(ThePennyWatcher.com) – Managing your finances doesn’t have to be stressful. Today there are a variety of tools and easy to use Apps that provide us ways to track and manage our expenses and spending.
It’s important take a daily look at what your finances look like, and have a general goal of monthly spending so you keep on track.
Staying Organized
Budgeting successfully calls for a mental shift in how you look at your money each day. Getting specific and intentional with how you spend, and where you spend is key to gaining some new clarity that will put you on a better track.
Our team took a look at a few popular apps that are free or offer low-cost subscriptions, making it an affordable way to help assist you in taking control of your finances.
Quicken Simplifi:
Some of you may have heard that as of early 2024 the well known App by Intuit called Mint is shutting down, but there are a variety of others in the market ready to take on some new customers.
Simplifi by Quicken is a sleek one. It offers a full 3 month trial which gives you ample time to see the power of if for your monthly spending and robust features before transitioning to a yearly fee.
Like most of the budgeting apps available for you, Simplifi connects to all of your major accounts so you track your transactions closely. It has a simple yet professional feel to it, and allows you to create various reports and even import previous files if you were using another application.
It provides alerts for upcoming automatic payments, and allows you to create a spending plan or a spending watchlist, which you can use to watch specific categories.
Setup basic investment goals, and investments and savings goals.
Consumers seem to love the simoplicity, and once the 3 months is up it’s only $50 for the entire year. That is a deal.
YNAB (AKA You Need A Budget)
YNAB takes a more hands-on approach, and it’s on site slogan is “Change your relationship with money”
They offer a nice 34 day trial, and have an enjoyable user interface according to the customer reviews.
What they say differentiates them is their philosophy around money management, and this entails 3 main rules:
Give every dollar a job: They allow you to assign your income a “job” so it goes to work for you until you get paid again.
Embracing Your True Expenses: Expenses that aren’t “fixed” like a heating bill such as monthly shopping and car repairs are just reality, so breaking these down into manageable chunks is important.
Aging Your money: Once you start to implementing new ways of spending, you will realize ways to pay your bills with money you have already earned in the last month.
Their monthly plan is only $14.95 but you can cut that down to $8.25/month if you get the annual plan.
Rocket Money
Rocket Money has over 5 million users, and does a variety of nifty things to help you track spending and manage your income and investments.
They also have a focused area on how much you are paying for subscriptions, and offers ways to cut back on some of the unnecessary ones. They caan even cancel services for you! Subscriptions like Netflix, Hulu, etc. Some people simply don’t watch or use it enough.
The app provides some really cool ways to track your spending on specific items like coffee, and pro-actively alerts you on suggestions or when you may be over doing things. Setup your savings on auto-pilot and see how it is growing for that next vacation.
There is a solid free version, but some premium features you may want cost an additional fee, but still very affordable monthly plan.
Variety Of Others
Those we just discussed are very solid as a start for you to take aa look at, but there are certainly a variety of others that we want to shout out as well.
Personal Capital: All types of tracking, and includes retirement savings focus.
Goodbudget: Goodbudget is a good option for visual learners. They have what they call an envelope system, check it out to learn more.
PocketGuard: PocketGuard offers a unique “bill pay” feature that automatically categorizes your bills and alerts you about upcoming due dates.
Honeydue: Honeydue is a free budgeting app specifically designed for couples!
EveryDollar: Based on Dave Ramsey’s financial principles, It uses a zero-based budgeting approach so if you are a fan of Dave Ramsey this is your app.
Test And Choose:
Test a few of these applications out, and see which one connects with you more and go for it. You will see they all boast similar features, but you may be attracted to ones interface and usability more than the other.
Test a few, and then make a decision. You won’t regret it, and it will bring you closer to where you need to be while giving you some peace of mind.
Cheers to your financial health.
