In an era defined by rapid technological advancement and the omnipresence of smartphones, the way individuals manage their personal finances has undergone a transformative shift. Personal finance management apps have emerged as essential tools for millions of users worldwide, offering unprecedented convenience, control, and insight into financial health. These applications are not just a fleeting trend; they are redefining financial literacy and empowering people to take charge of their economic futures.
Top 3 Useful Personal Finance Apps are –
YNAB – You Need A Budget
YNAB is a short form for You Need A Budget. It is a personal finance management app which helps to track your income and expenses in a systematic manner. It helps to control your personal finances in a better way. It follows four rule of budgeting –
- Utilize every dollar – This app emphasizes on the concept of utilizing each and every penny you earn. Allocate the funds to different expenses head so that nothing is left to spend on unnecessary things.
- Embrace your true expenses – Take larger expenses and break them down as monthly expenses so that it doesn’t create financial stress. In this way, you will be easily able to pay off your major expenses.
- Roll with the punches – Don’t be rigid with the budget you have made. Be flexible according to the need of the time and make adjustments in your budget.
- Age your money – Always use your 30 days old money to pay off your debt. Instead of using the income earned in the same month, use the money from your previous month and break your pay check cycle.
YNAB shows following useful data in the app –
- Goal tracking – It helps you to set your monthly saving goals and make one path to achieve that. It also gives the complete update about the level you have reached and how far you are from achieving it.
- Debt payoff – YNAB app gives you an option to maintain all your debt details in the app and provides a complete path to pay off that debt in an easy way.
- Expense tracking – This app tracks all your monthly expenses and keep a systematic record. This also gives comparative study of all the expenses done in two separate months. This study helps to find the areas of unnecessary spendings so that we can eliminate those in the upcoming months.
- Reports and Trends – YNAB app provides detailed report about all the spendings done and what all financial achievement we have earned for over a period of time, generally it can be one month or a year. This report is useful as it can help to make changes in the plan for the next month.
Compatibility – YNAB app is compatible with all the devices whether it is mobile phone or web devices. It runs on all the operating systems such as iOS and android.
Pricing – YNAB provides you a 34 days free trial facility. After that you can purchase its subscription on a very basic monthly fee of $14.99 and yearly fee of $99.
Pocket Guard –
Pocket Guard is a personal finance management app which helps you to keep a systematic record of all your incomes and expenses. It creates a detailed budget according to your financial needs. Its main focus is to track all your expenses and minimize it an efficient manner.
It keeps record of all the bills which you need to pay in the month and reminds you for the payment before the due date.
Pocket Guard is mostly used to keep a keen eye on all the expenses being done in a month so that you can find out the unnecessary spendings. In this way, we can eliminate the unwanted expenditures of the month.
Pocket guard categorizes all the expenses under major heads such as groceries, entertainment, utility bills etc. In this way we can track that not much amount is spent over one expense head.
In my pocket feature – Pocket guard has a unique feature which is known as ‘in my pocket feature’. This feature calculates the money which is left after doing all the necessary expenses.
Insights and Reports – This app provides detailed report at the end of every month so that we can analyse our spendings. In this way, we can have a comparative data about all our expenses and incomes which can help us to decide our future course of actions.
Compatibility – This app is compatible with all the devices such as mobile and web browsers. It can run on devices having android as well as iOS operating system.
Pricing – Pocket guard has free as well as paid versions available. Its free version provides basic features of recording expenses and minimal report.
Its paid version is available having the monthly fee of $7.99 per month and yearly fee of $34.99 per year. It also provides the option to have subscription for life time with minimal fee of $79.99.
Every Dollar –
Every dollar is a budgeting app developed by Ramsey solutions. It helps to maintain a monthly budget, track down all your expenses and helps to manage your money effectively. This app is based on the zero-based budgeting method. It means – allocate all the available funds to one or the other expense head and the rest of the money to the savings head. In this way, you will not be left with a single penny with you to spend on unnecessary expenses.
Every dollar app helps you to manage your incomes and to track down all your expenses to assist you to make a detailed budget. We can also set financial goals according to the need of the situation. We can define –
- Saving goals – In this section, we define our saving goals such as how much we have to save in a particular month and how we can invest the amount to have better returns.
- Debt payoff goals – This allows you to set a deadline to pay off a particular debt. In this way, we can repay our loans in a stipulated time.
Compatibility – This app is compatible with all the devices such as mobile as well as web devices. It can also run on the iOS and android operating systems.
Pricing – Everydollar app has free as well as paid version. In the free version, basic features are available such as manual entry of the transactions and follows zero bused budgeting method.
Everydollar plus is the paid version which comes with monthly subscription of $12.99 per month and yearly subscription of $79.99 per year with features such as bank account linking for auto bill payments and additional reporting features.
Personal finance management apps have revolutionized the way individuals approach their financial health. By offering a suite of powerful tools and features, these apps empower users to make informed decisions, set and achieve financial goals, and gain a clearer understanding of their financial status. While challenges remain, the future of these apps looks bright, with advancements in technology promising even greater functionality and security.
