The Best Finance Apps for 2021

You’ve made a resolution to manage your money better in 2021. But budgeting can be difficult if you’re new to it. Luckily, technology has made managing money easier. Companies have developed great apps to help you manage your finances. No more frustrating spreadsheets and trying to figure things out with a calculator.

The Importance of Budgeting your Money

A budget is a spending plan for your money. The goal of having a budget is to help you know in if you’ll have the money to pay an expense or do something recreational. If you don’t have the funds, your budget is a great way to prioritize your needs and wants. Creating a budget can help you identify areas where you can cut unnecessary expenses in order to manage your money and save.

Following your budget can help you get out of and stay out of debt

You can use budgets for short or long periods of time. If you’re trying to create a budget, we want to help. We’ve identified some of our favorite finance apps.  

Best Finance Apps

Mint

The Mint app offers users a complete snapshot of their finances. Mint is one of the most popular finance apps on the market. After you link your debit and credit cards to Mint, it pulls up a categorized list of all your transactions. The app allows you to keep track of all your finances.

You can stay on top of your payments, set up a budget, track investments, schedule your utility payments and receive payment reminders. You can access Mint from your computer, phone or tablet.

You Need a Budget (YNAB)

YNAB is an app that provides an interactive budget where the user assigns every dollar a “job.” Jobs include living expenses, investments, savings, credit card payments and more. The purpose of the dollar assignments is to provide you with better control over your budget through expense tracking.

Transactions from your checking account are easily imported into the app and applied to different categories. It provides an accurate and up-to-date snapshot of your spending. The app also features a financial goal tracker and debt payoff. YNAB is accessible through a desktop version as well. The app isn’t free and does cost $6.99 a month or $83.99 a year.

PocketGuard

Many people have issues with overspending, and that’s where PocketGuard comes in. PocketGuard is a budgeting app that helps track all of your expenses. It also helps you know how much money you have to spend. It tracks your spending by checking your income and your bills.  

It tracks all your recurring bills and can help you find better deals on monthly service costs. The simple interface provides a quick glance at where your money is going to and what you have left.

Mvelopes

Mvelopes reimagines the old school way of budgeting by using labeled envelopes to track available funds. It turns these envelopes it into a digital platform. Once you link all your financial accounts to the app, you can assign digital envelopes to a category- such as dining out or utility payments- and assign each one an amount.

Once money runs out in an envelope, there is nothing left in the budget for that category for the month. Mvelopes will also track your credit card balances to help make sure that you don’t run up a balance.

There is also a charge for this app each month. You can pick from different plans starting as low as four dollars a month.

Personal Capital

If you want to look deeper into investing, you want an app that will analyze different parts of your finances. Personal Capital is a wealth management app that helps create a long-term investment plan for your finances as well as track your bank accounts and credit cards. The app doesn’t track spending and is primarily focused on your long-term investment goals.

Personal Capital examines brokers, stocks and other assets. It can find areas where you’re paying too much in fees and also make suggestions on selling your stocks. It’s ideal for those who want to track their retirement savings and/or have different investments. The app also provides access to financial advisors to help with your financial goals.

Prism

Life gets busy, and sometimes you forget about your bills. Prism tracks your bills each month and sends reminders when they’re due. You can set up automatic payments through the app so that they get paid when they’re due. It’s a great finance app because you can view all your bills in the same app. The app also sends confirmations letting you know your bills have been paid.

Mobills

The focus of the Mobills app is to manage your personal finances. Like other apps, Mobills categorizes your expenses so you can track the spending within a budgeted amount. Mobills has interactive charts that provides an insightful analysis of your finances. You can add your credit cards to the app to track your spending limits and balances. The bill payment feature will remind you of upcoming payments and also show you where you’re spending your money, so you can find ways to save money.

MoneyStrands

Most of these finance apps involve linking your sensitive bank account information. Not everyone is comfortable doing so. MoneyStrands is an app where linking this information is an option, not a requirement.

The app has a calendar to input your bill payments, a goal tracker, and budget planning. It also tracks cash flow, spending, savings and more. The simple interface and easy navigation make it easy to read and use.

---

These apps are all great budgeting tools to help you keep your finances on track. If one app doesn’t pan out, you’re not stuck with it. It’s okay to find a different one. Finding the best finance apps for 2021 that fit your personal financial needs is as simple as a quick scroll through the app store.

Carry on the conversation on our social media platforms. Like and follow us on Facebook and leave us a tweet on Twitter. Learn how it works