You’ve made a resolution to manage your money better in 2021. But budgeting can be difficult if you're new to it. Luckily, technology has made managing money easier. Companies have developed great apps to help you manage your finances. No more frustrating spreadsheets and trying to figure things out with a calculator.
A budget is a spending plan
for your money. The goal of having a budget is to help you know in if you'll
have the money to pay an expense or do something recreational. If you don't
have the funds, your budget is a great way to prioritize your needs and wants.
Creating a budget can help you identify areas where you can cut unnecessary
expenses in order to manage your money
and save.
Following your budget can help you get out of and stay out of debt
You can use budgets for short or long periods of time. If you’re trying to create a budget, we want to help. We’ve identified some of our favorite finance apps.
The Mint
app offers users a complete snapshot of their finances. Mint is one of the most popular finance apps on
the market. After you link your debit and credit cards to Mint, it pulls up a
categorized list of all your transactions. The app allows you to keep track of all
your finances.
You can stay on top of your payments, set up a budget,
track investments, schedule your utility payments and receive payment
reminders. You can access Mint from your computer, phone or tablet.
YNAB is an app that provides an
interactive budget where the user assigns every dollar a “job.” Jobs include
living expenses, investments, savings, credit card payments and more. The
purpose of the dollar assignments is to provide you with better control over
your budget through expense tracking.
Transactions from your
checking account are easily imported into the app and applied to different
categories. It provides an accurate and up-to-date snapshot of your spending.
The app also features a financial goal tracker and debt payoff. YNAB is
accessible through a desktop version as well. The app isn’t free and does cost
$6.99 a month or $83.99 a year.
Many people have issues
with overspending, and that's where PocketGuard
comes in. PocketGuard is a budgeting app that helps track all of your expenses.
It also helps you know how much money you have to spend. It tracks your
spending by checking your income and your bills.
It tracks all your
recurring bills and can help you find better deals on monthly service costs.
The simple interface provides a quick glance
at where your money is going to and what you have left.
Mvelopes reimagines the old school
way of budgeting by using labeled
envelopes to track available funds. It turns these envelopes it into a digital
platform. Once you link all your financial accounts to the app, you can assign digital envelopes to a category- such as dining out or
utility payments- and assign each one an
amount.
Once money runs out in an envelope, there is nothing left in the budget for that category
for the month. Mvelopes will also track your credit card balances to help make
sure that you don't run up a balance.
There is also a charge for
this app each month. You can pick from different plans starting as low as four
dollars a month.
If you want to look deeper
into investing, you want an app that will analyze different parts of your finances. Personal
Capital is a wealth management app that helps create a long-term
investment plan for your finances as well
as track your bank accounts and credit cards. The app doesn't track spending
and is primarily focused on your
long-term investment goals.
Personal Capital examines
brokers, stocks and other assets. It can find areas where you’re paying too
much in fees and also make suggestions on selling your stocks. It's ideal for those who want to track their retirement
savings and/or have different investments.
The app also provides access to financial advisors to help with your financial goals.
Life gets busy, and sometimes you forget about your bills. Prism tracks your bills each
month and sends reminders when they’re due. You can set up automatic payments
through the app so that they get paid when they’re due. It's a great finance
app because you can view all your bills in the same app. The app also sends
confirmations letting you know your bills have been paid.
The focus of the Mobills app
is to manage your personal finances. Like
other apps, Mobills categorizes your
expenses so you can track the spending within a budgeted amount. Mobills has interactive charts that provides an
insightful analysis of your finances. You can add your credit cards to the app
to track your spending limits and balances. The bill payment feature will
remind you of upcoming payments and also show you where you’re spending your
money, so you can find ways to save money.
Most of these finance apps
involve linking your sensitive bank account information. Not everyone is
comfortable doing so. MoneyStrands is an app where
linking this information is an option, not a requirement.
The app has a calendar to
input your bill payments, a goal tracker, and budget planning. It also tracks
cash flow, spending, savings and more. The simple interface and easy navigation
make it easy to read and use.
These apps are all great budgeting tools to help you keep your finances on track. If one app doesn’t pan out, you’re not stuck with it. It’s okay to find a different one. Finding the best finance apps for 2021 that fit your personal financial needs is as simple as a quick scroll through the app store.
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