Before the advent of smartphone technology, people would manage their finances using a spreadsheet. Those people that couldn’t handle using a computer would simply write down their money matters in a ledger.
Fortunately, the technology wave of the last decade led to the development of handheld devices we all now take for granted. Besides setting a new benchmark for communications, smartphones also started to incorporate the use of apps.
These apps changed the way we organize our life, with developers releasing countless applications to help us manage everything from communications to our finances. Today, the app stores have thousands of tools to help us administrate our financial position, allowing us to track and trace everything we do with our money.
Here are the best smartphone applications for managing your finances.
Personal Capital
This application is one of the best personal financial management tools available for investors. It’s a bit more in-depth than Mint, providing users with up-to-date information on their investment accounts, as well as a suite of budgeting tools.
Personal Capital has the best user interface, with intuitive visuals that are easy to view on any mobile device, and laptops as well. The app generates charts and graphs of your assets, providing current information on your investment accounts, making it a simple process to track all of your investments from within the app.
The app provides users with management facilities on their portfolio, and you have access to an investment expert in some instances. However, while the app shines in the investment department, its budgeting tools can’t compare to Mint, but they still provide users with a decent overview of their day-to-day finances and expenses.
Visit the site or read our review.
Mint
Mint is possibly the most popular financial app available. Mint offers users a bouquet of budgeting tools, along with access to any investment accounts you own, giving you a holistic view of all of your finances. The budgeting tools are what makes Mint shine, while the investment side of the application often falls to the wayside.
The budgeting facility within the Mint app provides users with everything they need to create a detailed monthly budget. You have the option to create as many categories as you like, enabling you to enter transactions on the fly.
Mint collates all of your financial transactions, pulling data from your credit cards and bank accounts into the app. Mint provides insight into your spending habits, giving users suggestions on where they can improve their finances and budgeting.
Mint also provides a feature that reminds users when bills are due, and there’s even a facility within the app that allows you to pay those expenses.
Personal Capital vs Mint
We have carried out a comparison between these two apps, take a look to see which one wins!
Acorns
How many times have you let the change in your bank account slip through your fingers? If we add up all of the change we receive over the course of a year, we would have enough to pay for a decent end-of-year vacation. Acorns will help you bank your change into investments, without the need for any involvement on your part.
The app doesn’t save your change; it allocates it to investment accounts. This feature allows you to benefit from additional growth in your money, that you would otherwise be spending elsewhere on lifestyle expenses. Acorns offer quick setup, and minimal involvement from the user while giving you peace of mind knowing that your virtual change is going to good use to grow your wealth.
Try using Acorns to round up any of your financial transactions, and set up recurring automatic withdrawals to your investment accounts.
Visit Acorns or Read our Review
Coinbase
Cryptocurrencies are becoming ever-more popular among investors of all ages. Coinbase allows you to track all the movements in the crypto markets. Coinbase provides real-time information on Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and all of the other major cryptocurrencies.
Trade through the app, and receive payouts directly to your bank account when you sell through the platform. Coinbase also offers a debit card to users, allowing them to spend their cryptocurrency with any partner that supports the Visa or MasterCard systems.
You’ll need to upload your KYC documentation to your account, including a picture of your passport. Once verified by the management team at Coinbase, you can spend up to $25,000 per day. Coinbase allows you to set up price alerts to help you with getting in and out of the crypto markets at your target price.
Visit Coinbase or Read the review
Digit
Digit is an application that is designed to help you seamlessly save money without having to think about it. The application analyses how you spend money, and then will automatically determine how much you should be saving—and can afford to save & will save the ideal amount for you each day.
Get the app or read our review.
Trim
The idea behind Trim is simple. All you have to do is allow Trim to look through your spending, and the app will alert you to recurring charges that can be eliminated, or bills that can be negotiated lower.
Get the app or read our review.
Paribus
Paribus is a very interesting app for online shoppers. The platform allows its users to take advantage of numerous refund and discount policies at major retailers and is almost totally automatic. Paribus is owned by Capital One (the massive credit card company/bank).
Best of all, Paribus is totally free. Read our review to find out more.
Countabout
The innovative FinTech platform – which is available both online and via a native mobile app, allows you to keep abreast of your finances through a single hub.
Whether you want to link all of your bank accounts into one portal, or be able to view your entire monthly outgoings at the click of a button – CountAbout can help you manage your everyday finances.
Download the app or read our review.
YNAB
While there are plenty of free financial apps available, you may also want to check out paid-for apps as well. You Need A Budget, (YNAB), charges users $6.99 per month for access to the service, with the first month free. The app claims that new users typically save $200 in their first month of use, paying for the annual costs of the app.
YNAB uses a mantra of “a job for every dollar,” encouraging users to think ahead with their financial planning. With YNAB, you get tools for saving and investing, helping you save money wherever you spend it, from bills to groceries, to vacations and leisure.
YNAB also links to your bank accounts, syncing all of your finances in one easy-to-view platform for a holistic overview of your current financial position. Use YNAB to set financial targets, and squeeze every cent out of each dollar that enters your bank account.
