Managing your money is not easy. A lot of people fail miserably at it. Today, when not all of us have balance chequebooks or monitor the expenses, keeping up with our finances can be a bit challenging. However, one of the best ways to overcome this challenge is by using one of those personal finance apps. These applications can be synced with your bank account and help you remotely manage your bank account and spending.
Further, the personal finance application also pinpoints some specific areas, wherein you are making maximum spending, keeping a tab on your investment portfolio, and tracking your bill and utility payments directly via the apps. Using one of the best and the most useful personal finance applications offers multiple features – shared wallets, bill due dates, email reminders, and track subscriptions for overall finance management. Here, we have come up with a list of some of the best personal finance apps. Let us get started and take a look at them one by one.
ET Markets
Interested in investing in financial markets, which help in proper investment management? Well, ET Markets can be the perfect app for you. The application works as a one-stop destination that lets you track your investments in different instruments. In addition to finance, investment, and money management, the ET Markets offer regular updates on business and share market for free, comments Eric, an associate with TrueBlueFishermen who is a regular ET Markets user. Further, you can also see live charts of share prices and a lot more.
What’s more? This mobile app is available in eight different Indian languages and offers a comprehensive market insight. Further, the ‘My Scrips’ feature helps you keep a tab on your favourite investment instruments. The app also has interactive technical charting tools.
YNAB
YNAB or You Need a Budget is another one of the best personal finance applications, which is a must-have on your phone. It is widely popular because of the company’s famous budgeting reputation and philosophy. According to YNAB, a typical budgeter who regularly uses their application can save somewhere around 600 USD in the first two months and over 6000 USD annually. However, in all honesty, YNAB is a costly application, in fact, the most expensive option on our best personal finance apps list.
The company will provide you with a 34-day free trial, along with a 100% moneyback guarantee. During the trial period, you can understand and try the app to see if it is working well for you. Following the trial period, the app will cost you 84 USD annually, which can be costly for certain users.
However, if you wish to pay less upfront, you can buy their monthly plan, which costs you about 11.99 USD per month. More so, the app has a learning curve. So, understanding and getting familiar with the app may take some time.
Now, the two reasons why YNAB is one of the top-downloaded personal finance and budgeting applications are:
- Their no-risk moneyback guarantee
- 34-day trial period
Further, with YNAB, you get the ability to sync all your bank accounts; you can either import the data from a file or enter the data of each transaction manually. Since it is not easy to use the application, we recommend understanding the application basics via video courses, a reading guide, or a live workshop.
For me, the YNAB app is the best because it presents to you a proactive budgeting approach, instead of just tracking your money like most other financing apps today, comments Daniel, an employee with RazorHood.
Once you have signed up for the application, you can create your budget and assign a purpose to every dollar, such as your car payments, rent, utility payments, etc. The idea is to get at least one month ahead. So, this implies that you will be spending the money that you earned a month ago. The company also provides you with an extensive educational resource and customer support that helps you stay on track.
For YNAB, security and privacy are a top priority. The company guards your information with its bank-level encryption for every piece of information that you input on their platform. Further, it employs the best practices for third-party audits and password security.
PocketGuard
Another excellent budget app, which can be extremely helpful for you is the PocketGuard. The application helps you connect your savings account, checking accounts, credit accounts, and even monitor the recurring income and bills.
Then based on this analysis, it will tell you how much money you have available for spending by subtracting the bills, and your goal savings, along with the pre-budgeted funds from estimated income.
Even though PocketGuard creates categories for the expenses, there is also an option to create your own categories and setting a limit on them. Lastly, the application also lets you export the transactions. Hence, you can play with the data in your spreadsheets.
AndroMoney
One of the most successful and popular finance app on Google Play is the AndroMoney application. The app also offers cross-platform support for the web and iOS. A few of the app’s best features include support for transfers and account balances, multiple accounts, support for multiple currencies, budgeting functions, and backing up to Excel if required. AndroMoney app has a very clean and easy-to-use interface. All the analytics are laid out in an easy-to-comprehend and logical manner.
‘I do not understand why finance and budgeting apps charge you hundreds of dollars. How will I manage my finances if you extract several dollars from me?, comments Sonya, who works with MyPlumberschoice.’
Well, Sonya, you should try the AndroMoney application because it 100% free. Of course, there are ads, but that’s a small price to pay. Overall, the app works brilliantly well.
Personal Capital
If you wish to understand your investment holdings better, you should try the Personal Capital application. It is a phenomenal application, especially for people who have accounts in more than one place.
‘As I have a savings account, checking account, different investment accounts, and credit card, I use the Personal Capital app. It gives me an overall view of everything in the dashboard, comments Harry, an educator who offers CDR writing services with TFTH.’
The application extracts information from different investments from multiple companies and provides you with an overall view of the holdings. What’s more? It does not stop just there. It will also link to your savings and checking account and keep a tab on your balances and spending. Hence, with the Personal capital app, you can get a detailed picture of your current financial situation.
Another excellent feature of the application is its free analyzer. It will scour the accounts for every fee you pay, including your 401(k) fee. It is because fees, especially in 401 (k), can be hidden. Further, the app also analyses your portfolio and gives you helpful tips to improve your returns.
Bottom line
So, these are five of the best personal finance or budgeting applications. If you have to add to the list or have any top-favourite, do let us know in the comment box below. For any suggestions or queries, too, you can use our comment section.
