Personal finance expert and best-selling author Rick Orford kindly shared his perspective on Venmo as a service and gave his opinion about the current state of the economy, as well as how to save money. Read on to see what he told Bored Panda and why it's not necessarily all financial doom and gloom despite what's on the news.

"Venmo is a simple, secure, and efficient way to send money to friends. You can use it to split the bill at a restaurant, pay your rent, or even buy a coffee," the personal finance expert told Bored Panda about the upsides of using an app like that.

"Another reason Venmo is popular is that you can connect it to a debit card or your bank account, and there are no fees for loading up your account or sending money. I'd advise against loading up your Venmo account with a credit card though, as it comes with a 3% fee—and it would be better to use a credit card in this case," he warned.

There's "little reason to keep more than cab fare in your wallet" due to the "amount of point-of-sale terminals and the seemingly unlimited array of awards cards (points, merch, cash back, etc.)," Rick said.

Meanwhile, the personal finance expert shared his thoughts on the current economic climate, as well as saving money. He noted that the situation, currently, may not be as bad as it's presented in the news.

"Thanks to inflation and geopolitical issues, stock markets worldwide have taken quite a hit in 2022. And similar to what happened during the COVID-19, the media has latched on to the '2022 issues,' hammering in this idea that a rough time is coming. But so far, the job market is resilient, and people continue to spend," Rick told Bored Panda.

"That said, the entire picture isn't so rosy. For example, last week, Target suggested caution regarding 2022 holiday sales, as their customers are looking for 'the big deals.' So, in my view, yes, folks are watching their dollars closely, but there's still no immediate threat to Americans' bottom lines."

However, for anyone who is feeling the pressure, Rick shared that there are many ways to save money amid the current economic backdrop.

"Cooking at home, taking a vacation at home rather than abroad, and shopping around are 3 easy ways that anyone can do today to start saving money. But, it doesn't need to end there. Long-term, sticking to a budget, increasing income, and creating a monthly surplus (and investing it) are tried and tested ways for a secure financial future," he said.

For those of you Pandas who might not be aware, Venmo is an American mobile payment service. It was founded all the way back in 2009 and has been owned by PayPal since 2012.

In short, the app (and others like it) is meant for peer-to-peer transactions and makes digital payments easy and smooth.

It also makes the hassle of splitting a dinner bill or the cost of going to the cinema among family and friends way easier. You send out a Venmo request for a specific sum and they forward you the money on their phone.

Roughly 70 million people in the US use Venmo. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? 

The issue here is that with the rise of digital payments and transactions, the entire dynamic of how people approach money subtly shifts.

If the entries in this list are anything to go by, people begin viewing money as something more intangible than if e.g. we’d be using cold hard cash or lengthier bank transactions via our computers. Which may lead to some pretty shameless behavior in some cases.

For instance, learning about the woman who stole $2,000 from a guy at a bar was appalling.

Meanwhile, seeing how brazen other people are begging for small sums of money just boggles our minds. No matter how much time you spend on social media, you'll still stumble on something that surprises you. And not always in a good way.

There have always been and will always be entitled people in the world, we’re not naive.

But with the rise of the internet, social media, and smartphones, all of this nasty behavior becomes more and more apparent. It would have been far less noticeable in the past.

On the one hand, seeing all of this can be demotivating, forcing you to consider that the future might not be all that bright if we continue on the current trajectory.

On the other hand, it becomes far easier to call out such entitled behavior—which is exactly what some people are doing.

Smithers recently published a report where they found that digital currencies are becoming more and more popular in society.

For instance, in the United Kingdom, the use of cash has dropped substantially, from 21% in 2016 to 12% in 2020. Meanwhile, in developing economies, the share of adults making digital payments rose from 35% in 2014 to a whopping 57% in 2021. The world is going digital.

Some people are very worried about the world slowly going cashless. Some feel that institutional trust isn’t enough: currencies also need to be backed up by tangible assets.

In the past, that would have been precious metals like gold and silver.

Alas! Times change and more and more people are embracing a fully digital way of life. Which is (arguably) better for transparency and convenience, but it also means that your movements and transactions are far more regulated than some would like. It’s a delicate balance between convenience and independence.

Meanwhile, when all transactions are logged in a (metaphorical or very real) digital spreadsheet, you might argue that the question of ‘value’ becomes a very important one to raise. How much are your wages and savings really worth if some central bank can inflate the money supply? Do you really own as much as you think you do if you can’t take out all of your savings whenever you want to?

One thing’s for certain, though: digital payments aren’t going the way of the dodo any time soon. So Venmo responsibly and try to avoid becoming entitled like some people! Don't let money (either its lack or desire for it) distract you from life's real priorities like family, generosity, travel, and all the other things that your heart yearns for.