Online money transfers, credit/debit cards and digital wallets made it much easier to send funds and pay at any point. However, these technologies made tracking expenses more challenging.
These trends led to the popularity of budgeting apps that help users register their payments, set their budgets and monitor their spending almost effortlessly.
However, if you make a simple search, you will find thousands of money management applications. So, which one shall you choose and how do you choose? Let’s explain.
Budgeting Apps in a Glimpse
Budgeting and money management are not modern terminologies. However, digitalising these practices aligns with today’s cashless payment systems and electronic wallets, enabling the user to track and control their expenditures, whether by cash or bank cards.
Money applications help users set their financial goals, plan their expenses and automate payment classification. They also provide timely notifications and alerts to pay debts or avoid overdrafts.
Common Budgeting Techniques
Users have different purposes from the money management apps. Some require basic functionalities to record their income and expenses to create monthly reports overseeing where they spend their money.
Some apps allow users to classify their transactions into different categories to simplify tracking and simplify financial goal progress.
Some users have professional requirements from budgeting apps because they distribute their money across different venues, such as investing in financial markets, tracking secondary income generation, and calculating ongoing debts. Such functions allow users to dedicate, for example, 50% of their income to base-level needs, 20% towards wants, 20% for savings, and 10% for investments.
Top Money Management Apps in 2024
Depending on your device, you can find a plethora of budging programs that offer free and premium plans to help you reach your financial goals. You can find the top three budgeting apps here.
YNAB – You Need A Budget
YNAB is a popular app that supports proactive money planning, allowing users to set their budgets and financial goals and encouraging discipline.
The app requires payment to enjoy its features and functionalities. The premium service costs $14.99/month or $99/year, although it offers a 34-week free trial upon registration. However, the money is worth it if you want to change your spending habits and explore a wide range of useful integrations.
Empower
Ex-Personal Capital is an advanced personal financial planner with a comprehensive dashboard that allows smooth budgeting and investment tracking.
Empower integrates with various online mobile banking apps and investment websites to extend the application’s usefulness and enable accurate budgeting and assessment.
Goodbudget
Goodbudget supports proactive planning by creating a budget and classifying expenses into different categories.
The application offers a free and paid version. The free version offers up to 20 categories, two-device accessibility, debt tracking, and the ability to sync household expenses. However, the paid version has an unlimited number of payment categories, five-device accessibility, e-mail support and up to seven years of history tracking.
Conclusion
With the digitalisation of payment methods, budgeting applications have become increasingly important in tracking expenditures, recurring expenses, and debts. Money apps have become significantly vital for those who want to maintain multiple sources of income and allocate funds to various investments and savings accounts.
