Budget Apps
Making good financial decisions is crucial for peace of mind, future stability, and overall wellbeing. With so many cards, accounts, expenses, and bills, however, it can be complicated to get a grip on your money.
If you are looking for accessible tools that can help you manage your money and meet your financial goals, you are in the right place. This article will share 10 mobile budget apps that help you gain control over your money.
Searching for a good budgeting app can be overwhelming with the number of apps available. You can relax, because we’ve done the research for you and have determined that the following mobile apps are the top ten budget apps available.
Mint is one of the most popular budget apps on the market, and for good reason. The platform allows users to connect their checking, savings, and investing accounts in one place. After connecting these accounts, Mint comprehensively tracks spending habits and income.
Mint breaks down purchases by category (groceries, gas, eating out, etc.). Users can set spending limits on these categories, create their own categories, and build savings goals. One of the most appealing aspects of the app is its appearance.
The app helps customers visualize their incoming and outgoing cash with easy-to-read pie charts and graphs. Mint is an all-around great choice amongst budget apps.
YNAB stands for “You Need a Budget”. This is only one of a few budget apps that uses a zero-based budgeting philosophy. This means, in simple terms, that every dollar of your income must be accounted for.
When YNAB detects cash flowing into your connected accounts, the app will prompt users to assign 100% of that money to various categories. For flexibility, the money can be easily moved between categories as needed.
While the zero-based budget structure may sound intimidating, there is no need to fear. Use the smart-assign feature to automatically split the money based on your spending habits, bills, and goals and readjust as needed. Besides comprehensive budgeting tools, the YNAB app is ad-free and simple to use.
This makes it an excellent choice for people that are new to budgeting or looking to take total control of their finances.
Honeydue is one of the most unique budget apps on this list. Designed for couples, the service allows partners to link their bank accounts and tackle their finances as a team. The system encourages couples to contribute to joint savings goals, organize split expenses, and receive notifications about upcoming bills.
Together, the app lets you and your partner set spending limits. For accountability, the app will send a notification to your significant other if spending in a particular category approaches or exceeds the budgeted amount. Partners can even use the built-in messaging platform to talk about their money.
In addition, Honeydue’s platform lets significant others seamlessly transfer funds to each other with the tap of a button.
The name of this app says it all. The platform aims to help people make and follow through on their debt payment plans. In one app, users can see home, auto, and student loans alongside their credit card balances. The Debt New customers are presented with pre-built strategies to attack their debt.
After choosing, the app will build a step-by-step plan for you to work towards financial freedom.
The Debt Payoff Planner app will notify you when payments are coming due and update progress bars. The app’s graphs and other analytic tools provide help users to visualize their progress and see how much they could save over time.
If the previous budget apps on this list sound too complicated, Fudget may be one of the better options for you. With Fudget, you can make your financial tracking as simple or as complex as you want. The program itself is essentially a blank canvas.
Users can quickly and easily log expenses, and incomes without linking bank accounts. This makes the app a great tool for those who prefer not to share their banking information with third-party platforms.
For those who enjoy organization, Fudget makes it simple to build lists, expense categories, and income sources that you can update as your money moves. While the app does not come with the bells and whistles that make other budget apps popular, Fudget’s ease of use and straightforward approach set it apart from the competition.
Fortune City motivates users to pursue their financial goals by turning budgeting into a game. As you track your spending and savings, the app grows a virtual city and a population that grows over time. The happiness of the citizens and the town’s growth depend on how well you stick to your budgeting goals.
There is a social element to this game as well. You can invite your friends to join, compare your progress, and compete to grow your metropolis.
The game-like approach is unique among budget apps. Fortune City allows you to collect achievements as you reach financial milestones. Fortune city is not just fun and games, however. The app will analyze your expenses and income and sort them into categories, or let you make your own categories.
In addition, the SmartNote feature analyzes your purchasing trends by accessing your location, giving you the knowledge you need to recognize costly lifestyle patterns.
Pocketguard is one of the few budget apps that excels in finding practical ways to help you save money, both long-term and short-term. Of course, the app does all of the basics. Pocketguard can easily handle your cash flow tracking needs, like most of the other budget apps on this list.
The app goes above and beyond, however, by tracking due dates on recurring payments to help you avoid late fees.
Another handy saving tool on the platform is the subscription tracker. This service shows users how much money they are spending on services like Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon. In addition, the app notifies users when they could save on their subscription with promotions, coupons, or cheaper alternatives.
The app comes with debt payoff plans that are built to suit an array of needs. Following Pocketguard’s plans can save users cash by paying less in interest. As an added bonus, Pocketguard is free and will seamlessly connect to financial institutions in Canada and in the United States.
Personal Capital helps serious budgeters who are trying to build wealth and save for retirement. While some of the other budget apps on this list allow customers to track their retirement investments, Personal Capital takes future planning to the next level.
After downloading the app, you will be prompted to connect your accounts and share your savings goals. The app lets you know how you will need to allocate your resources to accomplish those plans. As you get closer to your long-term goals, the app tracks your nest egg’s progress. The app even considers potential Social Security benefits that users may receive in the future.
Greenlight is one of the more creative budget apps that you will find on the market. Made with parents in mind, the app allows users to set up minor children with debit cards and their very own bank account. Parents can easily monitor their children’s financial habits and use the app to educate them on the importance of a budget.
To help them achieve their goals, guardians can place spending limits on specific stores, receive notifications of incoming and outgoing money, and even temporarily deactivate the card if it is lost or stolen.
One unique aspect of Greenlight is its automated allowance feature. Parents can set up recurring payments for their children and even make chore checklists. Once the chores are marked as completed, money will automatically be deposited into their account from yours. Parents can use this to build budgets with the kids and develop healthy habits from an early age.
Ally Mobile is a full-service financial institution. They offer many different account types such as investment, checking, and savings accounts. Ally makes this list, however, because of the robust budgeting tools in their accounts.
Perhaps the most useful tool is their “bucket” feature. Ally’s buckets allow you to categorize your goals, set deadlines, and visualize your progress. This is handy because if you have income coming into your account, you can move it to different buckets to keep your goals separate.
Ally also offers what they call “boosters”. Boosters are tools that can help you stress less about your money by automating certain transfers and transactions. For example, if you want Ally to automatically put a certain amount of cash in a bucket designated for rent each week, a booster can accomplish that.
Then, if you want to transfer the amount in that bucket out for payment each month, boosters can handle that as well. The “surprise savings” booster is also helpful. It analyzes your typical spending habits and puts extra amounts into a savings category. With all of these features and more, Ally Mobile is one of the most comprehensive budget apps on this list.
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