Personal finance management is of serious concern to every individual because whether you are earning high amounts annual or earn little, your financial management skills will determine your financial status.

The internet has helped to provide different means to manage your personal finance, some times even financial experts offer there opinion on the subject to help people make an informed decision. Part of such mean is a mobile app to help you manage your personal finance.

This article will discuss some of the major apps you can use to help you better manage your personal finance.

• Which App is Best for Daily Expenses?
• What is the Best Free Personal Finance Software?
• What’s the Best Money Management App?
• What is the Best way to Manage Personal Finances?

Which App is Best for Daily Expenses?

1. Spendee

Spendee a great household budget planner to control income and expenses. Whether you’re a student or working adult anyone can make good use of this app to track expenses. By linking your credit card and bank account to your Spendee account, you will be able to have better control over your personal finances. 

Read Also: How to Budget for Personal Finance

The Spendee app also has charts and graphs which are extremely helpful in visualizing your expenditure against your income. In all, Spendee is a great free expense tracker app for anyone who wants a fuss-free experience when it comes to tracking personal finance.

2. Pocket Expense with Sync

Pocket Expense has some of the best features when it comes to free expense tracker apps. The ability to link to multiple bank accounts even in the free version already gives it an edge over the other free expense tracker apps.

While this feature is usually prominent in paid versions of expense tracker apps, Pocket Expense is one of the few that offers the service for free.

Furthermore, Pocket Expense also keeps track of your bills to ensure that you will never miss a payment date again! But not it does have its downsides. Users will have to pay to unlock features like unlimited transactions, or otherwise be forced to regularly remove and edit their past expenses to make way for newer records.

3. Expensify

While Expensify is more suitable for corporate situations, it is still worth a mention as one of the best expense tracker apps. As an employee, it is easy to file claims via the Expensify app.

And for employers, all employees using the same email domain are linked to the same account, allowing seamless tracking of claims and transactions extremely convenient.

The incredible SmartScan feature for receipts also means users don’t have to manually key in every transaction. Through my personal experience, submitting claims and getting reimbursements are often hassle-free, even as a beginner.

The Expensify concierge also helps new users with step-by-step instructions on how to use and navigate the app.

4. Household Account Book

If adorable cartoons are what you’re into then this free app will get you saving money in no time. The cartoon aesthetics of Household Account Book is vibrant and caters to a younger audience, making it encouraging for children to save.

The adorable app is a great respite from the usual monochromatic expense tracker apps and made managing my finance much more enjoyable and bearable. The features are pretty limited but that’s not a huge problem as this app was more for easy management of finances.

5. Budget Calculator (My Budget)

If you’re in need of a monthly household expense tracker, then Budget Calculator pretty much fits the bill. Transactions are limited to a monthly basis and users are not able to keep track of their daily expenses.

This might seem like a bad thing, but for families that simply want a basic monthly tracker, Budget Calculator provides an accurate analysis of how the family’s expenditure.

However, this expense tracker is rather niche, making it tough to track detailed daily spendings. If you’re a frequent traveller, this app will not be the best option as there is no option to change currency.

6. Monny

If you’re new to using such financial management apps, Monny is a great place to start. The fun and engaging pop-up challenges encourage users to save and creates a habit to cumulate savings.

A one-time upgrade fee grants you access to the premium version with all the extra features. But if you’re just looking for a free and reliable expense tracker app, the free and basic of Monny will more than fulfill your financial needs.

7. Zenmoney

Probably the smartest app here, Zenmoney is able to automatically make transaction entries based on incoming text messages. Furthermore, the app encourages saving by showing how much money you have saved using the app and if you would like to transfer that amount to your savings account. 

The apps ability to predict future expenses based on your spending habits is also rather impressive. Of course, you should use that as the rough guide and adjust your finances accordingly rather than blindly following the app’s advice. 

Either way, Zenmoney is a great overall financial tracker for personal and family use. 

8. Money Lover

Money Lover is pretty much all you will ever need in an expense tracker app. It is packed with features and allows users to link their credit card and various accounts including crypto-currency (if you’re into that kind of thing).

The security is also top-notch which includes a fingerprint recognition feature should your phone support it.  It has all the useful functions: multiple accounts and currencies, budgeting and a savings planner.

Overall, there isn’t much to complain about Money Lover and anyone using it for personal finances will be very satisfied.

