Keeping track of your expenses is only part of staying within a budget. You also need to keep an eye on how close you are to your limits. Personal finance apps are great for getting an overview of what you spend each month, but budgeting apps can help you save. Here's a list of our favorites.
Toshl Finance is a great personal finance app available for both Android and iOS devices. The app helps you to keep a tab on your personal monthly finance. The user can set the monthly budget. The great-grandfather of financial apps, Quicken comes in many forms with a host of features. While they do offer a mobile app the majority of their products are PC and Mac based, not for phones. Founded in 1983, Quicken has the history and experience to tackle any task. If Cloud based apps are not your thing and you want a dedicated Mac desktop app, Moneyspire 2018 (formerly Fortora Fresh Finance) is an excellent no-nonsense personal budget software for. The world is now advanced and so there is no need to strain with paperwork. Instead of buying a book to draw on, you can simply download a budget template for Mac where you find everything already done for you; all you need to do is fill in details. Download a budget tracker template for free today and enjoy time and cost flexibility.
HomeBudget
With HomeBudget, you can manually input your income and expenses, including which ones are recurring and which ones just came up this month. Plan ahead by entering a maximum amount of money you want or need to spend on specific categories, like car payments and going out to dinner. Then, see how close you are to going over budget with the graphic overview.
HomeBudget also has an extra special feature: It lets you sync your budget with others. So, the person (or people) you share household finances with can include their income and expenses and you can work together to stick to your budget.
If you want to work together with members of your household to budget and plan for the future, HomeBudget is for you.
You Need a Budget (YNAB)
Planning a budget is one thing, but understanding why you need a budget is another. YNAB does more than just help you live within your means: it helps you evaluate your lifestyle and decide which purchases are the most important on any given day. The idea is that every dollar needs a 'job.' So, you are asked to manually allocate every bit of your income to some budget plan, even if it is 'Stuff I Forgot to Budget For.'
Finances are divided by what is budgeted for, what was actually spent, and what you have leftover at the end of the month. As you work within your budget, you'll see that extra income roll over to the next month, which you can start adding to your goal fund to go on vacation or buy a new car.
If you are the type of person that never seems to have enough money at the end of the month, give YNAB a try. You'll need to register online before using the app.
Goodbudget
Goodbudget uses the envelope method for budgeting. You can create virtual envelopes that have the monthly cost on them. Then, you get to allocate your income to each of those envelopes. When you've paid a monthly expense off, the envelope is emptied. The idea is that you won't be able to spend money that is saved in an envelope because you have already pre-spent it. All of this is done manually, so you have control over what goes into each envelope and what comes out of them.
You are limited to only 10 envelopes with the initial download, but for a monthly subscription, you can add unlimited envelopes, plus new accounts to budget and have access to five years of transaction history. The monthly subscription also includes the ability to sync with up to five devices.
If you like the idea of visualizing how you budget you money by putting them in virtual envelopes, check out Goodbudget.
Best Free Budget Apps For Mac
PocketGuard
With PocketGuard, you get to connect your credit card and bank accounts and manually select expenses to designate as bills. You can then gather insight into where your money is being spent and see what your monthly cash flow looks like. The 'In My Pocket' feature gives you an idea of how much spending money you have today, this week, and this month.
You can also ask PocketGuard whether or not it is smart to make a purchase based on your average income and expenses, as well as the money you have at your disposal. For example, if you wanted to buy the new MacBook in Rose Gold, you could tap 'I want to buy' to see if such a purchase would empty your pockets.
If you like saving, but also like making spur-of-the-moment purchases, PocketGuard will help you protect what you have and give you permission when you can afford it.
Mint
Mint is more finance app than budget app, but don't let that turn you off. I discovered shortly after I started using Mint that it automatically creates a budget for you. After you connect your credit cards and bank accounts, the app automatically creates a budget based on average spending habits. You can increase or decrease the maximum for each budget and add or remove categories. Income and expenses are automatically added when you make purchases with your credit or bank cards. Cash transactions must be manually added.
The only problem with this automated budgeting system is that it sometms gets expenses wrong. So, you have to go in and adjust a category manually every once in a while.
If you don't really need a budget, but like having one, just to see how you are doing, use Mint for the finance tracking and take advantage of the budgeting feature.
Daily Budget
If your finances are so strapped that you must budget what you spend day-to-day, Daily Budget will help you out. Manually enter your income and recurring expenses, add a percentage of your income that you would like to save, and then each item is divided by the number of days in the month and added all together. This amount becomes your daily budget.
You can quickly see just how much you can allot for the day. It also shows how much you can spend tomorrow if you don't spend a dime today, and how much you can splurge on if you don't spend anything for two days.
Daily Budget is a fantastic companion to your budget and finance apps. It doesn't provide a monthly budget to stick to, but shows you in a real sense how much you can spend every day.
Acorns: Invest Spare Change
Investing is hard to plan and even harder to understand, but with Acorns: Invest Spare Change, you can start putting your spare change towards your future!
Acorns connect with your bank card and every time you use that card to make a purchase, it will invest the change up to the nearest dollar into a wide portfolio. That means, if you buy a coffee for $3.27, Acorns will take the other 73 cents and invest them for you, you don't even have to do anything.
Free Budget Apps For Mac
You can track your investment progress in the app and see your growth over time, so you'll always know how your money is doing. Plus, Acorns algorithm and the information it gathers about you when you sign up can be tailor to your liking. Whether you want fast growth over a short period of time, or to gradually make gains over 25 years, Acorns can make it happen.
Your favorite?
