It’s pretty obvious that the more you save, the less you’ll have to worry about running into financial problems, though it doesn’t feel too easy to start saving when your money seems to keeps flying out the window. The kids needed some school supplies and you figured you’d buy them spares so you wouldn’t have to make the extra trip to buy them again later.
You ran out of food in the house and had to go grocery shopping (though you ended up buying a little more than you were supposed to). There was a sale in your favorite shop and you just couldn’t miss out on the opportunity. (After all, if it’s a bargain, it’s practically a steal, right?) Money becomes harder and harder to handle the more you let it slip away from you without keeping track of where it’s going.
Chances are the things that are putting the biggest hole in your wallet on are the little things you thought were barely a dent. These little expenses add up in time and leave you with 10 bucks at the end of the month wondering how you’re going to survive till that next paycheck. Saving seems to be the least of your worries.
This is when budgeting apps come in pretty handy. The reason you’re most probably having some financial difficulties is because you’re not keeping track of your expenses and end up spending outside your means with no thought to what can be put aside for later. Budgeting apps help with this problem.
Phones have become such a necessity in our daily lives that they are almost always attached to our hands. They’re our portal to the internet, games and entertainment, a tool for communication, and now we add money manager on to the list!
To get you started on your stress free (and budgeted!) lifestyle, here are some of the best personal finance apps available that are worth looking into.
YNAB
YNAB (aka “You Need A Budget”) is hands down one of the best personal finance apps you could invest in, with a promise of the average user saving around $600 in the first two months, and $6,000 in their first year! Though the cost for this app is $6.99 per month, YNAB provides you with a free trial of 34 days to test the waters and see if this is really the app for you. A bonus for students is that you can even have the fee waived for a year.
YNAB keeps track of your spending with the help of your input and syncing directly with your bank account(s) allowing you access to all of your account balances in one place in real time. This is not all it does, however. YNAB understands the importance of learning alongside tracking and provides you short tutorials and pop-ups to explain how to treat your money. They’ve created an exclusive four rule concept that they lead you through in steps for you to apply in your daily life.
If you feel like the only way you can save is to be held accountable for spending unnecessarily, YNAB also provides a sync option in which you can share your finances real time with a partner. And if you feel tentative even with the free trial, there’s a 100% money back guarantee.
Key Features:
- Interactive and visually appealing user interface that provides a pleasant budgeting experience that is easy to navigate through.
- Its syncing features take off some of the pressure of money tracking from their users and allow card transactions to be recorded even when you forget.
- Goal tracking allows you to check on your own progress and motivate you to continue saving which is displayed, along with all your progress, on pie charts and graphs to make it easier to visualize your progress.
- All financial information is encrypted and secure which will require the user to enter usernames and passwords before checking their accounts.
Monefy
Here’s an app that’s been voted one of the Editor’s Choice apps on the Google PlayStore, an intuitive money tracking app that has over a million users with a general 4.6 out of 5 stars rating from over 100,000 reviews. Oh, and did we mention it’s free? In-app purchases are available, but for the most part, this app is widely available to the masses.
Its simple design allows for speedy tracking which can be helped along with their adorable and handy lock screen widgets: a few taps and you’re all set! This app has a multi-currency support, so it’s available to people internationally. Their use of colourful bar graphs and charts allow you to see an overview of your spending distribution and help you determine where exxactly most of your money goes.
Key Features:
- Monefy is passcode protected to ensue security of your financial information.
- If you delete Monefy and decide to come back to it later fearing your information is lost, don’t worry. It syncs using your Google Drive or Dropbox account and creates regular backups which you can export and import with a single click.
- Its built-in calculator can come in handy when trying to calculate bulk expenses without needing to exit the app.
- The dashboard and its categories can be rearranged or modified to better fit your needs and preferences.
- The inclusion of a ‘Budget Mode’ feature really gets the user down to business and manages your goals and savings to ensure you do not go over the assigned budget and stick to your spending plan.
Spendee
Yet another app on the Google Play Editor’s list of Choice apps, with a rating of 4.7 out of 5 another million users, this app has been making the lives of spenders everywhere a lot easier.
“Spendee Tracks Your Expenses with a Gorgeous Frictionless Interface,” says Lifehacker.
Indeed, this simple interface makes for an effective money saving experience as you analyse your financial habits and spending patterns with easily understandable graphics and charts to see exactly where your money comes from and where it goes. Tracking your cash flow becomes a seamless interaction between your bank account and your e-Wallet so no transaction goes unnoticed or forgotten.
Setting budgets for each category allows you to maintain your priorities and see to it that you don’t spend unnecessarily. This feature would come in very useful for those who tend to spend all their money in one place, like books or clothes shopping. Other popular features Spendee users love is their shared wallets feature, their easy to personalize categories, multiple currency support and alerts and reminder which you can customize yourself to remind you to track your spending daily.
Key Features:
- Bi-weekly budgeting allows you more flexibility in your budgeting plans.
- Bill tracking and reminders make sure you never miss a payment and end up paying more on late fees.
- Manually adding your expenses takes a mere 7 seconds of your time.
- Though in-app purchases including a pro version are available, the app for the most part is free which makes it pretty inclusive for young students without their own bank accounts but still looking to save.
Mint
This is one of the most popular apps that allow you to focus on the big financial picture, and it comes as a breath of fresh air, considering that most traditional apps and services have got us wrapped into the inflows and outflows without much consideration for the other aspects of our financial lives.
This is an extremely popular service used by millions of users across the world, and its beauty lies in the fact that it can be the simplest financial tool you ever use, along with options for sophistications that can completely automate your budgeting.
Mint can provide you with a comprehensive picture of your finances, by connecting across all your accounts, assets and vehicles. Mint connects with numerous 3rd party sites to get accurate values and information to provide you with perfect data of your financial position. What makes this even better, is that Mint aggregates your historical financial data and other activities over a few months, to get a clear picture of your habits and trends, getting a complete insight into your financial health.
Key Features:
- Super Secure – Mint provides for a 2-factor authentication, along with end-to-end encryption, and being a subsidiary of Intuit, your data cannot be in better hands.
- Weekly Summaries – They send over a useful summary to your eMail once a week, so that you can keep a track of all your expenses, goals and budgets.
- Credit Score Tracking – This might very well be the most useful feature compared to others on this list. Since they have access to all your accounts, they keep track of your payments, errors and account usage.
Though these would be our top four picks, there are many other apps that deserve honorable mentions that could fit your needs more than the ones mentioned above.
