UPDATE: According to their website, Playbook will be shutting down by October 31st, 2024

Maybe you’ve scored the job you’ve always wanted or you just landed a raise. You’re making more money than ever before. Do you wonder if you’re headed in the right direction? Do you feel like your taxes are growing faster than your income? If you are a six-figure earner who is looking for a solid financial plan, Playbook might be the tool for you. Check out our full-length Playbook review to learn more! 

Playbook Review: What is Playbook?

Playbook is an app designed to help you find your missed opportunities. As your income grows and you build more wealth, it’s possible that you’re overlooking opportunities to lower your tax burden. That’s why Playbook maps out a game plan for you to grow your income while reducing your tax bill. 

Playbook currently offers two different tiers: Essential and Playbook Plus. 

Essential is best for people who have under $29,000 in assets. This tier allows you to:

• Create a financial plan
• Reduce your tax bill
• Increase your net worth
• Get individual support during onboarding

If you have more than $29,000 in assets, Playbook recommends their Playbook Plus tier. This tier allows you to:

• Access the same features as the Essentials tier 
• Apply advanced tax-saving strategies
• Understand tax-efficient asset location and withdrawals 

Playbook is so confident that you will be satisfied, they offer a 2X Playbook ROI or your money back. If you have more than $49,000 in your Playbook accounts, Playbook believes you should see a 2x ROI annually. Your ROI is calculated by dividing your tax savings by the subscription cost. Not seeing a 2x ROI? They will refund the difference!

Best Features 

There’s a lot to love about Playbook. We can’t cover everything in our Playbook review, but can certainly hit the highlights. Based on our research, these are the best features of the app. 

Targets beginners

One thing that we really appreciate about Playbook is that it’s designed to give beginners a leg up in the financial world. Most of us know what it’s like to put in the blood, sweat, and tears to finally grow our income–only to realize that our bank accounts grew but our financial literacy did not. 

That’s where Playbook comes in. It helps you ensure that you are investing in the correct order to lower your tax bill. In doing so, you will have more money to invest, and you can watch your net worth continue to grow. 

Simplifies the investing process

Certain financial apps get carried away when it comes to the investing process. They either overwhelm users with information, causing analysis paralysis. Or they encourage users to make more decisions than they need to, leading to inefficient investing (day trading anyone?!). 

Instead, Playbook maps out a specific plan for you. Then, they automate everything so you are always making the best financial moves. You’ve no doubt heard the advice to set it and forget. With Playbook, you truly can.

Inexpensive for its impact

As far as paid financial services go, Playbook is fairly inexpensive. It certainly costs less than paying to work with a financial advisor. 

To maximize your net worth, you have to be mindful of fees. Many times, traditional financial services recommend mutual funds that are bogged down with fees. On top of those fees, the investment recommendations are often layered with management fees and other hidden costs. 

Playbook doesn’t take you down that path. By comparison, the Playbook fees are very inexpensive for the impact. 

Reduces your tax burden 

We’ll save the debate on taxes for old men having breakfast at your local diner. We can all agree that no one wants to pay more than their fair share of taxes. That’s why the Playbook app is so powerful. It looks at your financial situation and ensures that you are saving and investing in tax-advantaged accounts. 

For instance, let’s say you’re really excited about the possibility of FIRE (Financial Independence / Retire Early). You heard about using a taxable brokerage as a bridge account, so you decided to throw your extra money into that account. Playbook will help verify that is actually the best decision for your money. If you aren’t snagging your company match in your 401k or making other tax-advantaged moves, you could be missing out.

Offers free resources

The Learn section on their website offers a host of excellent personal finance information. The internet is full of people half joking, half complaining about learning more about obscure math facts than taxes and finances. Playbook can help. 

The Learn Center hosts information sorted into the following categories:

• Retirement planning
• Tax-advantaged accounts
• Tax planning 101
• Wealth building
• Personal finance basics

The best part is that the articles are written in a way where the information is easily accessible. That means that you don’t have to have an MBA in finance to understand what Playbook is teaching you. 

Areas for Improvement 

When it comes to Playbook, there is some room for improvement. But that’s actually not due to flaws within the app itself. Instead, it’s more likely that the app is reaching the wrong audience. If subscriptions aren’t your thing or DIYing your money is your thing, Playbook might not be for you. 

Requires subscription management 

Do you feel like everything requires a subscription nowadays? Playbook is no exception. Depending on the tier you choose, you will either pay $9 or $59 a month. 

Some people might see that as a drawback. If you want a free money management tool or are hoping to pay a one-time fee, this isn’t the tool for you. 

