There has never been an easier time to understand your money thanks to the world of technology and apps. Even though the financial industry has largely lagged behind in innovation relative to other industries, there are players newer to the industry that make it easier than ever. Whether you’re trying to calculate net worth, manage a budget, assess your retirement, or save dollars, there’s an app for it.
These apps and websites are winning over the hearts of consumers who have been eager for an easier way to manage their money, as opposed to living in the archaic system that has existed for decades. Let’s walk through some of these and how you can benefit from them.
Mint
I’ve used Mint for years and it’s a great app for beginners. Mint provides a holistic view of your financial picture. From checking, savings, investments, and assets, Mint does a fantastic job of giving you a 360° view into your financial health. They even give an in-depth view of your credit as well with alerts when changes occur.
The setup is fairly easy to do using the credentials you would with your respective banks. I have run into some bugs with this in the past, but on the whole, it’s solid.
Mint also does well with budgeting and learns from your categorizations along the way. It will even give you alerts when exceeding certain categories. I’m not the type of budgeter that freaks out when they exceed a category (and neither should you), but it’s a nice little nudge so you can give it a look.
You can also get notifications when large transactions are happening. I’ve had instances of fraud where this alert tipped me off and I was able to get my bank on it right away. Last, I love getting alerts when I’m being charged excess fees anywhere. Banks are notorious for extra fees and Mint helps you keep an eye on these.
If you’re looking for your first financial app, start here. It’s a great starting line.
YNAB (You Need a Budget)
YNAB is a great tool for those who are serious about getting on a budget (which I recommend – I promise it’ll be worth it) with extra support. The great thing about this particular app is it incorporates a method to the madness and teaches you sound budgeting principles.
This can be a great way to build a strong relationship with budgeting and be the foundation for the next step of your financial life. If you’re looking for more guidance in managing budgets, these guys are fantastic.
Personal Capital
Personal Capital (PC) will give you a similar look to Mint when it comes to seeing that holistic picture of your finances along with your net worth. Where PC diverges is with its focus on investments.
PC has awesome features that will assess your investment performance, benchmark your asset allocation, grade your fees, and much more. If you’re looking for an awesome investment analyzer, this is your jam.
I personally love their ‘Investment Checkup’, feature which gives a valuable snapshot of your portfolio’s asset allocation so you can adjust accordingly for the long-term.
There are also some tools in there for the day to day finances with budgeting and cash flow, but PC is going to be stronger in the investment/retirement game.
Credit Karma
I’ve discussed why credit is so important to our financial lives. Whether we agree with the system, it’s the arena we have to play in. Credit Karma is a site dedicated to education and helping you raise your credit score. The number of resources these folks have is insane! It’s a great place to start understanding more about the in’s and out’s of credit.
I love their credit score simulator which can give an accurate forecast of how potential actions can affect your score. This comes in handy if you’re interested in getting an additional credit card or asking for a credit limit increase.
Paribus
Paribus is a tool that uses your inbox to watch for purchases and deliveries of retailers that it monitors (there is some privacy given up here – take it for it’s worth). It monitors price drops, late deliveries, and returns. They currently work with more than 25 major retailers.
Paribus isn’t going to save you thousands of dollars unless you’re real heavy on the retail spending. What it does it saves your time and clears your head to worry about more important things, which is the whole point of using tech tools.
Truebill
Lastly, Truebill is an app that monitors your expenses through your bank account but for different purposes. Their primary goal is to assist you in negotiating your bills risk-free. You show them which bills you need help with, and if they’re successful, they take a cut while you also enjoy some savings. I recommend you develop the negotiation muscle yourself, but this is a tool to help in the interim.
Subscriptions have also become more difficult to keep track of in an era of streaming and recurring services. One of my favorite things that Truebill does is highlight the subscriptions you have so you can make informed decisions on what to do with them. Find your subscriptions, figure out which one’s you can live without, move forward.
Truebill also has a budgeting feature to top it all off, but I see the value of their product is in the negotiation and subscription tracking.
Sum It Up
You’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea and the same thing applies to the apps. Spend a little time figuring out which ones work for you. If you’re not using technology to your advantage, you’re leaving money on the table.
