In order to successfully manage your finances, you must understand your cash
flow. “How much is coming in?” and “Where is it going?” are the two most
important questions you should be asking yourself.
Whether you are making a lot of money or just getting by, it's very important to
track your income and your expenses. Now, I know that can be difficult with your
busy life. There are just not enough hours in a day!
Thanks to technology, there are many apps that help you keep an eye on your bank
balance, track your spending, and analyze your budgeting habits. Some apps help
you make better financial decisions, personalized to your bank accounts.
The best part of these apps is that you can access your finances at any time at any
place. You can open it on your mobile device on the way to work in the morning,
or in that little bit of free time once you get home.
Not everyone is born with good money management skills. We all need a helping
hand to guide us and make the process of money management a lot easier. That is
why we’ve brought to you a list of all the best money management tools you
should consider for financial success.
1. The Money Manager
There are so many things that we do wrong when managing money. The biggest
problem is that most individuals and small business owners have no idea where to
start. The problem is so relatable that we haven’t seen anyone who didn’t have it
(us included).
To solve this problem, we needed a tool that could simplify money management
so anyone could do it. Keeping that in mind, we designed the Money Manager.
With the Money Manager, you can simply list down your income and expected
expenses. Then add in your actual expenses. The tool will calculate your net
income.
Net Income= (Total Income- Expenses)
P.S. there is one problem though. The first month you use the Money Manager,
you will not feel so good. The results will be an eye-opener and will urge you to
make healthy changes in your financial life.
2. YNAB (You Need A Budget)
YNAB is an easy-to-use budgeting software. A lot of beginners tend to appreciate
the software’s familiar spreadsheet layout which makes it easy to understand.
Making a budget can take just a few minutes. However, you have to manually link
your accounts to YNAB every month, which takes a few minutes, but you won't
have to provide passwords and sensitive information that can be compromised.
Also, YNAB offers a 34-Day Free Trial for you to test out the software and decide
if it's for you or not.
3. Mint
If you’re looking for a free budget tool that you can link to your accounts, Mint is
the way to go. The app also has a feature that reminds you when bills are due. In
fact, you can even pay the bills from the app itself.
Budgeting is the stronger aspect of Mint and it helps you create several detailed
budgets, according to different categories.
4. Personal Capital
Personal Capital is one of the best money management apps out there. It lets you
track your budget while including information from your investment accounts.
Having your investments and monthly budget in the same place gives you a clearer
picture of your financial status. The interface and visuals are easy to see on the
desktop, laptop, tablet, or even a mobile phone.
The app provides easy to read graphs of your investments which can help you
manage your portfolio efficiently. One of the coolest features is that you can get
professional help at any time if you feel it is getting difficult to manage by
yourself.
5. Acorns
Acorns helps you make money from the little bit of change you have left. You can
start investing with virtually no effect. You just need to set it up, and you’re all set.
Acorns offers some features that can make your monthly transactions a lot easier.
By setting up your recurring withdrawals, you can save plenty of time and let your
app run your finances.
6. Empower
Are you looking for an app that has it all? An app that combines budgeting with
accumulated savings? Look no further, empower is the app for you!
You can set weekly or monthly spending limits for different categories and
Empower will notify you on how you are doing. There is also an AutoSave feature
that would automatically move extra funds into savings after you've set a weekly
savings target. Not to mention, you can earn interest on your AutoSave account
when you open an Empower checking account. This helps you prepare for an
emergency fund for future use where you can store money and save as much as
possible.
Another great thing about Empower is that it will look for maximum savings in
your spending patterns. It can help you cancel any subscriptions you don’t use any
more. In addition, the app will also help to reduce your phone, cable, and internet
bills to lower amounts through negotiations and finding cheaper packages for you.
7. Credit Cards
This is one tool we all use quite often but we don't realize how much of an impact
this money management tool may have. By charging everything on a credit card,
you won't need to keep track of your receipts or purchases and you can just pay it
off at the end of the month. However, using credit cards requires a lot of
precaution.
Your ability to pay back your credit cards determines your credit history. This
credit history is later used to determine your interest rate for the mortgages or the
loans you might take on a couple of years from now. Having a bad credit history
gives you a higher interest rate.
Bad credit history can also be due to multiple credit cards. These days many brands
have released their own credit cards which they encourage you to buy for loyalty
rewards. However, you need to be very careful when doing this. Because having
too many credit cards can confuse you and you may not be able to pay them all of
and this can risk your credit history.
We always recommend using proper financial tools for effective money
management. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much money you have
but rather what you choose to do with it.
8. 401K/ IRA
This might seem like an odd money management tool at first, but it's extremely
important for those that are trying to max out their retirement accounts. When you
start reducing your monthly expenses, increase your contributions to your
retirement account by any extra savings you might have.
9. Excel Spreadsheets
If all this information is extremely overwhelming, you can always start with the
absolute basic budget planner: an excel spreadsheet.
There are no extra bells and whistles with a spreadsheet. You can organize your
money with free templates on Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel and have different
columns for each different budgeting category. You don't need to make it fancy,
just make sure you can understand your budget.
A huge advantage of a spreadsheet is that you have complete control. You can
organize and track your expenses the way you want to. Furthermore, you don’t
need to risk giving access to your financial data to any online platform.
However, I would like to add that this tool works better for those that have some
experience with money management. It can get quite confusing and difficult to
manage if you are a beginner just at the start of your career.
Wrapping Up…
With our fast-paced schedules, it's not easy managing a budget and preparing your
financial plan. It can be very stressful taking out some time of the day to prepare
for your next 10-20 years. But it's very important!
With these tools, you can start planning for the future with just a few clicks. Start
making the best of your money today! Good luck!