Virginia AND New Jersey) and a shiny new update to our smart driving app. There was also a whole lot of driving less and saving more. We couldn’t have had such a momentous year without our amazing customers, so without further ado, here’s a recap of what 2015 looked like for our Metromilers!

The following is a guest post from Marina Myshkina of the IMPROV Traffic School, an online traffic school that entertains and educates about traffic laws and driving safety.

We all know the rules of the road and we follow them — at least most of the time. With winter weather making travel increasingly cumbersome, it’s important we avoid making these seemingly small mistakes that could lead to big accidents. Here’s our recommendations for safely surviving traffic.

1. Ditch distracted driving. This includes texting and talking on the phone, jamming out to your favorite tunes on the highest volume possible and eating a tasty burger. There are a bunch of other distractions we could mention, but you probably get the picture. According to the CDC, approximately nine people are involved in auto accidents per day due to distracted driving — and that’s in the United States alone.
2. Don’t swerve while trying to avoid hitting an animal. If you spot a deer, raccoon, squirrel or some other creature on the road, don’t swerve to miss it! We understand that it’s an innocent animal and everything — but when the alternative is swerving into traffic or slamming on your brakes, we think you should just carry on with driving as you always do to avoid a possible ten-car pileup. Note that deer and other creatures are most active from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and that using your high beams can help to spot the animals early (which will allow you to safely coast into the next lane to avoid it).
3. Take a nap. Believe it or not, driving while you’re sleepy is illegal in some states, and it’s seen as just as bad as drunk driving by the law enforcement of those states. It’s called “drowsy driving.” It’s estimated that drowsy driving causes approximately 100,000 crashes per year in the United States (according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). It’s better to just grab a hotel room than to risk it.
4. Stop speeding. Not only can it land you a speeding ticket, but for every one mile per hour that you clock on the speedometer, the likelihood of getting into a car accident increases by four to five percent.
5. Understand assumptions aren’t accurate. People put their turn signals on and forget about them — and it doesn’t mean they are going to make a turn. And not everyone you drive next to is practicing safe, undistracted driving.
6. Always wear your seat belt. Did you know that seat belts actually go through a ton of testing to ensure that they can keep you and your loved ones as safe as possible on the road? Seat belts are designed to stop you from catapulting forward if the car makes a sudden stop, and the stopping distance is 4 or 5 times greater with a seat belt than if you were not wearing one.
7. Give pedestrians the right-of-way. There are a lot of laws surrounding the right-of-way of pedestrians, and they vary state by state. It would be useful to read about the pedestrian laws in your area. Pedestrian deaths make up approximately 14% of total driving-related deaths.
8. Make room for bicyclists. Always leave enough room for them when there is a dedicated bike lane or a bicyclist riding beside you.
9. Give other drivers the right-of-way when they have it.
10. Stash a winter survival kit. This is key to have in your car in case your car breaks down, or in case you get stuck in traffic. If you have small children this is even more important — keeping snacks, candy or small toys in the kit can save you a lot of stress. A kit should also include a lighter or matches, first aid materials, a flare or two, a flashlight, and food and water. A blanket wouldn’t hurt either.

The holiday season is in full force, but don’t despair if you still haven’t found the perfect present. While it’s tempting to snag that “it gift” flying off the shelves, it might be hard to accomplish this feat so late in the game. Try taking a creative, unique approach this year and give the gift of a better commute. While this may seem abstract, make it tangible with the following presents that make the time getting to and from work more enjoyable.

Better reading
Trying to read on a mobile phone puts a serious strain on the eyes, so a great gift could be one of the new lightweight e-readers like the Nook Glowlight or the Kindle Paperwhite. And if they already have an e-reader, give them a subscription to an unlimited book rental service for a year’s worth of nonstop reading. Everyone always loves a good book, especially if it helps make the commute go by faster!

Better biking
For that very special someone on your list, spring for a beautiful (and functional) commuter bike like a Public bike or folding Hummingbird bike. Even if they don’t already bike to work, this could be just the motivation needed to try it out. And for someone that already bikes on daily basis, upgrade their ride with an accessory like a mountable speaker or sleek new bike bag.

Better listening
Now that the long-awaited second season of the Serial podcast is out, it’s the perfect time to gift some brand new headphones. Both noise-isolating and noise-cancelling headphones work to limit the external noise that could mess with your listening experience (and could make you miss an important detail from Sarah Koenig). These features, once limited to the expensive Bose headphones, are now in an array of models to choose from. You could also gift a membership to a premium streaming service like Spotify or Apple Music. An entire year of ad-free tunes? Now that’s something special.

Give one of these gifts and they’ll never know the thoughtful present was actually last minute. Not only will you be making someone’s commute more enjoyable, but you could also be incentivizing them to spend less time in their car sitting in traffic. And it isn’t necessarily a gift per se, but by sharing per-mile insurance with your low-mileage friends and family you could help them save $500 a year! Learn more at metromile.com/insurance.

