What are the best apps for budgeting? Managing your finances and keeping tabs on your spending can be a bit challenging. However, one effective way to gain control over your finances and enhance your financial well-being is by creating a budget.
Budgets help you plan your finances and reach your financial goals. Fortunately, there are budgeting apps available to make this process easy.
These apps enable you to track your income, spending, and savings limits, and you can even connect your credit cards and bank accounts for a comprehensive view of your finances. They also grant you full control over your financial situation and aid in goal setting.
Moreover, budgeting apps offer a convenient and efficient way to seize control of your finances, make informed decisions, and work toward your financial goals.
Since each app comes with its own features and advantages, it is helpful that you choose one that aligns with your budgeting style, is cost-effective, and is user-friendly. What are these apps? Read on, to find out.
7 Best Apps For Budgeting
There are multiple budgeting apps that are quite affordable and also very easy to link with your bank account. Here are some of the best budgeting apps below:
Empower Personal Dashboard
Empower Personal Dashboard is undoubtedly one of the best budgeting apps for investors. This app is known for its outstanding report options, investment management platform, desktop capabilities, and spending tracking.
The app also gives a comprehensive view of the customer’s whole financial balance, from daily spending to tracking their portfolio.
Empower Personal Dashboard has multiple savings tools that were created to build retirement savings, pay down debt, and provide emergency funds.
The app also has perfect advisory tools, which include an investment fee analyzer, an investment checkup, cash flow tracking, education cost planning, financial planning, and real-time net worth tracking.
All the tools provide detailed insights into your financial picture. Although the list of features might make the app look comprehensive, the app is quite easy to use.
Furthermore, Empower Personal Dashboard also has a desktop version, which gives users several options to manage their finances.
Using the app is quite easy. All that is required is to link your credit card, bank account, mortgage, student loans, and other items. From all these, the app will be able to gather details to create a full financial picture.
Honeydue
Honeydue is an app for couples to talk about money and expenses. You can send messages to each other about your bills. It also reminds you about upcoming bills. You can choose if one person pays for everything or if you both share the expenses.
To use it, connect your bank account to the app. You can even get a Honeydue joint bank account with no fees. It comes with a debit card for ATM access, and you can use Google Pay and Apple Pay. The app also sends quick notifications to your partner.
PocketGuard
PocketGuard is an effective tool for budgeting. This app has the ability to easily show your financial history. This app also shows a customizable pie chart and shows the expenses that take up most of your budget.
However, it also has a spending limit in the app to help with overspending. One perfect feature of PocketGuard is that after linking your bills, the app will help you work out better rates on your bills, which include your cell phone and electricity bills.
This is done by the customized offers that PocketGuard provides to its users as soon as they provide their details in the profile section. There is also a feature that helps the users manage their cash flow by showing them how much they have spent or saved after covering their budgets, bills, and goals.
To use Pocket Guard, you also need to link your credit card and bank account. In addition, this app also calculates the amount you save or spend every month. To access more features in this app, you need to pay for the upgraded version.
Goodbudget
Goodbudget is designed just like an envelope system. This envelope system enables you to divide your funds into envelopes that are labeled with specific purposes. These include groceries, rent, and an envelope for just fun.
With this app, you can easily manage a household budget because you can also sync the budget with several people. In addition, Goodbudget offers educational resources, which include podcasts, webinars, and informative blog posts, to help your financial knowledge.
The app also has a free version that is quite similar to the paid version. The paid version has all the same features but it has extended capabilities. Also, you can use Goodbudget on your tablet, desktop, and mobile devices.
Stash
Another good budgeting app to consider is Stash. Why? This is because, with Stash, you will have access to multiple budgeting tools, a debit card with which you can earn stocks each time you use it for expenses, a taxable brokerage account, and a digital checking account.
Stash also has features where you can easily set saving pools and track your spending. There is also a tool you can use, such as automatic investing and round-ups, to help you reach your savings goal easily.
On Stash, the checking accounts have no overdraft fees, hidden fees, or minimum balances. In addition, the checks received via direct deposit are also received two days early.
Furthermore, with just a few dollars, you can start investing in Stash via fractional shares. You can invest in any company of your choice without even buying the whole share.
However, Stash has two separate plans, and each of them has a base set of features, which include budgeting tools, banking tools, and investing tools.
Stash also has a paid version, which only costs $3 a month, and it provides access to Stash Smart Portfolios along with retirement IRA accounts. It also has a $9 monthly version, which includes $10,000 of life insurance coverage, premium investing research and advice, and investing for children.
Oportun
Oportun makes use of machine learning to help you reach your goals every day. Whatever your goals might be, such as building a down payment for a home, growing your emergency fund, paying off your debt, or even saving for a vacation, this app can help.
Oportun calculates an appropriate amount to deposit in your retirement and savings accounts. All that is required of you is to enter how much you want to save and when you want to reach your goal.
Then you can also design custom goals in the app for any goal you are saving for. If you also want to start investing, Oportun will help you pick an investment fund that suits your needs.
Simplifi
Simplifi is a budgeting app that provides free budgeting services to more than 20 million people. This app is best for people who want an extensive view of their finances.
However, Simplifi provides a combined approach to controlling your finances along with a monthly budgeting system. It also helps manage your investment, tax planning, debt repayment, and business and personal expenses.
If you are a desktop user, the budgeting platform has a desktop version that has a more optimized experience. So, not only can you use it on your mobile, but you can also access it on your PC.
The above-mentioned are some of the best apps that you can use to plan your monthly budget.
Tips For Choosing A Budgeting App
To choose the best budgeting app that suits your needs, you need to consider the features that are very important to you. The best budgeting app will help you reach your savings goals.
However, to help you choose the best budgeting app that suits your needs, you must take some things into consideration, and they include:
- Personalization and Sharing: Everyone’s spending limits are unique, and having the opportunity to design your own categories while also allowing other members of your household to have a view of your budget can help both you and your loved ones know where you need to limit your spending.
- Costs: Most budgeting apps offer both free and paid versions. When deciding which budget app to use, make sure that you compare the cost to determine if the features offered by the app are exactly what you need.
- App/desktop Experience: if you want to plan your budget from your mobile device, you need to take some time to check the reviews of the budgeting app to know if other users have any issues while using the app.
- Syncing: Most budgeting apps enable you to sync your financial accounts, so you don’t have to enter your account balance and transactions manually. This also makes sure that your budget information is accurate and updated.
With the tips provided above, you should be able to choose which budgeting apps will suit your needs and fulfill your long-term goal.