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Food, bills, friends, clothes, gifts, morning coffee—life is full of expenses, and it can be a lot to keep track of! With so many aspects of life, budgeting is essential for achieving your financial goals and preventing overspending. Good news: there’s a whole host of budgeting apps available to help you manage your funds.
Even if you’re familiar with the idea of budgeting apps, there are so many on the market that it can be difficult to find the right one for specific situations. Today, we’ll go over the best budgeting apps available, explain some of their key features, and show you how they can help you simplify your expense management. You’ll walk away with a better understanding of budgeting technology right on your phone.
So, why should you be considering the pros and cons of the best budgeting apps instead of tracking your expenses on paper or in an Excel spreadsheet? Budgeting apps provide you with a digital, streamlined method of financial management on the go. All of your necessary information is right there on your phone, and you don’t have to worry about remembering to log a new purchase on a laptop or in a book when you get home. Additionally, budgeting apps provide automated features that take some of the hassle out of your financial management. They often automatically categorize your transactions, track recurring expenses, and have options for regular bill reminders.
Most budgeting apps offer visual representations of your spending, like graphs and charts, that make it simple for you to lay out and understand your spending habits. This can also help you to set realistic financial goals. These visualizations, as well as your app’s other tracking features, update in real-time as your budgeting app keeps up with new spending. Immediate updates let you see your balance shifting right away, making it easier to adjust your spending as needed.
With so many options in the app store, it can be overwhelming to even make a decision about which app is best suited to your financial situation. Let’s take a look at the best budgeting apps offered today and discuss their benefits and shortfalls.
Credit Karma, formerly known as Mint, is one of the most popular free budgeting apps. It offers automatic expense categorization, bill tracking, and alerts when any unusual purchases are made in your name, protecting against fraud. If you’re looking to start budgeting and need a comprehensive, all-in-one solution, this free program may work for you! The main fallback of a free budgeting app means there are advertisements that might be distracting, but if this doesn’t bother you, give Credit Karma a shot.
You Need A Budget, or YNAB, focuses on a zero-based budgeting system. Each dollar in your budget is assigned a job, making for detail-oriented and thorough financial management. This is great for setting goals, tracking debt payoff, and financial workshops. If you’re looking to manage your budget proactively and pay off debt, YNAB could be your solution. It helps to build strong financial habits, but unlike Credit Karma, it is subscription-based.
PocketGuard simplifies budgeting by showing your disposable income after bills and savings. If you want a quick, comprehensive snapshot of your safe-to-spend money, complete with bill tracking and category customization, you can do it all with PocketGuard’s “In My Pocket” feature. It’s very straightforward, but unfortunately, it has limited features in its free version.
Goodbudget allows you to use “envelope budgeting” to allocate your funds into various categories of spending. You can manually enter transactions and track debt. This is a great option for couples or families who are looking for a joint budget, but it does lack bank account synchronization.
Empower, previously known as Personal Capital, is actually an investment and wealth management tool first, but it also offers a host of strong budgeting features. On top of budgeting capabilities, it provides net worth tracking and investment performance. It may not be ideal for simple budgeting needs but it can be great for those navigating complex financial landscapes who want both budgeting and investment insights.
Quicken’s newer budgeting app, Simplifi, focuses on helping users set up customized spending plans and tracking progress toward financial goals. With real-time tracking, it’s great for busy professionals who want clear insights on their spending without extensive, time-consuming setups. However, it does come with a monthly subscription fee.
Like YNAB, Ramsey Solutions’ EveryDollar is a zero-based budgeting app that allocates every dollar to specific expenses. It offers manual transaction input and can be a great, simple guide for debt elimination for fans of Dave Ramsey’s budgeting philosophy. It also offers bank syncing, but only through its premium version.
Now that we’ve explored some of the best budgeting apps on the market, you can take the next step toward taking control of your financial situation. At Credit Central, we believe in the power of healthy financial management.
