Why do we need to use budgeting apps?
Nowadays, we live in a financial world, and money management is more important than ever. Keeping your personal finances under control is something that even the kids know is crucial to improving your lifestyle. Also, now with the smart devices in our pocket, it’s effortless and convenient to keep track of your monthly expenditures, income and even set a monthly budget for casinomartini which offers an amazing online gambling experience.
In the past, we had to keep all kinds of receipts, invoices, and bills to fill out that large paper-based ledger everyone has seen in the nearest thrift store if we want to track spending and personal capital.
These times are long gone, and now we can use the convenience of budgeting apps that help us save money, track spending habits and recurring bills. And all that from our mobile device.
Top Features Most Budgeting Apps Have
Most budget planner apps support integration with bank accounts which allow you to sync bank accounts with the budgeting app. However, the most important budgeting tools help you keep track of your personal finance and bank account.
The more advanced budgeting apps also support software encryption financial institutions integration, a net worth tracker, bill reminder, cash flow reports and a fee analyzer. Every one of us needs a budget to maintain spending limits and track everyday spending.
The best budgeting apps have a free version that can be downloaded from Google Play or Apple Store.
The premium version often supports banking data processing, educational tools, investment management services for a monthly or annual fee, and multi-factor authentication or touch id mobile access for improved security of your account and your data. The best budgeting apps also support multiple devices.
Which Budgeting App Should You Choose?
No matter which budgeting app you pick, it needs to support the main budgeting features we already listed to be efficient and help you reach your financial goals sooner and easier.
Everyone’s personal finance is unique, and every person has different needs, so there is no single best budgeting app. Most free budgeting apps will do the job for you. However, if you like the free version of a certain budgeting app, I highly recommend that you purchase the premium version as most of the time, it comes with great new features which will make your financial planning a lot easier.
But before you spend money, you can always try the free trial, which the best budgeting apps always offer to see if the more advanced features will help you track your personal capital and financial accounts better.
Many budgeting apps support the function to work as an accounting software as well.
How to Stick to a Budget with the Help of an App
If you’re starting now, the best thing to do is download a free budgeting app from Google Play or the App Store if you’re using iOS. As I already mentioned, there is no best free budgeting app. Just pick one that you like. If you can’t find a free app you like, grab the free version or start a free trial of a paid one.
The first thing to do when you download the app is to learn it, check all the tools and options it offers, click every button you find to get a feel of it and learn how to add income and expenses. This must feel intuitive and easy. If the app is not user-friendly for these two actions – switch to a different one as these are the most common things you’re going to use every day to track your monthly bills.
Some people go through a dozen apps to find the one they like, while others stick with the first one they install on their smartphone. Honestly, it’s a hit or miss.
Once you have gone through some basic budgeting apps and have decided to stick with one, the next thing to do is delete and create a new or rename all the spending categories.
The categories on most apps are generic and might help for a while, but every one of us has personal expenses, and each financial situation is unique, so I highly recommend you create your own ones. If you can’t come up with categories in your mind, look at the default ones and modify them according to your needs.
After that, you can connect all your financial accounts and bank accounts or any investment management services that you use to the budget app. Most support free bank sync, so the whole process should be completely free without any monthly fees or anything like that. Once your personal finance app is synced, you’re good to go.
Budgeting Tips to Follow to Get the Most of Your App
Some people still use the old-fashioned ledger budgeting method or do envelope budgeting by utilizing the traditional budgeting buckets of needs, wants and investments, but that’s quite a hassle to do, in my opinion.
Using any popular budgeting apps makes it easier to track how much money you spend and how much money you earn. It’s the digital version of the said financial ledger that you used in the past century to track your spending.
If your app allows it, you can also connect your credit card accounts and maybe import information about your student loans as well. As time passes and you keep using the app, you will be aware of upcoming bills and ready and prepared ahead of time.
You don’t need any extensive educational resources about personal finance and planning or any budgeting advice to use this system. All you have to do is make sure you import all your expenses and revenue you generate in your smartphone, and the app does the rest for you.
Sticking to a budget has never been easier. As soon as you are close to a spending limit, the app will let you know that you need to cut your spending in that category to make sure you abide by the monthly limits you’ve set yourself. Now, what’s your excuse when I tell you to start saving?