Can be DIYed

The biggest criticism of Playbook is that it’s too simplistic. It’s true that there isn’t some big money trick lurking behind the subscription fee. Playbook follows the same financial rules of thumb you will find in financial circles everywhere. In fact, we’ve outlined the steps to start investing for free! Therefore, if you’re someone who likes to manage your money yourself, then Playbook might not seem worth it. 

What Playbook offers is certainly something you could do yourself after studying a few of our favorite finance books at your library. But we’d still argue that there are people who don’t want to totally DIY their dollars. In that case, Playbook is for them! 

Limited to iOS

Currently, Playbook is only an iOS app. That means that you aren’t the target audience if you have an Android phone. All hope is not lost, however. You can still access all of the Playbook features over the internet. It might not be as sleek as an app, but it will get the job done. 

Playbook Review: Competitors 

You read our Playbook review, but you’re not sure Playbook is for you. In that case, you might want to check out one of these Playbook competitors. 

Empower

Do you want something more than just a Robo-advisor? Then, you might want to check out Empower. 

Empower isn’t a one-trick pony. It’s a full financial suite of tools to help you brighten your financial future. The best part is the tools can be accessed for free.

Some of our favorite Empower tools include:

• Budgeting 
• Net Worth
• Savings Planner
• Investment Checkup
• Education Planner
• Retirement Planner

If you want to invest through Empower or use their financial services, you will pay a cost. Their wealth management services start at 0.89% and the fee actually decreases as your assets grow. Their services are designed to help you build a more tax-efficient and diversified portfolio. Plus, you’ll gain insight on your specific situation regarding spending and budgeting. Overall, the fees for these services are in line with industry standards. 

Learn more about Empower here. 

Wealthfront

Wealthfront offers robo-advising and investing software to help you build a portfolio that works for you. To build a better portfolio, Wealthfront looks at three different areas: taxes, fees, and risk. 

With strategies like tax-loss harvesting, Wealthfront helps you pay less in taxes. That means you have more money left growing in your portfolio. Additionally, Wealthfront uses low-cost index funds, a favorite investing vehicle in the finance world. Your investments will be spread out across different asset classes, which means that your money will be able to weather financial storms more effectively. Plus, Wealthfront investing software continually rebalances your portfolio to make sure the makeup matches your risk tolerance. 

Wealthfront does charge a fee. Their annual fee is 0.25% regardless of how much you invest. 

Betterment

Betterment is another Playbook competitor that you might want to consider. It also offers robo-advising to help take the guesswork out of investing. Their promise is to help you minimize taxes and maximize your returns while allowing you to take a hands-off approach to money. 

Are you interested in cryptocurrency? Do you want to take a socially-responsible approach to investing? Betterment offers those options, too. Their cryptocurrency portfolios include multiple coins and strong security. Plus, they have resources to help you stay educated on the crypto market. Betterment also offers three socially responsible investing (SRI) options, including climate impact, social impact, and broad impact. 

Some other standout features that Betterment offers is a high-yield cash account called Betterment Cash Reserve. The AYP is 11 times higher than the traditional savings account rate. Plus, your money is FDIC insured up to $2 million through their bank partners. That means that you can use Betterment to grow your savings accounts and boost your investments.  

Playbook Review FAQ 

Before you download the Playbook app, you probably have some questions. Lucky for you, we researched answers to some of the most common Playbook FAQs. 

Is Playbook safe to use?

Yes! Playbook takes your security seriously. Your account is protected with bank-level security. Playbook uses 256-bit SSL encryption and read-only access for your data. That means that your private financial data should stay that way! Your account is protected with bank-level encryption. 

How much does Playbook cost? 

Playbook uses a subscription model. The cost to use the Playbook financial app depends on the tier you select. Playbook Essentials costs $9/month and Playbook Plus costs $59/month. 

Additionally, Playbook offers a free seven-day trial and allows you to cancel at any time. One thing we really love about Playbook is that there are no hidden fees. The subscription fee is all that you pay. 

Does Playbook have an app?

Playbook is an investing and financial planning app. It is currently available for iOS only. A word of caution. There are other Playbook apps in the App Store. Make sure you’re looking for the Playbook Financial App before you download. 

Don’t have an iPhone? You can still use Playbook online with the internet browser on any smartphone or home computer. 

Final Thoughts on Our Playbook Review 

Playbook isn’t for everyone. But we can see it being really helpful in some cases. For busy professionals making a healthy income, Playbook would be worth it.

By using Playbook, you could learn the steps needed to grow your portfolio in a tax efficient way. Once you understand how it all works, you don't need Playbook. But until you do, a service like this could be very helpful!

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Have you heard of Playbook? What other questions do you have after reading our Playbook review?

Please let us know in the comments below. 

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