We wanted to share a story from another happy customer, Hanna Fritzinger, who is saving a ton of money after switching to Metromile because she only uses her car a few times each month. Oh, and she has a really cute dog also!

There are so many amazing benefits to living in a city. One of my favorites is not needing to drive my car every day. I have the luxury of a twenty-minute daily bike ride to work and countless food options steps outside my front door. That said, another one of my favorite parts of living in San Francisco is that the Marin Headlands just across the bridge. That’s where having a car comes into play.

There’s nothing quite like being able to escape the city in a matter of minutes. There’s also no bigger bummer than getting a huge car insurance bill when you’ve only taken the car out a few times during the month. At first, when we heard about Metromile’s pay-per-mile car insurance, it seemed too good to be true. It wasn’t – we made the switch and our car insurance payment is a fourth of what it once was. I also like the other perks such as the alerts that let you know when you’re parked in a spot where street cleaning is about to occur, and of course, the unparalleled customer service.

If you’re on the fence, I highly suggest you make the move to Metromile. You won’t be disappointed.

We always love hearing stories like Hanna’s, so if you have one to share, send us a note at [email protected] and you might find yourself in the spotlight as well!

The LA Auto Show is one of the biggest automotive events in the US, so of course we had to participate and spread the word about how we are making car ownership easier and more affordable. Armed with a giant bear (one of our photo booth props) and ample excitement, we headed down to Los Angeles to show off our pay-per-mile insurance offering and smart driving app.

The Metromile booth was located in the Tech Zone, where we joined other companies pioneering automotive innovations such as Honk (on-demand roadside assistance), Lyft (ridesharing services) and Luxe (on-demand valet). To make our exhibit fun and interactive, we had a giant photo booth where attendees could take photos with goofy glasses, turkey hats (in anticipation of Thanksgiving) and the cartoon characters you might have seen in recent Metromile ads. If you are wondering what a bear with a longboard has to do with an insurance company, well, it’s pretty clear he doesn’t drive much and could save a lot with pay-per-mile insurance.

Our Director of Business Development, Katy Allen, also led a discussion at a networking lunch during the Connected Car Expo, an event running alongside the LA Auto Show. The discussion focused on the future of car insurance and unearthed some interesting insights about how technology is being used to make insurance more affordable (hint: like using the OBD-II port to measure exact mileage).

The show ran from November 20th to the 29th. If you are interested in checking it out next year, make sure to check out the LA Auto Show website for more information.

Driving in New Jersey is expensive. In fact, it’s the fifth most expensive state to own a car in! Residents of the Garden State – you’re in luck because we’re here to make car ownership more affordable. Metromile is bringing the first and only pay-per-mile car insurance offering to New Jersey, so if you don’t drive much, you likely won’t have to pay much for car insurance.

With this revolutionary pricing model, your monthly bill will be determined by the miles you drive each month*. That means that the less you drive, the less you pay. On average, we are saving our low-mileage customers $500 annually. An increasing number of New Jerseyans are choosing to ride bikes, take trains or buses, or even walk instead of drive, so we expect to see a lot of people that will save money with per-mile insurance. Here at Metromile, we like to think of ourselves as the “uninsurance” company, making car ownership easy and affordable for low-mileage drivers.

We also alleviate many of the hassles of car ownership with our free smart driving app, which we just totally redesigned and gave a fresh coat of paint. Features include the ability to locate a missing car, view trip details, and decode those pesky check engine lights. The key to all of this is the Metromile Pulse, a device given to all per-mile insurance customers that plugs into the car’s OBD-II port to deliver useful data and insights.

New Jersey marks the third state on the East Coast where Metromile’s per-mile insurance is offered, and joins California, Illinois, Washington, Oregon, Virginia and Pennsylvania. We have more planned for 2016, so sign up for our waitlist to get notified when we arrive in your state!

*Insurance rates are determined by driving history and record, car make and model. Mileage does not determine the base rate or per-mile rate.

There are a lot of cars on the road — 253 million to be exact. And the more cars there are on the road, the more chances there are for traffic, accidents and pollution. As cities begin to combat automotive saturation with new technology, it’s becoming pretty clear that fewer, yet smarter, cars is a key component of the future of transportation. To embark on a long trip, you could hop in a self-driving car, optimize the route to get to your destination as quick as possible, and also pick up a few passengers along the way. Many of these seemingly far-fetched concepts are already becoming a reality, which our CEO Dan Preston explores in a recent Medium article.

The article highlights the three trends that we are already seeing progress with today: the rise of the ridesharing economy, new insurance models that incentivize driving less and the introduction of self-driving cars. As innovation is used to optimize the number of cars on the road and the way we drive, we should see the positive impact that having fewer, yet smarter, cars will have on our environment, economy and everyday lives. In fact, we recently ran a study with the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale and found that if everyone in the US reduced their driving by 6%, potential benefits could include saving 2,400 lives and $26 billion in accident-related costs

You can read the full article here, and stay tuned as we continue to investigate the latest trends in which technology meets transportation.

