7 Budgeting Apps Your Wallet Will Thank You For!
By Elaine Jair
June 2, 2016With contactless payment and automated payment so readily accessible, it’s all too easy for consumers to just fork over our money without thinking twice about it. Canadians have steadily embraced contactless payments and statistics are showing that contactless payment has gone up by 10.73% from last year. Frankly, there’s no sign of this trend stopping and I’m not at all surprised. Contactless payment is the epitome of speed and efficiency. After all, how quick and easy is it to head to a McDonalds or a Shoppers Drug Mart and simply tap at the end of a purchase? There’s no need for you to put in your PIN or sign any receipts: just tap and you’re done.
Similarly, with online retailers like Amazon offering 1-Click Checkout, all I have to do is sign in to my Amazon account, select my preferred shipping method, then click on “Buy now with 1-Click”. With that one click, Amazon immediately places a charge on my preferred method of payment and presto -- the item that I selected is on its way to me. I don’t even see a checkout page!
With contactless payment and automated payment so readily available and so, so convenient, consumers can benefit from practicing restraint, or, more realistically, employing aids to help monitor their spending.
Enter budgeting apps. I think it's safe to say that most of us carry our phones with us everywhere and in this day and age, we're so cognicent of every buzz of our phones as it could signify a new text message, a new email, a new Messenger message, a new Snap, and so on and so forth. With budgeting apps, most will offer a buzz that will alert you to a new charge on your debit card or an upcoming bill. Therefore, it's no surprise that budgeting apps are growing in popularity and realistically, it makes so much sense as it is super convenient and allows for no excuses.
With that said, here are the top 7 budget apps that I think you should consider downloading ASAP:
Mint (iOS; Android)
Mint is a free to use personal finance manager and one of the most popular ones out there. You can link up your financial institution to Mint.com and input information about any additional accounts, cards, and bills you have, and it will put together a comprehensive view of your current financial situation. By having everything laid out in front of you and constantly offering real time updates, you know exactly where you stand at all times.
YNAB (iOS; Android)
YNAB (You Need A Budget) is an extremely popular budgeting program. An older version, YNAB 4 is available for a one-time purchase on STEAM. However, YNAB recently moved to a web-based subscription program, with monthly or yearly subscriptions. While a subscription based program may scare off some users, YNAB is still one of the best budgeting tools around. If you have the older YNAB 4 version, you can download the YNAB Classic app to access your budget while you’re on the go. If you’re subscribed to their newer version, you just need the YNAB app.
TD MySpend (iOS; Android)
If you bank with TD, TD has just launched their own budgeting app. You would simply need to link it up to your existing TD account and it will display your current account status. TD MySpend will also send out notifications and virtual receipts when your credit/debit card has been used. Your transactions will also be automatically categorized so you can see where most of your money is going. While this probably isn’t the best budgeting app out there, it is easy to use for those of you who bank with TD.
PocketGuard (iOS; Android)
PocketGuard is great for those of you who don’t want to go through the tedious task of allocating your income to different categories. PocketGuard will look at your monthly expenditures and income and create a budget for you. It also utilizes forecasting technology to give you a peek into what your future financial situation will look like, which allows you ample time to tweak your budget accordingly. Another feature of PocketGuard is its "Can I Buy It?" function, which, as the name suggests, tells you whether or not you can afford to buy something or not. It's an interesting concept, but it has its flaws.
GoodBudget (iOS; Android)
GoodBudget utilizes the age-old technique of envelope budgeting. Basically, you assign a particular sum of money for each expense and every expense you make under that category deducts from the total sum. This app allows for synchronization across Android and iPhone devices so everyone in your household is on the same page. GoodBudget is free to use and allows for one account across two devices; 10 regular envelopes and 10 "more" envelopes, and keeps track of your budget for a year. GoodBudget also offers a "premium" service which costs $5/month or $45/year. With the premium service, you get an unlimited amount of regular envelopes, an unlimited amount of "more" envelopes, unlimited accounts shared across 5 devices and 5 years of history.
Mvelopes (iOS; Android)
Mvelopes also utilizes envelope budgeting to help you manage your finances. It is free to use and offers up 25 spending envelopes, synchronization with up to 4 of your bank and credit accounts, auto transaction gathering and an auto spending plan view. You can also opt for the premium service ($95/year), which offers synchronization with an unlimited number of bank and credit accounts, unlimited spending envelopes, live support and more.
Level Money (iOS; Android)
Level Money is another great, simple app for managing your money. Instead of displaying your bank balance, Level Money takes all the guesswork out by showing you what your “Spendable” money is. In short, your Spendable money is what’s left over after taking into consideration all your essential payments. Like most other apps, you can create categories to track your spending. Level Money also offers balance and bill predictions.
All in all, these budget apps all offer most of the same essential services. The determining factor for you should be whether the particular app you’re using caters to your needs and if it's easy for you to use and stick with.
Let us know in the comments below your experiences with contactless payment and your recommendations for a good budget app!
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