Are you following a personal budget? No? That’s something that you should change this year. A budget is an essential financial tool that everyone should have. So, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon and start making a budget.
But how can you start? The easiest way to get started is to download a budgeting app onto your smartphone, desktop or tablet. Budgeting apps are one of the best fintech solutions for handling routine money management tasks, whether that means tracking your spending or paying down your piles of credit card debt.
There are plenty of budgeting apps to choose from. If you’re stumped about which one to download, you can use this handy guide to figure out which app is best suited for your budgeting needs.
You Need an App that Works for Couples
You’re in a relationship where you share all of your essential expenses from your rent payments to your grocery bills. So, you’re going to need to make a budget that’s designed for the two of you — not just one of you. Otherwise, you’re bound to have some misunderstandings about your money management tasks for the month, which could lead to unnecessary squabbles and hurt feelings.
You should download a budgeting app that’s specifically designed for couples, like Honeydue. Honeydue allows two users to create, edit and follow a budget together. The app can sync with both members’ financial accounts, so you’ll both be able to see each other’s checking accounts, savings accounts, credit card accounts and outstanding loans in a single location.
However, the app recognizes that you don’t always want your partner to see your spending. So, if you want to keep a personal bank account or credit card private so that your partner can’t spot what you’ve spent on them for Valentine’s Day, you can opt to keep those accounts hidden from view. You can customize these settings so that you’re both comfortable with what the budget reveals.
You Need an App that Encourages You to Save
Right now, you’re living without an emergency fund. You don’t have any savings sitting in a bank account that you can use when a small, surprise expense falls directly into your lap.
If you faced a surprise expense, you wouldn’t be able to pay for it out of pocket. You would have to consider a borrowing solution like loans by phone through CreditFresh to get through the emergency quickly. With an approved loan by phone, you could use temporary funds to cover the small, surprise expense as soon as possible. After that, you would simply have to follow a straightforward repayment plan and put the incident behind you.
Personal loans shouldn’t be the first solution you turn to in an emergency. An emergency fund should be. And the best way to build an emergency fund is with a budget that helps you collect as much savings as possible. The budgeting app YNAB (You Need a Budget) can do that for you.
YNAB encourages users to set savings targets. It also has various guides to steer you closer to your financial goals, including how to save money and how to stop living from paycheck to paycheck.
You Need an App That Will Help You Control Your Spending
You have a bad habit of spending more than you can afford to, especially when you’re paying with a debit or credit card. You don’t have to think about how much is left in your accounts when you pay with plastic. You just swipe your card at the register or click purchase at the online checkout page without thinking.
Obviously, this is a risky habit to keep up with. If you’re not careful, you could put your checking account into overdraft and collect overdraft fees. You could rack up such a high balance on your credit card that you can’t pay it down — or worse, you could max out your card and leave yourself with no usable credit for the immediate future. Essentially, you could make your life really difficult when you’re spending so blindly.
A budgeting app that can help you get your spending under control is Goodbudget. Goodbudget uses the envelope budgeting system to get users to divvy up their income into specific spending categories. Once you’ve used up the spending money in a designated envelope, you cannot spend anything else on that category until your next payday, when you can refill the envelope. This clear boundary should stop you from overspending and getting yourself into financial trouble.
Of course, these are just some examples of budgeting apps that can meet your needs. Don’t be afraid to look up more and see what they can offer you! You’re bound to find the right fit eventually.