9. TouchStyle

TouchStyle was created by the local Islamic bank Bank Rakyat to help its users manage their expenses effectively. The dashboard gives a near overview of monthly expenses and the remaining budget a user has. The app also has a savings trackers and graph chart that gives the user a sense of his/her monthly expenses.

Of course, Bank Rakyat customers will benefit the most out of this app. With exclusive features like showing the nearest ATM and Bank Rakyat e-banking, the average user will not be able to take full advantage of this expense tracker’s features.  

Unfortunately, the app’s user interface isn’t as optimised as the rest on this list and can be a little buggy at times. 

10. My Tabung

My Tabung is another local expense tracker app developed in Malaysia. But unlike TouchStyle, this app targets a more general audience instead of users of Bank Negara Malaysia alone.

It provides advice and tips for saving, which will be good for those who want to manage their personal finance better. There’s also a budgeting feature and an analysis of the month’s savings in the form of a pie chart. 

However, the spending categories are rather limited as it is designed for household and personal expense tracking purposes. Users who are looking for an expense tracker app to meticulously sort their expenses may need to look elsewhere.

What is the Best Free Personal Finance Software?

Managing your money successfully includes keeping a close eye on your expenses. One way to do that is to take advantage of free software and services. Free personal finance software can be surprisingly robust, helping you track spending, create and manage budgets, and run reports.

Whether your computer runs on Windows or macOS (or even Linux) or you do all your budgeting on your phone, you’ll find a no-cost selection below for tracking your finances and planning for the future.

Mint

Mint is a free online budget planner from Intuit, the makers of TurboTax and Quickbooks. This app brings all of your financial data together, showing you an overview of your budget, spending, bills, and credit score.

You can create your own budget, set goals and reminders, and sync your data between web and apps. Security is enhanced by encryption and multi-factor authentication. You can also use Mint to track your investments and portfolio.

Access Mint via the web or phone apps for iOS and Android.

GnuCash

GnuCash is desktop software; its features include tracking bank accounts, stocks, income, and expenses. GnuCash is based on double-entry accounting for balanced books and you can run a number of reports to see your financial data. GnuCash also offers small-business accounting tools that let you manage customers and vendors, handle invoicing and bill payment, and even payroll.

GnuCash is compatible with Windows, Mac OSX, GNU/Linux, BSD, and Solaris. There is a companion app for Android that will let you track expenses on the go and later import them into the desktop software.

AceMoney Lite

AceMoney Lite bills itself as the best Microsoft Money or Quicken alternative. You can manage your budgets, track your finances in multiple currencies, keep an eye on your investments and analyze your spending habits. You can also do online banking. As this is the lite version, you’re limited to two accounts; the full version supports unlimited accounts.

AceMoney Lite is compatible with Windows and Mac OS X.

Personal Capital

Personal Capital offers free financial software for tracking investments and planning for retirement, in addition to its analyzation tools for cash flow, spending, budgeting and net worth. Personal Capital’s focus is on investments, showing you the performance of your portfolio over time and helping you make decisions for the future, so its budgeting components aren’t as robust as other software.

If you’re not an investor or prefer fine-tuning your budget to getting the broad view, Personal Capital may not be the best fit. However, if you want to save for college or retirement, its free tools will show you whether you’re on track.

Personal Capital can be accessed via the web or apps for Android and iOS.

Buddi

Buddi is an open-source budget software that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems and has been translated into multiple languages. Buddi can encrypt financial data with a password, and it’s designed to be easy to use even if you have no financial background.

Features include budgeting, tracking accounts, and personal finance reports, but you will have to enter transactions manually. Free plugins add more features, and the online user manual is easy to read and use.

Buddi is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Microsoft Money Sunset Deluxe

After discontinuing Microsoft Money Plus, Microsoft made Money Sunset Deluxe available for free. Microsoft Money Plus Sunset Deluxe replaces earlier versions of the software, but the only support for this software is online-only self-help. 

Also, there are no online-services with this software: no online bill-pay, no data sync, no online quotes, no statement downloads. So be aware of its limitations and lack of future updates if you choose this option.

Microsoft Money Plus Sunset Deluxe is only compatible with Windows.

Free Budget Spreadsheets

If you don’t need fully featured personal financial software and you’re just concerned about keeping a budget, there are some great free budget spreadsheet templates you can use with Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Calc or Google Sheets. Just download and open them in your spreadsheet software to get a handle on your cash flow.

