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Rising prices have put pressure on household budgets: 63% of Americans say inflation has prevented them from saving more, according to Bankrate. This makes budgeting for our expenses a top priority for many families.
This is where budgeting apps come into play. With the popular app Mint shutting down this spring, there are many other apps you can consider. These apps can help you declutter your finances by organizing expenses into categories, help you set savings and retirement goals and gain a big picture overview of your finances.
Here’s a look at other budget-friendly apps that you can download through the Apple App Store or Google Play. All applications indexed here guarantee users that the knowledge received from their bank accounts is a password and will not be shared with third-party providers. They also have two-factor authentication to protect your monetary information. All costs shown are as of December 2024.
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You Need a Budget is a good choice if you need to use a handy and detailed budgeting app to track expenses. By helping you prioritize where you spend your money, YNAB provides a holistic technique for tracking your spending habits. YNAB offers 4 regulations that users follow.
The first is based on what’s known as the zero-based budgeting method, in which you assign every dollar in your bank account to a specific expense. If an emergency arises, the app helps you make changes to your budget to accommodate any unexpected expenses.
The second rule is to plan for large, infrequent expenses (for example, for home maintenance or annual insurance premiums) by saving cash month by month, while the third rule encourages you to make changes if you run out of cash on one of their projects. budget categories by transferring cash to them from another category.
The fourth rule of YNAB is to “age your cash”; In other words, once you get used to budgeting and spending less, you can pay off your existing monthly expenses with the cash you stowed away last month after your maximum recent paycheck. In addition to offering budget advice, YNAB also offers live and online workshops on money control.
Price: Sign up for a free trial for 34 days, then $14.99 a month or $109 if you pay annually.
If you’re new to a budgeting app, you can easily decide on one of those options.
Quicken’s Simplifi features easy-to-navigate menus and charts and creates a personalized spending plan you can use to monitor your income and expenses. Your spending plan adjusts as your expenses change, and the app’s features let you easily tweak your budget. In addition to tracking your spending, Simplifi helps you plan for the future, projecting your cash flow based on upcoming bills so you can change your spending accordingly. Quicken also recently released LifeHub, which allows you to add and organize your most important financial documents into a secure, digital hub. This protects them in the event your home incurs a fire, flood or other disaster. The service is only $1.99 per month.
Price: Sign up for $2. 99 per month, billed annually.
Tiller may be the best app for you if you like using spreadsheets to balance your budget. After you link your financial accounts to Tiller, you can use one of its templates to create a customized budget spreadsheet in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel, and the sheets automatically draw in updated information about your spending and balances from the linked accounts. You can also have Tiller send you daily email updates about your account balances.
Price: Try it free for 30 days, then $79 depending on the year.
Jason Gerber, qualified money planner and managing spouse at Prime Capital Investment Advisors, recommends Empower (formerly known as Personal Capital) because it allows you to monitor your spending and investment portfolios.
For example, if you have investment accounts with Fidelity Investments and Morgan Stanley, you can review both of your portfolios, including a breakdown of holdings and their allocations, on a dashboard on the Empower app. You can also link other types of accounts, such as 529 college savings plans, health savings accounts and your home mortgage.
Price: Get the Empower app for free on Google Play or the Apple App Store.
If you sign up for a PocketGuard Plus subscription, you can set up a debt repayment plan that fits your budget. You enter key points like the minimum payment and APR on your debts, and PocketGuard allocates enough cash to cover the debt and sets up a payment schedule. Plus plan members can also create unlimited budgets and savings goals.
The Loose Basic plan allows you to create a budget and track your bills, expenses, and income.
Price: Try the Plus plan free for 7 days. The Plus plan is $12.99 monthly, $74.99 annually.
After downloading the Honeydue app, you can also invite your spouse via email or SMS to download it. Once you have the app, you can control your budgets and track your spending behavior on joint accounts. (Your spouse may not be able to see data about your individual accounts and vice versa. ) You can also coordinate invoices and talk about managing your budget in the chat segment of the app.
Price: Download the free app on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
While some budgeting apps help you stay on track with your spouse, Monarch will help you partner with your financial advisor. As with other budgeting apps, once you attach your accounts to Monarch, you can track your spending. However, Monarch will also allow you to securely share your account data with your advisor so you can collaborate on your savings and investment goals. You can also share the app with your spouse or household members, who will have their own login.
Once you create an account with Monarch, you can add your financial adviser to your account at no extra cost. Your adviser can securely log in to his or her separate account and won’t be able to see your personal identifying information, such as your bank account number.
Price: Try it free for seven days, then $14. 99 per month or $69. 99 per year.
Gerber notes that while budgeting apps can be helpful, you also deserve to try them out to adopt a practical technique for managing your budget. Take the time each week to review your finances with your spouse or alone. And even if you use an app, he adds, you need to meet with a financial advisor to talk about how to best achieve your financial goals.
Note: This article first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine, a trusted monthly source of recommendations and guidance. Sign up for help earning more money and keeping more money than you earn.
Ella Vincent is a private financier who has written on credit, retirement and employment topics. In the past he has written for Motley Fool and Yahoo Finance. He enjoys going to concerts in his hometown of Chicago and watching basketball.