Other than our family and friends, odds are that the two most valuable assets we have in life, are our TIME and MONEY. Yet many people who are into this whole “building wealth” thing, are still utilizing the old method of controlling their money. That is, pen, pad, and a calculator. While this method is tried and true, it’s time consuming and could possibly turn some people off of budgeting, with the hassle of constantly having to write a budget each month. If you find yourself in this category of wanting a more convenient way of budgeting, you’re in luck! Today we’ll discuss the Top 3 Budgeting Apps (2019).
- Mint
One of the oldest and most popular budgeting apps for IOS and Android has a few things going in it’s favor. First off, it’s super easy to use. It syncs to your bank accounts, credit cards, and investments, making it easy to track and automatically allocate your money where YOU want it to go. It also has a feature that allows you to check your credit score, and on top of that it automatically tracks transactions! This highly automated app allows for an almost entirely hands off approach. Kind of like having an assistant.
Oh and did I mention, it’s entirely FREE!
2. YNAB
You Need a Budget (YNAB) takes an almost exact opposite approach to helping you budget! So if you’re one of the many people who enjoy automation, and don’t want to be involved in the minutiae of the budgeting process, skip this one.
There is no question this app is for the dedicated user who lives the “budget mentality” lifestyle (see what I did there). Unlike “Mint” ,YNAB requires a pretty significant investment of $6.99/month ($83.99 annually). Unless of course if you can prove you’re a student, in which case you get 12 months free. It also necessitates you to be more involved in the budgeting process. Unlike “Mint” which is highly automated, this app still requires you to manually categorize transactions. This can obviously be a bit of an inconvenience at times. But then again, the upside to having to be so involved in the process, is that it may help to change the way you think about money as whole. Hopefully resulting in a change to your financial habits for the better. YNAB isn’t simply just a budgeting tool, but a psychological tool, that when utilized properly can often shift one’s mindset to a more fiscally responsible one.
- EveryDollar
This budgeting app is sort of a mix of the two above. If you don’t mind being more involved in the process, i.e. inputting manually every transaction, then you can opt for the free version. But if you’d like to take a more hands off approach, then that’ll be $99/annually for the EveryDollar Plus app. The downsides to this app are that it doesn’t track your investments and it doesn’t have a bill payment feature. Otherwise it’s an excellent app created by one of the most influential people (Dave Ramsey) in the business of helping people get their personal finances in order. To drive home the point, this is a “have it your way” budgeting app where you can be as involved as you’d like to be. It really is as simple as that!