No one likes to budget, or no one finds it so easy to do. I mean, budgeting is like someone telling you what to do with your money. However, budgeting is one of the best that would ever happen to your finances, if you take it seriously.
Sarah earns $2,000 per month and saves $500 monthly, while Jedidiah earns $4,000, but she is unable to save even $200. And they are both single ladies with no dependents.
So, it makes one wonder why the person earning less can save more than the other person. It all falls to budgeting.
Budgeting is a process that involves planning how to spend your money. It has to do with estimating your weekly, monthly, and yearly income and planning how much to spend on each of your needs.
Good budgeting is spending below your income, while bad budgeting is not budgeting at all, or spending more than you earn, through borrowing.
Hence, you should learn some budgeting tips, to help in your finance planning. Now, let’s examine some great budgeting tools that you can use in 2024.
What are Budgeting Tools?
Budgeting tools are online tools that help individuals, families, businesses, etc. manage their finances, plan expenses, track savings, and stay on top of the management of one’s income.
Budgeting tools are really helpful, as they help individuals plan out their money, and how it would be spent. This is to avoid reckless spending, unaccountability, and debt.
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What are the Importance of Budgeting Tools?
1. It keeps your spending in check:
One of the importance of budgeting tools is that they help to keep your spending in check. When you create a budget for your monthly income and expenses, you can allocate specific amounts to specific needs.
Thus, you wouldn’t have to go beyond the specified amount, for a need. This is because a budget has been created to guide your spending.
2. It keeps you out of debt
Budgeting tools also keep you out of debt. This helps you not to spend money that you don’t have, by borrowing or using credit cards. Debt is a real financial problem that cripples the finances of many individuals, who spend without a budget in place.
Thus, budgeting keeps you from borrowing or using credit cards recklessly. It also ensures that you don’t spend beyond your income, but within your means.
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3. It helps you to plan for your savings, investment, etc.
Budgeting also helps you to plan for your savings and investments. Now, if you don’t prepare a budget that specifies the amount to be set apart for savings and investment purposes, needs would surely arise to take that money.
And this is because human needs are insatiable. Thus, there would always be something to keep you from saving and investing part of your income.
However, when you work with budgeting tools and allocate a specific amount for savings and investments, that budget would keep you accountable. Then you would be able to use the money for the desired purpose, which in this case, is savings and investments.
4. It helps you to prepare for emergencies:
Budgeting tools also help you prepare for periods of emergencies and unforeseen expenses. In every budget, it is important to set apart some amount to cater to emergencies
When this is done consistently, you would have some funds to cater to any emergency that may arise, and be able to take care of them, without hassle.
5. It sheds light on your spending habits:
Budgeting tools also shed light on your spending habits, making you see your good and bad spending habits. It helps you to see how impulsive you are, and the expenses that take the bulk of your money.
It also reveals what takes all your money, and causes you to go out of the budget already made.
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Are all Budgeting Tools Free?
All budgeting tools are not free! While some are paid, others are highly discounted and some others are free.
However, the pricing for different budgeting tools ranges between $3 to $100, depending on the budgeting tool and the features embedded in it. Hence, when choosing a budgeting tool, it is best to go for one that has all the features you require, to get optimal satisfaction.
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Factors to Consider when Choosing a Budgeting Tool
1. Personal or group use:
One of the factors to consider when choosing a budgeting tool is to check if it is individual-based or group-based. This is important in situations when you need to plan the budget with a group, which could be your family, partners on a project, etc.
Thus, budgeting tools that allow group usage would be best suggested in this situation. This is to keep everyone in the group on the same page. However, if the budget is meant for your personal finance, then you may not need to bother with that feature.
2. Helps to customize spending categories:
Another factor to consider when choosing a budgeting tool is to check whether it allows you to customize unique spending categories. Most budgeting tools come with preset basic spending categories, such as food, transportation, rent, etc.
However, a good tool should allow you to customize other spending categories that are unique to you. This could be for your pet, insurance, gifts for parents, etc.
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3. Synced to your bank account:
Another factor to consider when choosing a budget tool is to check whether the tool can be synced with your bank account. Some budgeting tools provide this feature, and it is very good. Such tools help you to connect your online banking system with the budgeting tool.
4. Has a free version:
Checking if the tool has a free version/trial version is also important. This would help you to have access to a great budgeting tool, without having to pay.
However, most of these budgeting tools which have free versions, usually have limited features. And it is only when one upgrades to their premium version, that one gets access to other features. However, paying for these premium versions is not a waste of resources, as the features to be unlocked would benefit your finances.
