Budgeting apps like Mint, PocketGuard, and others are making it easier than ever for us to manage our finances. Read about our favorite personal finance apps everyone should use.
Money management doesn’t come easy to everyone. Sometimes, it can feel tedious, time-consuming, and even confusing. If budgeting is an unfamiliar concept to you, don’t worry! Like nutrition tracking, project management, and training for a marathon, there’s an app for that to make things easier. In fact, there are several personal finance apps available on Apple and Android devices.
As the go-to Portland community credit union, CCCU is here to help PDX residents with everything pertaining to money management and personal finance. Read on for a breakdown of the five best budgeting apps that improve your financial well-being that everyone in Portland, Oregon and beyond should use.
There’s a good chance you’ve heard of Mint, the original budgeting app. With over half a million positive reviews on the iTunes app store, it’s one of the most popular options for people looking to increase their financial health. Mint is part of the Intuit family, which includes other rockstar financial tools like QuickBooks and TurboTax.
The app has tons of useful money-tracking features, including an easy-to-read categorized spending analysis. Mint syncs up with most banks, credit unions, and financial institutions so you can monitor your spending across all accounts in one place. Ready to try Mint? It’s available to download on both Android and Apple devices at their respective digital stores.
As its name indicates, PocketGuard is designed to protect your pocketbook by preventing you from overspending. Similar to Mint, the app connects to your accounts, but instead of setting a monthly budget, it tracks your financial activity as you go.
PocketGuard accounts for your income, recurring expenses, savings transfers, and day-to-day transactions for a given period. Seeing this information in real-time and all in one place can be immensely helpful for those who want to reel in their spending and improve their financial well-being. Pocketguard is also available on the iTunes and GooglePlay stores.
Goodbudget is considered to be the best budgeting app for couples and families who share their finances, but it’s also a great choice for solo use. When you create a budget, you can share it with your partner through the app to coordinate your finances as a team.
The app embraces the time-tested envelope system for budgeting. Before online banking and personal finance apps, people divided their money up into literal envelopes, which each had a designated category such as groceries, dining out, and rent. By modernizing this model, Goodbudget ensures you set aside exactly what you need to cover each category so that you’re never caught off guard by an expense. It’s available on both iPhones and Android smartphones.
Wally is a sophisticated personal finance app with many useful features. The mobile budgeting tool offers a 360-degree snapshot view of all aspects of your finances, including your income, expenses, savings, loans, lines of credit, and spending.
As one of the most popular budgeting apps among Millennials, and perhaps the best budgeting app for students, Wally is free to use. Additionally, it supports almost all foreign currencies, so it’s ideal for those who travel often or live outside the U.S. Download it from the Apple App Store or Google Play store.
You Need a Budget (or YNAB) is one of the best budgeting apps period. The money-management tool has an extremely dedicated following, likely due to its unique approach to budgeting. Instead of designating funds to specific categories, YNAB helps you create a budget based on your income. As a result, every single available dollar will have a purpose. The idea is that when every portion of your income is accounted for, you won’t be tempted to spend it on a whim.
With so many digital finance tools available today, many people wonder if budgeting apps are safe. Most require you to sync your accounts in order to accurately track all your finances, which means granting access to your personal information. Generally speaking, budgeting apps are safe to use. They use end-to-end encryption to block third-party access and offer robust security. For this reason, opting for one of the most popular apps on the Apple App Store or Google’s Play Store is a smart choice to go when picking one to use.
Need banking advice in person or looking to open a personal checking account in Portland, Oregon? Manage your finances efficiently and securely at our Portland credit union. Join as a CCCU member today, or contact us to learn more.