What’s the Best Money Management App?

Understanding your cash flow is a major part of successfully managing your finances. How much is coming in, when it hits your bank account, and where it’s going are all important aspects of financial success.

Luckily, the market is saturated with money management apps designed to help you see your bank balance, track your spending, and analyze your habits. Plus, there are also apps that will help you make better financial decisions, based on the data gathered from your accounts.

1. Empower

Empower combines budgeting with accumulating savings. It’s an online banking and budgeting app that connects to your other financial accounts, tracking the activity to give you better control over your cash flow.

You can set weekly and monthly spending limits for different categories of your life and Empower will notify you on how you’re tracking. You can also save effortlessly through their AutoSave feature. Just set a weekly savings target and the app will automatically move extra funds–when available–into savings.

Beyond budgeting, Empower will also look for savings in your spending patterns. Empower will provide a snapshot of your subscriptions and help you cancel any you no longer use. In addition, the app will also work to renegotiate your phone, cable and internet bill to lower amounts. Empower customers have saved on average $444 a year across their cable and phone bills.¹

If that isn’t enough, you can earn interest on your AutoSave account with no minimums when you open an Empower checking account. You can think of it as a tool to help you get better control of your budget, while also continuing to move at least some money into emergency savings for future use.

The Empower app has a bonus benefit. It comes with unlimited Human Coaching (via SMS) providing one-on-one guidance with any financial questions you have. It’s budgeting, saving and guidance all in one very low-cost app.

2. Acorns

Acorns takes your virtual change out of your account. But instead of saving it, Acorns invests the difference. The app allows you to start investing with virtually no effort. You just set it up, and get going.

You can use Acorns just to round up your transactions, but you can also set up recurring withdrawals to your account, or boost your account with a one-time transaction. Acorns also has a new shopping app type function, called Found Money. When you shop with certain brands, the brand partners will automatically invest in your Acorns account.

3. YNAB

YNAB (You Need a Budget) will cost you $6.99 per month, but the first month’s fee is waived, and the company claims that new budgeters save $200 in their first month. Even if you don’t save quite that much with the help of YNAB, the app can still be worth the monthly fee.

The philosophy underlying YNAB is “a job for every dollar.” You’re encouraged to place a premium on thinking ahead and determining where your money goes ahead of time, from investing to saving up for a vacation to paying the bills to buying groceries.

Like many other money management apps, YNAB offers bank syncing and support for mobile devices. You can also use YNAB to help you set financial goals and make the most of each dollar you earn.

4. PocketGuard

Looking for a money management app that will also actively help you find savings in your regular spending? PocketGuard might be just the thing for you. Sync up your accounts and PocketGuard will track and help you analyze your spending. You can then use that information to help you build a better budget.

PocketGuard also picks up on recurring bills and even looks for better deals. You can identify spending trends month-to-month, track individual bills, and use the app to save money in the long run.

5. Dollarbird

Is your primary budget issue figuring out what you need to pay in the future? Maybe you’re afraid to spend $10 on lunch, even if your bank account is fairly flush, because you can’t remember when your student loans are due. Dollarbird can help with that.

Dollarbird is free with premium add-ons. The idea here is to put your budget into calendar form. You get an at-a-glance view of upcoming expenses. Color code transactions by category and easily enter recurring transactions, like your paycheck and utility bill. The app lets you see your projected balance, so you know how much money you can safely spend.

One limitation here, though, is that Dollarbird doesn’t sync with your bank accounts. You’ll have to enter transactions manually, but that’s pretty simple to do–and that means you end up with a more hands-on approach to your money.

6. Mvelopes

One of the most popular budgeting strategies is the “envelope” strategy. You divide up your cash, put it in envelopes, and spend in that category until the cash is gone. If you want to move that old-school budgeting technique into the 21st Century, Mvelopes can help.

Mvelopes translates your credit card and digital spending into a cash-style budgeting system that keeps track of where your money is going. You can create a budget and the app will take care of the rest.

You do need to pay for the service, though. Mvelopes has plans starting at $4 per month. You can pay more, though, and get access to a wider variety of features, including financial coaching services.

7. Wally

Wally is a stripped-down budgeting app without a lot of bells and whistles. However, the unique features it does have are worth exploring.

First of all, Wally supports nearly all foreign currencies. If you’re a digital nomad, spending time outside the country, Wally can be a great help to you.