5. Availability on your phone in web and mobile form or only on desktop:
You should also consider whether the tool can be used on the mobile phone and whether it is available in web or mobile application form. This helps you to choose whichever is convenient for you.
Also, you need to check whether the app is made to be only used on phones or desktops. This is important to know, especially in a situation where you don’t always have access to a desktop.
6. Tracks expenses in real-time:
You should also consider whether the budgeting tool allows you to track expenses in real-time, or whether you have to manually input expenses.
Real-time tracking of expenses is an important feature, which makes tracking expenses easy, effective, and saves time.
7. Simple to use:
You also need to consider how tech-savvy you are and determine whether the budgeting tool is easy for you to use, or not.
Simplicity is important when it comes to budgeting. Thus, a budgeting tool should make that process even easier, and not more complex.
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10 Best Budgeting Tools to use in 2024
1. YNAB:
YNAB stands for “You Need A Budget”. It is a budgeting tool that was launched in 2004. And it is a great tool for budgeting and taking care of your finances. YNAB has default spending categories, however, one can also customize spending categories that are unique to one’s financial life.
This budgeting tool is built on the following principles, which include:
- Give every dollar a job; where you assign expenses to every single money you earn.
- Embrace your true expenses; where you create goals and monthly payments for infrequent expenses, such as repairs.
- Roll with the punches; whereby if you overspend in one category, you can move funds from another category to cover it.
- Age your money; here, money earned in the previous month is used to fund your budget.
The YNAB budgeting tool is highly secured. And it makes use of the latest encryption technology to safeguard one’s personal and financial details. The tool is available on the Google Play Store, as well as the Apple Play Store, and can be used on any mobile device.
It is a paid app. However, there is a free 34-day trial period, which you can use to test the app, without inputting your bank details. The pricing for YNAB is $14.99 per month and $98.99 per year.
Link to the tool: https://www.youneedabudget.com/
2. Mint:
Mint is a great budgeting tool, with unique features to make your budgeting process seamless and enjoyable.
It is a free online budgeting tool that helps you to set budgeting goals, categorize spending, track transactions, sync your bank account details, etc.
Mint is a personal budgeting tool, thus, it is not advised for group budgeting. However, two individuals with joint financial details can open two separate mint accounts, and then sync the same bank account. Mint also helps you to track your investment and gives you an overview of all your finances.
The Mint app is free, and it has no paid version. This means that you get access to all the features on the app for free.
Link to the tool: https://mint.intuit.com/
3. EveryDollar:
EveryDollar is a budgeting tool that has both a free and paid version. And it helps you to stay on top of your finances. However, the free version requires you to manually input your transactions, and this may be time-consuming. So, upgrading to the paid version is worth every dime of your money.
The free version of the EveryDollar budgeting tool allows you to create unique spending categories, track debts, create a virtual savings fund, etc. However, the premium version of the app allows you to sync your bank account, get budget reports, download your transactions on a spreadsheet, etc. The premium version of the app costs $129 a year.
Link to the tool: https://www.everydollar.com/app/sign-in
4. HoneyDue:
The HoneyDue budgeting tool is an amazing budgeting tool that allows for couple budgeting. It is especially great and allows two people to manage their financial details together.
The tool is made up of three sections, with each of the partners getting their sections, and then a joint section for shared transactions. It also has a chat feature for users to utilize, on the app.
This budgeting tool makes provision for a joint account for couples, who would love to use it. And no minimum deposit is required for the joint account. The account also comes with a debit card, and it sends an alert to both users when activities occur on the account. It is indeed great for family finance and accountability.
The HoneyDue app is free! However, there are advertisements on the app, and it has no desktop version.
Link to the tool: https://www.honeydue.com/
5. Personal Capital:
Another great budgeting tool is PersonalCapital, and it is a budgeting tool that integrates budgeting with other financial tools.
On the app, you can track your spending in real-time, monitor investment growth, and have a general overview of the state of your finances.
The PersonalCapital budgeting tool is a free tool, which also has a retirement planner. This helps you save for your retirement and monitor its growth.
The app also offers professional financial management services to users with $100,000 and above, who do not wish to manage their portfolio by themselves.
It is available on both the Apple play store and Google play store. And it is ranked as best suited for investors.
Link to the tool: https://www.personalcapital.com/
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6. PocketGuard:
PocketGuard is a budgeting tool that is ranked to be the best for college students. It allows users to be in charge of their finances, control spending, and improve savings habits.