We made some major upgrades to our smart driving app, so we asked our Director of Product Design, Matt Stein, to share the inspiration behind everything.

I’m excited to see the newly redesigned Metromile app in the wild today, now available on iOS and Android. The primary goals of the redesign were to create a foundation that could be built on in the future, delight our growing user base, and provide the best experience possible for getting a holistic view of everything to do with your car.

A key component of the redesign process was understanding how the current app was being used. We ran a focused qualitative user study as well as a broader quantitative survey to give insight into what was working well and what could be improved. The primary theme was that our users want to have peace of mind about their car. They want to know where they last parked, what an engine light means, and the ability to dig into the details on a recent trip.

The Metromile app can be used by either our per-mile insurance customers or people who use the free app version. The app will track your trips, show you where you’re parked and alert you to street sweeping (select cities). For insurance customers, it decodes engine code warnings and allows them to contact our in-house mechanic.

All of the aforementioned features are fairly distinct, and one of the challenges in designing the app was coming up with a consistent pattern for the user to consume information, such as viewing trips, decoding warnings, or understanding how to get roadside assistance.

The following three principles guided the design:

1. Create a scalable framework
2. Provide information at a glance
3. Make it fun

Create a scalable framework.

The app itself is split across four distinct areas: Car Health, Parking, Trips and Insurance. These four areas are displayed on the app’s main view via separate cards that allow the user to drill into a more detailed view. Because most of the app’s features are distinct and don’t overlap (e.g. Trips won’t overlap with Car Health), this design choice gave us the most flexibility when considering new product capabilities. Although our app contains a hamburger menu, it is mostly supplementary because 80% of the app’s functionality can be accessed through the overview. Settings and vehicle switching are the two exceptions.

One of the biggest challenges was ensuring the same design framework could be used across each view. After exploring various options, the team arrived at a card pattern that is fairly prevalent today. Users understand how to interact with cards, and they are easily accessible. Each of the primary views has a “hero” section highlighting the most important information as well as child cards that allow the user to dive deeper into an area. …

There is a ton of car congestion building up during the holiday season, as evident in our Thanksgiving travel recap last week. Sometimes, it is better to fly to your destination rather than brave the heavily-trafficked roads. This can get quite expensive, which is why we turned to guest blogger Shereen Travels Cheap to give us some tips on how to save money during the typically overpriced holiday season.

The holidays are stressful enough, so why make things worse with your holiday travel? By planning ahead, you can save money and frustration. You’ll be genuinely happy to see your family and friends instead of resentful that you had to spend so much to get there.

Fly early.
If you’re worried about getting bumped (who doesn’t?) choose a flight earlier in the day. The first flights out have much lower chance of being delayed, plus many people don’t want to get up at the crack of dawn to go to the airport, making those flights a bit cheaper.

Travel on less desirable days.
Booking your travel during the holiday season is not super affordable, but you can reduce the sting by flying on the least busy days to get the best deals. When demand is low, so are fares. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays tend to be less expensive than other days, because the majority of people travel over the weekend. The airport is always packed on Thursdays and Fridays with people getting out of town and then on Sundays and Mondays coming back.

Book as far in advance as possible.
Under normal circumstances, the sweet spot for getting deals on domestic flights is between three and five weeks, but for the holidays, you’ll want to book as soon as you find an airfare deal. The closer to the holiday you get, the higher the airfare will be. There are almost never any last-minute price drops for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Eve.

Bring just a carry-on.
Many airlines, especially budget airlines, have upped their baggage fees. Do you really want to pay an extra $40 or more to bring your luggage along?
However, fitting everything into a carry-on can be a challenge, especially if you’re also bringing gifts along. Consider small gifts that are easily packable, like gift cards or jewelry. If your gifts are larger, ship them ahead of time, because that might be more affordable than paying the hefty baggage fee. If you choose to bring gifts with you in your carry-on, make sure they are unwrapped, as TSA needs to see what is inside your bag and will open any boxes that are closed if you are chosen for a random bag check. You can purchase wrapping paper, bows or bags once you reach your destination.

Drive safely.
If you’re close enough to your destination to drive there, make sure to get a tune-up before embarking on your trip. A car in tip-top shape will get better gas mileage and is less likely to break down. If you are a Metromile pay-per-mile car insurance customer, make sure to use the smart driving app to monitor your car’s health and decode any check engine lights so you know if it’s OK to keep on driving or if you need to pull over. It’s also good to pack a paper map for emergencies and have a list of all important phone numbers and addresses just in case.

Thanks to Shereen’s advice, your holiday travels don’t have to break the bank. And if you do decide to leave your car idle during the season, make sure to consider pay-per-mile insurance.