Business

Best Apps For Managing Your Personal Finance

If you’re trying to get better at managing your personal finances, it makes sense to wonder if there are any phone applications you can download to make that management a little easier. However, your goals with finance management are going to dramatically influence the kinds of apps you may find helpful, especially because not every single person thinks in the exact same way.

If you’re interested in tracking your expenses, then some apps are going to be more helpful for your goals than ones oriented toward increasing your savings. While the two aren’t necessarily completely independent from each other, there are different app categories that are more tailored toward some goals than others. What kinds of apps are recommended by finance experts? Keep reading to learn more about apps you may want to try.

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1. Download Your Bank’s Online App

Many banks have applications you can download onto your phone, which allows you to look at your financial situation much more easily than it normally would be. Rather than logging into your account manually every time you want to get a pulse on your cash amount, you can click into an application on your phone and look at the situation much more quickly.

According to Kevin Miller, the Founder of Kevin Miller, “Download your banking app. You can ask questions, look at all of your accounts, and move cash between your different account numbers all within your app. It’s also pretty close to instant, so you can take care of your money situation immediately, rather than stressing out about your expenses not being properly organized.

Especially because banks are trying to be competitive with each other in a number of areas, ranging from ease to customer service, all of these applications are making huge leaps in order to improve. Many of these applications work pretty seamlessly, making it much easier to organize your finances. If you’re looking to get your finances organized, this is a great first step to take.”

2. Start Using A Spreadsheet

Using a spreadsheet, whether online or offline, can make things really easy to track. Simply writing down all of your expenses every time you make a purchase is a great way to make you think twice about the way you spend your paycheck. Or, if you’d simply like to pare down on the number of items you’re purchasing, you can view the number located on the side of the sheet to keep track of that, as well.

“It’s so easy to accrue too much clutter if you don’t take a serious look at what you’re spending,” explains the Co-Founder and CEO of SOLD.com, Matt Woods. “By writing down everything that you purchase, you can almost literally watch the number of piles in your home stabilize and diminish.”

Based on what Matt Woods claims, managing your finances can help you spend less as well as keep your home cleaner. By reducing the number of items you purchase periodically, whether on a weekly or monthly basis, you’d be surprised how much extra cash you can throw into your savings each year.

Suze Orman, the Personal Finance Expert and New York Times Bestselling Author, expands on this idea, “Most of us value things more than we value money, which is why most of us have more things in our closets and cupboards than we do money in our bank accounts.”

By using a spreadsheet to track your purchases, Orman says we can give our bank accounts a boost and reduce the number of items that are clogging up our cupboards. Additionally, when was the last time you used that weird gadget in the back of your closet? Instead of spending money on things you won’t value long-term, hold onto the value that money carries for the items and expenses that matter most.

3. Get Ready To Start Investing

If you’re considering investing, whether in crypto, stocks, or something else, it’s possible to do that with an application on your phone. While each of these apps will vary in quality and the features they offer, knowing that investing from your phone is possible may be exciting.

“There are apps that teach you how to invest. You don’t even have to invest anything, you just need to learn about investing in order to earn stocks,” explains Chris Bridges, the CEO of VITAL. “I think it’s amazing that people can learn so much over the internet and with a few taps of your phone screen.”

It’s possible to invest without sacrificing your own money. So many people believe in teaching the common person the basics of investment that it’s possible to start investing for free and on a mobile device. However, before you start investing, it’s a good idea to do your research and learn as much as you can. Remember, don’t invest any money you aren’t comfortable potentially losing.

4. Take Advantage Of Subscription Trackers

There are also many applications you can use in order to keep an eye on the subscriptions you have. From streaming services, subscription boxes, and any other subscription services you may have given your credit card information, it’s pretty easy to forget exactly what you’re paying for each month or year.

According to George Fraguio, the Vice President of Bridge Lending of Vaster Capital, “Subscription tracking apps can really show you where your money is going. That can save you loads of money every month, and that’s incredible. If you don’t get a handle on where your money is going, you’re missing out on a lot of monetary potential.”

This is simply another way of reducing your spending, but it’s beneficial if you’re prone to forgetting about your free trials to different subscriptions. If that’s you, there’s no shame in that. Subscription services make it easy to forget about them, and downloading an app that can show you where your money is going can make it far less hard to remember.

While Benjamin Franklin likely didn’t have a lot of experience with these kinds of subscription services, he does have some timeless and helpful advice that can still apply. “Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”

Franklin uses a powerful metaphor, explaining that spending a lot of money is a slippery slope. It’s much easier to spend $100 on meaningless shopping trips than to spend $100 on one large and necessary purchase.