PocketGuard is a budgeting app designed to prevent users from overspending. It also allows you to connect your bank accounts, to be able to track income and spending.
The “In My Pocket” feature on the app helps you know how much you can spend at a time, to prevent overspending. The app also allows you to set savings goals and get reports on your spending.
PocketGuard has both a free version and a paid version. The free version has limited features, but the paid version costs $4.99 a month and $34.99 per year.
Link to the tool: https://pocketguard.com/
7. GoodBudget:
The GoodBudget budgeting tool digitalizes the traditional envelopes for keeping money. On the app, one allocates specific amounts to different envelopes to cater to different spending categories.
And in each envelope, you allocate the maximum amount to spend for each spending category. And with this, impulsive spending is curbed.
The app also helps you to track your savings goals, and take charge of your finances. However, every transaction needs to be manually inputted, as one cannot connect a bank account with the app.
Overall, it is a simple budgeting tool that is easy to use. It allows for group budgeting and is available on both Android and iOS
Also, it has both a paid and free version. The paid version of the app costs $7 a month and $60 a year.
Link to the tool: https://goodbudget.com/
8. Stash:
Stash is another budgeting tool that is geared toward helping you create budgets. It is also good for finding investing options for beginner investors. And it is a great tool for tracking investment and spending.
This budgeting comes with a bank account, and the account requires no minimum deposit or monthly service fees. Stash also allows you to set savings goals, as well as automate savings to fund those goals set.
Stash makes use of encryption technology and other great technologies to safeguard users’ details. Hence, the app is safe for use.
And the pricing of the app is set in three categories, which are stash beginner, which goes for $1 monthly. And this allows you access to basic features on the app, such as entry-level banking, budgeting, etc.
The Stash Growth is the second plan which is charged at $3 monthly and has more features. Then the highest pricing is the Stash+, which gives access to many other features, including exclusive bonuses.
Link to the tool: https://www.stash.com/
9. Simplifi by Quicken:
The Simplifi budgeting app by Quicken is a simple budgeting tool, which makes managing personal finance fun.
It combines many features such as creating budgets, creating savings and spending plans, etc. It also does a trend analysis of your income, spending, saving, etc. to give you detailed information on your money habits.
The Simplifi tool is easy to navigate, and it is available on both Android and iOS. Also, it has both paid and free plans. And while the paid plan costs $5.99 monthly, the annual plan costs $3.99 every month.
Link to the tool: https://www.quicken.com/simplifi/
10. Digit:
The Digit budgeting tool has a savings and retirement feature. It allows you not only to budget but to also save and keep more money for retirement.
It is an automated budgeting tool that makes budgeting easy. And it automatically helps you withdraw money for your daily transactions, as well as to fund your savings and retirement plans.
They connect the budgeting app to some banks, which are great to use. And the savings account on the app pays a savings bonus of 0.10% annually, which is paid quarterly, as long as you save.
For its pricing, it has a 30-day free version, and afterwards, you need to pay $9.99 monthly to access all the features on the app. However, if you only want to save, you have the option of paying $5 a month.
Link to the tool: https://digit.co/
Conclusion
Budgeting tools are essential tools to keep you on top of your finances. They are non-negotiable to keep you afloat and to help in managing your money well.
Now, it is important to identify the goals that you intend to achieve with a budget. This would help you in choosing the appropriate tool that best suits you.
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FAQs
To set up a budget for your household monthly spending, it is important to first set goals for your money. Then, let those goals be written in order of importance. Afterward, assign different amounts of money to the categories stated, starting from the most important to the least important. In a household budget, you should also create categories for emergencies, miscellaneous, etc.
At least, 20% of your earnings should be allocated to savings and investment.
Many of the budgeting tools stated above are easy to use and navigate. And this depends on the features contained in them. However, one of the easiest budgeting tools is Mint.
There are various great budgeting tools. However, while some are good for individuals, students, etc. some others are good for couples or families. The best budgeting tools for couples and families include HoneyDue, EveryDollar, etc.
The following are some important features to look out for in a budgeting tool:
- Automation feature
- Savings feature
- Synchronization with your bank account
- Ability to track spending
References
- mymoneycoach.ca: What is budgeting
- Investopedia.com: Why you need a budget
- cnbc.com: Things to look out for in a budgeting tool
- softwaretestinghelp.com: Best budgeting tools
- fortunebuilders.com– Budgeting tools
- forbes.com Best budgeting apps
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