Dollarbird
Do you struggle with budgeting for your bills? Do you forget the due date on payments to your creditors? Dollarbird is the ideal app for people that need assistance with managing their debts and expenses.
This free app has premium features you can add-on to the app for minimal cost. The platform has a unique method of placing your budget into a calendar form, allowing you to view your upcoming bills at a glance. You can color-code your expenses into a list of categories, and enter any recurrent financial transactions such as student loans and your utility bills.
The app has a handy feature that allows users to see their projected balance, giving you an overview of how much you can spend, without overrunning available funds in your account. Dollarbird requires you to enter all of your transactions manually, giving you a hands-on approach to managing your money.
PocketGuard
This money management app allows you to sync all of your accounts to the user interface, giving you complete control of your finances from within the platform. The holistic view of the dashboard and interface provides users with a means to find where they are spending and where they could be saving in their financial habits.
The tracking information available in PocketGuard allows users access to their financial information, enabling them to build a budget. PocketGuard helps with the tracking of your bills while identifying your spending trends every month. The app allows you to track all of your expenses, giving you the information you need to cut down on the things that you don’t need that are costing you money.
Wally
This application offers you bare-bones budgeting features that are easy to use and uncomplicated. Wally provides users with support for almost all foreign countries in both developed and emerging markets. For those digital nomads or travelers looking to track their expenses while traveling the world, Wally is your go-to app.
Wally also allows users to take pictures of their receipts for filing purposes. The paper-less system gives users the facility of tracking all of your expenses while removing the clutter from your travels. Every time you log into Wally, the app gives you a snapshot of your current financial position, and how much leeway you have in your budget.
With a clean and straightforward user interface and the efficiency of tracking expenses in any global currency – it’s not surprising to learn that Wally is a hit with millennials.
Mvelopes
Did you ever follow that age-old financial budgeting strategy of putting cash into envelopes to manage your finances? One envelope for the rent, another for groceries, another for entertainment expenses – and so on. Well, Mvelopes provides a digital solution to this time-tested strategy.
Mvelopes allows users to translate their digital spending and credit cards into a cash-style system that tracks your expenses. The platform provides you with feedback on where your money is going with its institutive budgeting features.
Mvelopes is a paid app, charging users $4 per month for the service. The app also features premium upgrades to add to your account, as well as a coaching service to help you manage your money efficiently.
Albert
If you always dreamed of having a personal financial assistant, then Albert is the app for you. Albert mixes AI with guidance from humans to create information and advice tailored to your current financial position. The app generates useful tips to help you improve on your spending habits, isolating any wasteful spending habits.
The AI on offer in Albert automatically generates a personalized budget for users, based on income, expenses, and your bills. Albert also identifies bills where you are paying too much, locating your cheaper alternatives. The app also alerts you of any free trial periods that are close to expiring and helps users allocate money to their savings accounts.
Albert is a free app, but it offers a premium upgrade for a small fee. Once you upgrade, you get access to a real human being that’s an expert in helping you manage finances, as well as providing you with investment advice.
Robinhood
This application is for investors and traders looking to get involved with the financial markets. The best part about Robinhood is that they don’t charge any commissions for purchasing stocks, ETFs, and options.
Robinhood makes their money through payments from liquidity providers for order flow, and they offer premium services within the app that allow users to trade on margin. This investing app also enables users to trade in cryptocurrency markets, which is something we don’t see on other investing apps of a similar nature.
There are no maintenance fees or account minimums when setting up your Robinhood account, as well as no commissions on your trades. The app presents users with virtual cards that provide real-time market information and price alerts on your favorite stocks on your watchlist.
Tycoon
Tycoon is a freelancers dream come true. The app helps freelancers manage their payments and budget their expenses. Freelancers have the issue of receiving late payments in most cases, causing them financial turmoil when it comes to budgeting for their fees and bills.
Tycoon is suitable for any freelancer that struggles with managing their payments and projects. However, the app is beneficial for any self-employed individual that has to deal with debtors paying them erratically.
The app helps freelancers enter the details of their gig, allocate a timeframe for the work, and track outstanding, incoming, and overdue payments. Tycoon provides you with a personal balance sheet, that gives you a snapshot of your financial position at a glance.
The app also provides tools that allow users to track their unique needs. This feature makes it easy for freelancers to calculate their net income while setting aside money for taxes and agent commissions, as well as fees involved with payment platforms like PayPal. Having access to their information allows the freelancer to determine if a gig is profitable and worth their time.
Venmo
Popular with millennials, Venmo is a payment app acquired by the payment giant, PayPal, in 2013 for $800-million. The app is similar to PayPal but offers users the chance to share payments through social platforms.
The app sends your debtor a QR code for payment, allowing the debtor to add you as a recipient on their account conveniently. The app has a payment limit set at $299.99 per week. However, if you set up your account with your KYC information, and add authorized payments form merchants, your weekly limit gets an extension to $2,999.00.
Final Word – Manage Your Finances Anywhere You Go
With your finances at your fingertips, these apps help you keep a close eye on your payments, savings, investments, and budget. Toss out that old spreadsheet and keep your finances readily available, from anywhere in the world.
