Top Money Management Apps You Need in 2018
You already check your smartphone a thousand times a day. Why not use it to check up on your money?
Mobile banking is nothing new, offering ATM locators, instant money transfers between accounts, deposits via photo, and more. But what if you want to go a step further in becoming a master of your money? You’re in luck. There’s an app—actually multiple apps!—for that.
No matter if you’re starting out and just want to track your spending or are ready for the deep dive into investments, here are some of the most popular and user-friendly financial management apps.
Free Apps
Mint is one of the most popular financial apps and for good reasons. It’s brought to you by Intuit Inc., the same minds behind Quick Books and TurboTax. Mint is best for budgeting but less effective at managing investments. It’s ideal for the beginner to proficient budget user.
Features:
- Connect multiple banking accounts, credit cards, and monthly bills to the app to track all expenditures and transactions
- Set reminders when bills are due and how much you owe so you’re never late on payments
- Track spending habits with tips on how to save and better manage money
- Free credit score with tips to improve (no credit card required)
Clarity Money offers unique features to save you money, although it doesn’t offer specific budgeting tools. This app would work well next to a strict budgeting app to help show where you can save money and automate saving.
Features:
- Connect multiple banking accounts, credit cards, and monthly bills to the app to track all expenditures and transactions
- Transfer money between banking accounts within app
- Track expenses
- Will negotiate with companies to lower your fixed bills (they charge a commission of 1/3 the total amount saved)
- Identify subscriptions to cancel to save money (and they’ll do the canceling for you!)
- Organize transactions into graphs to visualize habits, including daily spending
- Save with an FDIC-insured bank account with automated, adjustable deposits
Personal Capital is a comprehensive financial dashboard that tracks and clearly displays assets, liabilities, and net worth. In once glance, you can see all of your balances and account standings. This is a deeper dive into financial management, but if you’re interested in taking that leap, this is a great place to start.
Features:
- Connect multiple banking accounts, credit cards, investment portfolios, retirement accounts, and monthly bills to the app
- Manage investments through multiple tools
- Track expenses
- For a fee, consult with professional financial advisor
Wally is a simple app for tracking expenses. It’s a great way to see where your money is going, which is the first step in building a budget!
Features:
- Record expenses by taking a picture of receipts
- Categorize expenses (great for helping build a budget with other software or app)
Subscription-based Apps*
*Most of these have a free trial period to test out the app and services.
You Need a Budget (YNAB) does more than just track your spending, it helps you build a personalized budget and stick to it. (And let’s be honest, we all need support when it comes to sticking to our budget!). The app helps you become the master of your financial fate by giving every dollar a purpose, identifying your true expenses, and allowing you to stay flexible for unexpected life events. If you are looking to get out of debt with a budget, this is the app for you.
Features:
- Bank syncing connect all accounts
- Saving goals
- Tracks expenses
- Debt management
- Personalized budget based on income, debt, bills, etc.
- Build and adjust budget around your means so you’re guided to live within your financial abilities
- If you get off track, app shows you how to back to your budget with tips on how to stay there
- Share finances with a partner
- Online budgeting workshops with live instructor and Q&A session
- Graphs to view progress and habits
- Small annual or monthly fee based on tiers
Budget Boss only costs $.99 on the App Store, but it can see into the future. Once you enter your income and expenditures, this app automatically graphs and predicts your checking and savings account balances up to two years in the future.
Features:
- Track income and expenditures
- Graphs and predicts future of checking and savings accounts based on current habits
- Graphs to visualize cash-flow
- Set up a budget and track how well you’re following it
- Sync with calendar for bill reminders
- Credit card payment and savings calculators
Tiller is aimed at those looking for a more hands-on approach to constructing a balance spreadsheet. Tiller connects with various financial institutions to combine all info and transactions into one Google Doc and then keeps that document updated.
Features:
- Sync with over 100,000+ financial institutions (including your bank and credit cards)
- Customizable spreadsheet
- Keep account balances in one place
Acorns helps you save painlessly and effortlessly. And for next to nothing (it’s free to college students and charges $1/month for most users). When you make a purchase with a card connected to Acorns, the app rounds the purchase up to next highest dollar and puts the difference into a portfolio that you select based on your risk preference. Now your pocket change is actually working for you, instead of sitting under the dryer and in between couch cushions! Depending on your spending habits, you could be seeing your investment account grow by a few hundred dollars in no time.
Features:
- Help you save by depositing change into a portfolio of low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
- Automate saving
- Make saving a habit for you
LearnVest is similar to Personal Capital in that it creates a finance dashboard for you, along with offering investing and budgeting tools. It gives more investing and financial planning advice with successive subscription levels. With their Premium Plan, you get a personalized finance plan and advisor and access to even more tools.
Features:
- Personalized budgeting and expense tracking tools
- Prioritize and create plan for paying off credit card debt, emergency savings, and retirement
- Track investments and savings’ goals
- Advice from professionals
- Online financial education classes
These apps, and others like them, can work well as complimentary tools to a budget you built, or they can help you build one from scratch. Either way, they are a valuable tool to help you better understand and control your money and how it’s spent.
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