Next, Wally allows you to save pictures of receipts so you can keep track of important items related to taxes and business without dealing with paper.

Each time you log in, Wally lets you know how much money you have, and what’s left in the budget until the end of the month. With that information, and the ability to manage your finances without paper in almost any currency in the world, it’s no wonder that Wally is popular with millennials.

8. Good Budget

Goodbudget is built on the concept of an envelope budget. You get 10 envelopes for free, but if you upgrade to Plus, you get unlimited envelopes for $6 per month. As with most envelope-based systems, you have to stop spending when an envelope is empty, or move money from a different envelope.

One of the biggest advantages associated with Goodbudget is that you can create a shared budget in your household. Goodbudget is compatible across iPhone and Android devices, so it doesn’t matter what others are using.

Use Goodbudget to set shared goals, keep each other accountable, and plan your budget in a way that everyone knows what’s happening.

9. Spendee

Spendee is yet another visual app that syncs with your bank accounts. It automatically downloads transactions and categorizes them. It also allows you to share certain parts of your budget with others.

Assign money to virtual wallets and Spendee will keep you on track. You can also share specific wallets with friends, allowing you to encourage accountability as you work toward your goals. You don’t have to share your entire budget, though, which is important if you want to maintain your privacy. Spendee also offers a travel mode that supports multiple currencies when you’re abroad.

10. Albert

Do you wish you had a personal finance assistant? You probably want Albert. Using aspects of artificial intelligence mixed with human guidance, you can get personalized information about your current financial health–and what you can do to improve it.

Albert automatically creates a budget for you, based on your income, spending habits, and bills. Not only that, but Albert helps you set money aside in a savings account, analyzes your bills to help you identify where you overpay, and even alerts you when a free trial is coming to an end.

You can use Albert for free, but if you’re willing to pay a small premium, you can text human experts to get a little extra help reaching goals like investing more and paying down debt.

What is the Best way to Manage Personal Finances?

Using the apps and software mentioned above to manage your personal finance is a very effective way to stay on the know when it comes to your finances. However, there are other methods you can put into use to help you better manage your personal finance, they are mentioned below.

1. Create a budget

First things first: create a budget if you haven’t already. Is it necessary? Are windshield wipers necessary in the rain? Trust me, you need one.

Creating and sticking to a budget might seem a little tough to achieve at first but it pays off in the end. Budgeting helps us see with clarity and full transparency our financial situation and this is of most importance for better managing your money.

It’s the first step to help us pay off debt and start saving for future expenses such as a mortgage, a car, and your retirement. It’s what will bring balance to your financial life and give you peace of mind.

To begin, you will need to understand your expenses and your income to better manage your money. This is addressed in the following 2 steps:

2. Understand your expenses

Ask anyone off the top of their head to tell you how much they spend a month on everything and they might not be able to do so. This isn’t rare.

Many people actually don’t know the total amount of expenses they generate on any given month. This is a problem but there is an easy solution for it. Here it is: for one month, keep track of all your expenses. Easy-peasy.

Take all your receipts (groceries, restaurant bills, utilities, etc.) and look at your bank statements and add up all of your expenses. Remember to keep track of expenses paid by cash as well as credit cards.

The idea is to have all your expenses (both variable and fixed) accounted for to get a total amount. This will allow you to see the whole picture and know how to manage your expenses going forward. You will also want to compare your historical performance over time.

3. Understand your income

Ask anyone off the top of their head to tell you how much they make a month and although they probably won’t tell you, internally they know. This is the difference between income and expenses, most people know their full monthly income but have less knowledge of their full monthly expenses.

Nonetheless, the point is to figure out your total expenses and subtract that from your total income for the month in question. Here is how the results should pan out:

• If you end up with a negative number this means you spent more than you made.  Actions to take? Reduce your spending and expenses until the total reaches zero.
• If you end up with a positive number this is good (high five!) and means you spent less you made.  Actions to take? You could increase your debt payments or increase your savings.

Once you understand your expenses and income and have a firm understanding of the money coming in and out of your life, it’s time to take some additional steps to best manage your money.

4. Consolidate your debt

Debt, the dreaded word. No one likes debt. No one. And most people that need help managing money actually need help getting out of debt. Sound familiar? If you are like the majority of Americans (~80%), then you most likely have debt.

The first thing to do is to get it under control and work on getting rid of it. If you have credit card debts, student loans, and other debts; look to consolidate them and try to get the lowest interest rate possible.

