The recent pandemic has become not just a global health crisis—it’s an economic one too. With a global recession part of the foreseeable future, it’s more important than ever for us to be managing our money properly. It’s not always easy, especially if you’re just starting out. Whether you’re a fresh graduate who just entered the workforce or a reformed professional who’s realised that it’s never too early to start building a retirement fund, it can be challenging for people who are only starting to build their credit to be fully financially literate. Luckily there are several apps that can help you manage your money.
Whether you’re looking to be better at managing your everyday expenses or want a way to keep track of your emergency fund, here are some apps that can help you take full control of your finances.
Apps to Help You Take Full control of your Finances
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You Need a Budget
Anyone who has struggled to keep a budget will appreciate the highly-rated budgeting app You Need a Budget. Designed to help you stop living from pay cheque to pay cheque, this tool doesn’t let you create budgets around money you don’t have. Instead, it only works with your current income. In the event that you go off track, it advises you on how to get back on your feet. First-time users can try it for free for 34 days, and sign up for either a USD 11.99 (INR 911) monthly plan or USD 84 (INR 6,384) annual plan. It’s currently available on the web, App Store, Google Play, and Alexa by Amazon.
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Petal
Available on both App Store and Google Play, Petal is designed to help you gain a better understanding of money. Ideal for people with a thin credit history, it’s linked to your Petal credit card and gives you an overview of how much interest you pay on your bill and how much your credit score improves as you go. While most credit card companies only look at your credit report to gauge your creditworthiness, Petal takes into account your checking and savings accounts as well to determine whether you have the cash flow required to pay your bills on time. The app also allows you to set a budget monthly and a way of keeping tabs on how you’re spending against it. Best of all, to encourage you to pay on time, you get an instant 1% cashback when you make payments.
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Wally
Wally offers an easy way to keep track of your expenses. Doing away with superfluous features, it offers a streamlined process to track your personal expenses akin to filing your professional expense or reimbursement reports. But instead of having to manually log in each expense at the end of the day, week, or month, it lets you take photos of your receipts instead, and it will automatically log them all. You can also key in your income, bills, and monthly memberships like Netflix and Spotify accounts, giving you an easy way to keep an eye on everything going out of your checking account. Wally is currently available on both the App Store and Google Play.
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Fudget
Compatible with both iPhone and Android, Fudget is a no-frills app that makes budgeting easy and simple for its users. It allows you to add your monthly budget targets, track every single one of your expenses and spending on a weekly and monthly basis, add and edit budget entries, maintain a list of expenses, and a slew of other features. But perhaps its biggest draw is its simplicity and speed. Despite being feature-rich, it offers a clean and intuitive user interface, something many budget planners or personal finance apps lack. There are no complex categories to manage or charts to interpret. There is also no steep learning curve, making it ideal for beginners.
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Spendee
Ideal for people living with roommates and partners, Spendee is an app that lets you manage your household’s financial habits. Available on Web, iOS, and Android, the upgraded plans — prices start at USD 1.99 (INR 151) per month and USD 14.99 (INR 1,139) per year — enables family members, partners, and roommates to share wallets. Each user is given the option to keep tabs on cash flows in their preferred currency, set and maintain budgets, and check where their money goes in a way that’s easy to understand. All the data entered is synced and backed up across devices for household-wide accountability and transparency that everyone will surely come to appreciate.
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Mint
Mint has just about everything you’re looking for in a finance and budget tracking app. Free on both the App Store and Google Play, it’s designed to help you take total control of your financial life by giving you a way to track every facet of your spending habits. It integrates all your funds, transactions, account balances, and total net worth in one beautifully designed interface. In addition to budgeting and tracking features, it also offers plenty of options for customisation, including tools to set bill reminders. It even takes into account your financial habits to dispense personalised tips on how to further improve your credit score, eliminate banking fees, and so much more.
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Clarity Money
If you feel like you have more subscriptions than you know what to do with, Clarity Money provides a massive array of features that will benefit both budgeters and savers. It requires you to connect your savings and checking accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, and loans, resulting in a pie chart displaying your finances and showing when you overspend. It also identifies your recurring expenses, such as your streaming apps and gym memberships, and alerting you when there’s either a price increase or reduction. It even lets you cancel unwanted accounts that you don’t use and are only draining your wallet. What’s more, it also features a savings tool, which allows you to transfer and save money in a non-interest bearing, insured account. This way, you can select how much and how often you want to save.
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