Personal Finance 101: The Most Helpful Money Apps for Financial Management

With 95% of Americans owning smartphones, there’s no reason for us to not manage our money from the palm of our hands. Money apps have increased in popularity in recent years, and millennials are the heaviest users of them.

No matter what way you want to manage your money, be it budgeting, saving, or tracking credit, there’s an app for that.

Here are the best money apps you should consider downloading.

Mint: Overall Management

Mint.com is a website and app that covers nearly everything you need to keep track of your finances. Mint’s success has skyrocketed in the last few years and is a leader in the world of financial apps.

Mint analyzes your spending habits, so you can see how much you’re really spending on those lattes.

The stand-out feature for Mint is being able to connect all bank accounts, credit card accounts, and monthly bills. This convenience eliminates the need to log into separate accounts to pay bills. Another bonus feature is being able to access and see your credit score.

Mint can even send you reminders when your bills are due, saving you from being late and getting slammed with late fees.

Acorns: For Simple Saving

Does an extra hundred dollars or so in your investments sound good?

Accomplish that with the easy-to-use Acorns app.

Acorns is an investment app that converts pocket change into savings by deposing the difference into an exchange-trading fund or ETF. Say you spend $2.50 at the gas station. Acorns will automatically round up your total to $3.00 and place the 50 cents in your ETF.

Connect all your accounts to Acorns and watch your savings rise without you barely lifting a finger.

The app is free to download and there is a reasonable fee associated with opening the account.

PocketGuard: For Controlling Spending

If you’re a heavy spender or even an overspender, PocketGuard is your savior.

PocketGuard’s main purpose is to provide users with exactly how much money they have for spending, down to the day, week, and month. It tracks your spending, even keeping an eye out for reoccurring bills like phone and internet. One great feature of PocketGuard is helping you find better offers on these services to lower your bills.

You Need A Budget: For Eliminating Debt

We all know a budget is our lifeline to controlling our finances, but sometimes it’s really difficult to hash one out.

Simply coined YNAB by loyal followers, this app is ideal for those who wish to understand their budget down to the penny. Design your budget around your income and lifestyle and assign every dollar a place. With YNAB, the focus is to live within your means.

Paying off debt is a large part of using YNAB, too. The purpose of the strict budgeting is to make headway in paying down any or all debts.

YNAB has a free 34-day trial. When the trial period expires, there’s an annual cost or fee, but many users say it’s worth it.

Wally: For Expense Tracking

Imagine taking a photo of your receipts and loading them into an app to track your expense. That’s exactly what Wally does.

Wally is a convenient way to track expenses and have an overall view of your budget. It helps you plan financial goals and offers details about your spending.

Good Budget: For Couples

Finances are one of the top reasons couples split.

For the couple that desires to handle their finances well together, Good Budget is the answer.

Good Budget uses the envelope system to help you maintain financial health. The envelope system is a method used to manage your money, in which each envelope is assigned a category. When all your money in that category is gone for the month, you wait until next month to refill it.

Sync all your accounts together on iPhone or Android, so you can each view where your money is going. After making a purchase, you can add details to help you narrow down to which category the purchase belongs.

Personal Capital: For Investment Managment

If you need help controlling all your investments, Personal Capital can help.

This free app allows you to combine all your investment accounts, evaluate your cash flow, and manage your investments. The app even has advisors to contact with questions.

Personal Capital’s primary focus is investments, so the budgeting tools are not as in-depth as the above-mentioned apps, but they still work well.

Expensify: For Business Expenses

Business expenses rack up quickly when you travel for your work. Expensify can eliminate the stress of tracking expenses off your shoulders.

You can record expenses manually or from a credit card. A feature called Smart Scan lets you take a picture of your receipts and catalog is as an expense. Tools are available to help you manage other expenses, like mileage and an option to convert the currency.

Credit Karma: For Monitoring Credit

A good credit score is essential to many things such as owning a home or a vehicle. Credit Karma helps you keep on top of your score.

Credit Karma provides you with a free credit score from TransUnion and Equifax. In addition to being able to monitor your credit score monthly, they offer other services and recommendations that can help improve your score. Products, like credit cards and online loans, are suggested based on your score.

Credit Karma gives you updates and notifications, especially if you need to keep a close eye on your credit.

Albert: For Those Are Lazy Money Managers

Ever feel like you’re in a financial slump? Having trouble nailing down a budget? Download the Albert app and start receiving recommendations on how to better your finances. Albert even has a feature that can create a budget for you based on your lifestyle and income and puts money into a savings account every month for you.

For a small monthly fee, you can access Albert Genius for advice on all things money related.

Money Apps: Download Them Today

Managing your money doesn’t have to be difficult, especially in this age of technological advancements. With these money apps, you can get a head start on paying down debt, securing a loan, or creating a budget, and feel more at ease about your cash flow.

Looking for more app recommendations to bring into your lifestyle? Check out our page!