These are the budgeting apps we think are perfect for keeping you on track to saving money. Which ones are your favorites and what makes them special to you? Remember, we're talking about budgeting apps, not expense trackers. Share with us in the comments.
Update November 2017: We've added Acorns: Invest Spare Change to help you invests your 'nuts' with ease!
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For me, keeping track of my money used to seem like the most Herculean feat in this world. Daunting tasks such as bill payments, due dates, and maintaining a monthly budget gave me goosebumps. Excel sheets, financial journals, and the additional math were like monsters to be defeated.
But now, times have changed and we can rely on our smartphones for almost anything short of brewing us our morning coffee. So leave the sword and shield at home; there are many personal finance apps available that you can easily use to manage your monthly budget instead.
Here are 6 of our favorite budgeting and personal finance apps you can install on your smartphones in order to keep check on your money right from your pockets.
1. BUDGT ($ 1.99 iOS)
Let’s begin with a simple yet powerful app. BUDGT for iOS is a clean app that helps you conquer your monthly expenses. All you need to do is set your monthly budget and the app will tell you how much money you can spend each day, taking into account what you have already spent during the current month.
The app does not go deep into personal finances and thus is ideal for an individual who is a bit skeptical and just starting to keep a tab on his expenses via mobile device. Simply enter your monthly expenses and leave the rest to the app. The app will do all the necessary calculations and give you an average of how much you can spend.
The app also gives you month end projections based upon your current expenses and how much money you’ll have left in savings. The principle behind the app is that by remaining conscious of how much you spend every day you will automatically spend less.
2. Toshl (Free: Android, iOS, Windows)
Toshl Finance is a great personal finance app available for both Android and iOS devices. The app helps you to keep a tab on your personal monthly finance. The user can set the monthly budget and even enter recurring bills like house rent, automobile insurance charges, etc. The expense reports from the app can be exported as PDF and Excel sheets so you can analyze the data on your computer or save a copy for your records.
The app features a bill organizer that helps you to keep track of all your bills and even reminds you of the due dates. For users who travel frequently, the app supports foreign currency converter. The app updates exchange rates for the top 160 currencies daily, and you can get exact conversion rates right from the app’s servers. All the data is synced to your Toshl account and you can view it online or sync it with other devices you work on.
3. CoinKeeper (Free but offers in-app purchases: Android, iOS)
CoinKeeper is for the users who think that expense tracking is a boring and mundane task. The app brings a little amusement into keeping track of expenses by implementing an interactive interface. Just like any other finance app, the user needs to set up his monthly budget. But then, whenever he needs to log an expense, all he needs to do is drag and drop the virtual coins in the app to the correct section. The fill level and color of each expense category instantly displays where you’re overspending.
CoinKeeper gives reminders for upcoming bills and monthly recurring charges. Users can also set financial goals and save up money to buy the next big thing on their wish list. On top of that, the app offers one-click report generation and compressive spending analysis using charts and graphs. The users can easily keep a backup of all the personal finances in their personal account and sync the app with multiple devices if needed.
4. Expensify (Free: Android, iOS)
Expensify is meant for users who travel a lot and are constantly moving around to different places. One thing that Expensify excels in is reading bills and receipts; it automatically tallies the expenses without you needing to type in anything. Simply take a photo from your device’s camera and the powerful OCR (Optical Character Recognition) automatically scans the bills and receipts and enters the information into the app. If for some reason the app is not able to recognize the scan, the users can add the expense manually. The app also lets you import your credit card transactions and automatically creates an IRS guaranteed eReceipt.
The app also features time and mileage recording so you can track your work time and traveling expenses using the app. If you work on an hourly basis, you can enter your hourly rates and let Expensify do the payment calculations for you. The app supports automatic currency conversion for more affluent travelers. You can also monitor your trips with the app’s itinerary. It will then provide you with free flight alerts plus automatic expense reports based on your itinerary.
5. Splitwise (Free: Android, iOS)
Splitwise is basically an app that helps you share bills when living with your friends and roommates. Personally, I was using the app for the last few years of my bachelor life, while I was sharing a place with my friends. However, you can also use it at work if you have dinner plans with your colleagues.
The app makes sure that everyone pays for what they own and makes splitting bills a walk in the park. Just make a group of users or add individual contacts and whenever you go out or make a collaborative expense, split the bill and the app will record the debt to your friends account as due.
You can also record a personal loan if you are lending out money. The app lets you generate reports at the end of each month to keep track of all the expenses in the group.
Best Budget Apps For Macbook6. Budget Buddy (Free: Windows Phone)
Finally, a personal finance tracking app for Windows Phone Users. Budget Buddy features full-fledged expense tracking and budget management for the end user. Users can set their monthly budgets and add expenses to keep track of money flow. Users can just snap a picture of their bill, receipt, cash register total, or whatever is available when they are making a purchase and the app will record it.
Budget Apps For Macbook Pro
The app also features Live Tile which makes it easy to track spending and manage monthly budgets. You can know exactly how much you’ve spent and how much is left in your monthly budget simply by looking at the Live Tiles on your home screen. The charts, graphs, and other tools provide you with an in-depth analysis of your budget, helping you consolidate your spending from month to month. You can also import and export this data to your online SkyDrive account.
Conclusion
So, these are some of the best budget tracking apps for your smartphone. I am sure one of these apps will make your financial life much easier. If you have any additional apps you would like to recommend to our readers, don’t forget to mention them below in the comments section.
Also See#Android apps #finance
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Google PhotoScan lets you scan your old photos, minus the flash.
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