With proper planning and budgeting you can, to a large extent, overcome financial challenges. Financial advisers will always say “Budgeting is taking a step toward building long-term wealth.” However, making a budget can be a cumbersome process. I mean who likes math? These are the Best Free Budgeting Apps.
Well, the good news is that they’re mobile applications that make budgeting and finance management easier. Budgeting apps are platforms leveraged by millions to plan their finances, and thereby, achieve financial stability.
So, in this post, we’ll discuss the top 5 budgeting apps to use in automating your budget. In addition, we’ll discuss their features and how to go about using these free budgeting apps.
What Are Budgeting Apps?
Budgeting apps are software apps or programs usually accessed from your mobile phone, PC, or tablet, which assist you in creating a budget, by tracking your financial income, savings, debts, and your everyday spending.
It is synced to your bank account and credit cards to give you a summary of your financial changes, the inflow, and outflow of cash.
The juicy aspect of this app is that it not only helps in the proper management of your finances but also creates a pathway to building long-term wealth.
Don’t forget that most of these budgeting apps are free! Here are some of the popular apps you can use to automate your budget.
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Top 5 Budgeting Apps On Android and iOS 2023
1. YNAB (You Need A Budget)
Launched in 2004, YNAB is one of the user-friendly budgeting apps that allow individuals to manage the inflow and outflow of their finance down to the last penny. It uses a zero-based budgeting approach. This means Every penny is accounted for, from your earnings down to the debt paid and expenditures made.
It does this by displaying your expenses alongside your spending categories and financial goals. Research has shown that an average new user saves over $600 in the first two months and over time $6,000 in the first year of use.
The app is free to use for 36 days.
2. Personal Capital
The personal Capital budgeting app was publicly launched in September 2011. It was formerly known as Safecorp Financial Corp until 2010 when the name was changed to Personal Capital.
The app automatically sorts your expenses into different categories and compares and contrasts the expenses incurred on a monthly basis.
In addition, it has features that make it possible to see your monthly financial activities ranging from the user’s income, down to the user’s investments, expenses, and retirement fund.
It is a great private platform service for building wealth while managing your finance. It is free to use and can be accessed on any website
3. Mint
This budgeting app provides features that enable users to sync all their Financial accounts, bank accounts, loans, credit cards, etc, for a better understanding of their cash flow. It is one of the budgeting apps with the highest mobile app ratings. Moreover, it is unique in its account integration capabilities.
The Mint budgeting app automatically arranges your day-to-day transactions allowing you to categorize the transactions based on your spending habits. In addition, the app offers its users the awareness of how to adjust their budget to increase savings and pay up debts.
The Mint budgeting app was launched in 2006, it is also absolutely free and accessible on any web.
4. Buddy
Buddy is a simple mobile-only budgeting app with over 2.5 million users that can be used with family or friends to track financial transactions. it helps the user to build and share a budget, manage expenses, and have combined savings.
The buddy budgeting app was launched in 2015 by the State Bank of India. The app was launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as a mobile wallet app.
In addition to tracking the user’s personal expenses and budgets, Buddy makes it possible to manage shared costs among family and friends. It does this by splitting costs among family and friends and making sure everyone pays their share.
Users access this service by syncing their financial accounts with the Buddy app. This makes it easier to track the users spending habit and offer better finance management options.
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5. PocketGuard
The PocketGuard budgeting app is most suitable for users who are working to pay off debts, it can be accessed both on your mobile device or desktop version for users who prefer to use their computers for budgeting. It has over 500 000 users.
PocketGuard provides features that make it possible for users to set bill reminders, and fee notifications, create savings goals, a and lot more. It does this by determining the most appropriate debt payoff strategy for the user and payment schedule.
In addition, it assesses your spending habits, monthly income, and financial goals, then decides how much you can spend daily to balance your budget.
However, your bank accounts must be connected to PocketGuard, as it needs real-time access to your account to work. It also has features for Touch ID for extra security. It is free and accessible on any platform.
Bottom Line
The singular fact that the means to satisfy our unlimited needs is mostly limited makes it difficult to build long-term wealth and stay out of debt.
It takes extra effort to achieve this, it takes one with proper planning and budgeting strategy to achieve his long-term goals. Thankfully the advent of free budgeting apps makes financial budgeting much easier.
Budgeting apps are those applications that help its user track their financial history, which include, the inflow and outflow of money on a daily basis to manage their financial lives more healthily and profitably.
While most budgeting apps are paid for, others can be accessed freely, they include YNAB (you need a budget), Personal Capital, Mint, Buddy, and PocketGuard.