Again, its all about taking the proper steps to control your money. There are options out there that allow you to combine several unsecured debts such as credit cards, personal loans, and payday loans, into one bill rather than pay them individually.

If you only have a single credit card debt and are on a tight budget, try paying at least the minimum amount as soon as you get the credit card bill. Then, if your finances permit it, and you come across some more money, try to make the same payment a few weeks later.

Try keeping this payment cycle going until your debt is fully paid off.

5. Slash or remove unnecessary expenses

Big fan of Starbucks? If you are buying a Venti Caffe Latte every day (as delicious as they are) that’s around $4 out of your wallet. Multiply that out and you could be spending about $1,400 a year just on that. Maybe, just maybe, consider making your own blend at home to pinch those pennies?

Paying for a gym membership but doing yoga in your backyard? Cancel it. Think long and hard of other memberships, subscriptions, accounts that you are paying for but could live without.

Remember, the idea is to learn how to manage your finances better by taking everything and every penny into account.

So, do some spring cleaning and slash expenses wherever you see an opportunity and especially if it’s something that doesn’t affect your life to a great extent.

6. Create an emergency fund

It’s good to be prepared. Emergency funds are an important part of a healthy personal finance plan.

In almost all cases, you shouldn’t touch or take money out of the fund, rather, let it sit there earning interest. If you lose your job or an unfortunate or unexpected expense arises—such as your car breaking down or a tree falling on your roof—this is when you should tap into it.

7. Save 10 to 15 percent for retirement

If you want to be sipping margaritas in Miami under a sun umbrella, the sooner you start saving for retirement, the better off you will be in your golden years.

First thing should be to establish a savings target—one that tells you approximately how much you should set aside over time to meet your retirement goals that will allow you to live the sort of lifestyle you envision.

Let’s say you are 21 years old and don’t have anything saved up but just got offered a job paying $40,000 a year. If you save 10% of your income annually then by the retirement age of 67, you will have $2.5 million saved up! Cha-ching!

8. Review and understand your credit report

Why are credit reports so important? Because they are.

A credit report is a number roughly between 150 and 900 that serves as a score/grade which factors in your present and past loans, credit cards, mortgages, and any other reported debts.

It serves to determine how creditworthy you are and this score has a direct impact on your future borrowing ability. It’s important that you review and understand your credit report to assure it has all your updated information and to identify any possible errors (it’s estimated that 2-3% of reports contain some errors that could affect your overall score).

If you want to aim for a great credit score, keep your credit card balances low and work on paying off your debt instead of moving it from account to account.

9. Use a tool or personal finance app

Your finances are already complicated, lets uncomplicated them.

How?

Begin by getting with the times and putting away your abacus or Casio calculator. There are new and free tools out there that will show you ways to manage money as well as do all the hard budgeting and computational work.

Many tools such as Quicken for Windows or the free MoneyStrands app will allow you to safely consolidate, manage and control your money all in one place.

With MoneyStrands you can get access to your all your account balances, financial transactions, spending habits and budgets, and take all that information to start making smarter decisions and achieve your financial goals.

10. Follow money management resources

Knowledge is power. Every financial guru we know today started off like you and me. They just continuously learned and educated themselves and turned their passion into their profession.

Read Also: Complete Guide on Coupons, Paid Online Surveys, Free Gift Cards and Personal Finance

Financial pros can give you some much-needed advice on how to manage your cash the right way, as well as some inspiring stories to get you focused on being the best version of yourself in terms of crushing it financially.

The key when researching which expert to follow is to carefully pay attention to what they say, absorb it, and only take the pieces of advice or guidance that can really help your case.

Some of their financial jargon might be out of your league, so look more for those kernels of wisdom that might apply to you and yours.

Overall, stay well-informed, practice sound financial management, and perhaps one day you will be the next personal finance guru and have thousands, if not millions, of people sharing your content and seeking your expertise on the best way to manage your money. Anything is possible.

Being able to effectively manage your money will make life flow much more smoothly, not to mention help lower your stress levels. Being well-organized will also save you time and save you potential headaches in the future. And no one wants those.

Finally

So, get out there and take the first steps mapping out your personal financial strategy with the ever-present goal in mind of being able to manage your finances better than before. Many others have done it and so can you.

Technology offers you the chance to understand your finances and improve your money management skills. Find the right money management app to match your style and watch your situation improve.