Get Your Financial House in Order
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Gone are the days when you could tell how much money you had by looking in your wallet or at your checkbook balance. These days, many people only carry debit and credit cards—no cash. You find your checking account balance or check stock prices by reaching for your smartphone.
10 Best Apps For Your Budget Zoomer| January 25th, 2018 Whether you’re digging yourself out of debt, saving for a specific goal or trying to get a better handle on your budget, there’s an app to help you reach your financial goals.
But how easy is it to discover how much money you've spent on lattes, gas, or work clothes this month? Do you know what the car dealer is going to learn about your credit history when you go in to buy a new vehicle? If you're a self-employed worker, how fast can you find out whether you're on track with your income this month?
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There are many websites that handle personal finance exceedingly well. We review five of the best here. Quicken, the granddaddy of all personal financial solutions, is now a hybrid solution. The software still resides on the desktop, but the 2018 and 2019 versions offer access to a website that contains Quicken's most often-used features and synchronizes its data with your own personal file. So, you can check in on your income, expenses, and investments on the go.
Critical Connections
Quicken's online companion app is the biggest recent news in the personal finance world. But all of the applications we reviewed have new features, and they share some common characteristics. Most of them support online connections to your financial institutions. That is, you can download cleared transactions and other account data from your banks, bank card providers, brokerages, and other financial institutions, and see all of it neatly displayed in registers in the applications. Typically, you only have to enter the credentials that you use to log into those financial sites, though you occasionally have to provide additional security information.
Once you've imported a batch of transactions, you can work with them in numerous ways. For example, they need to be categorized correctly as income (salary, freelance payment, and interest, for example) and expenses (food, mortgage, utilities, and so on). The personal finance sites guess at what an appropriate category might be, but you can always change it—and you can split transactions between different classifications. If you're conscientious about this, you'll see charts that tell you where you're spending your money. This information can also be helpful when tax preparation time rolls around.
Depending on which website you're using, you might be able to add tags to transactions. That way, you can search for those that are related in ways other than through their category assignments. You can add notes and attach files, too. If you bought something with cash, your bank wouldn't have a record of it. In those circumstances, you can create a transaction manually. CountAbout goes a step further, providing an additional set of tools that let you make recurring transactions (or flag them).
A Different Kind of Dashboard
Four of the five personal finance websites reviewed here have what's called a dashboard. It's basically each site's home page, or the first screen you see when you log in. Sometimes, the dashboard is the only screen you'll need to see, because it displays the information you most need when you're checking on your financial situation. You'll learn what all of your account balances are and perhaps any bills that are pending.
Best Budget App For College Students
You'll see charts and graphs that tell you, for example, what your income is versus your spending, and how you're doing on your budget. You may be able to gauge your progress on any goals you've set and view your investment portfolio, with live prices if it's during the market day.
Basically, this overview shows you snippets of the detailed data that lies behind the numbers on this opening page. Click on a checking account balance in Mint, for example, and this link takes you to the account's register. Click on your credit score in Credit Karma, and you'll learn what contributes to it and how it's changed recently. So the dashboard on a personal finance website can either provide a quick look at your money situation or it can serve as a springboard to a deeper study of the numbers.
Budgets, Goals, and Bills
If you're a freelancer or sole proprietor, budgets can be challenging. You don't know for sure how much money you'll make in a given month like a W-2 employee does. Being conscientious about your finances includes trying to curb your spending so that it comes in below your income. Note: Freelancers and sole proprietors might find that a small business accounting website is a better fit.
The mechanics of creating a workable budget are much easier than the process of specifying your limits. Mint, for example, treats each category as a budget. You select one, choose a frequency for it (every month, etc.), and enter an amount. The site shows you how well you're adhering to each budget by displaying a series of colored horizontal bars that show where your spending is currently compared with your budgeted amount. Green means you're doing OK, and red means you've gone over your self-imposed limit. You can tweak each budget as you learn more about your spending habits by clicking up and down arrows.
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Other applications, like Quicken, consider a budget to be a comprehensive table that contains all categories. The software also lets you view your budgets by a variety of time periods (monthly, annually, and so on).
Setting goals, like trying to establish an emergency fund, isn't rocket science. You specify the amount you're trying to save and your target date for achieving it, and the application tells you how much you have to save every month to achieve it. NerdWallet, for example, lets you link your goals to the appropriate spending account so your progress is automatically tracked. Quicken Deluxe includes additional planning tools that help you accelerate debt reduction, plan for taxes, and establish a comprehensive lifetime financial plan.
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None of the sites we reviewed offer bill-paying tools, but some let you at least record bills and bill payments, because those can figure into your personal finance picture so significantly. Mint is especially good at this. You can set up a connection to online billers or enter offline bills automatically. The site alerts you when they're due to be paid and lets you record payments manually if they don't get downloaded as cleared transactions from your bank.
An Important Number
An excellent credit score is gold. Beyond helping you get approved for a credit card, mortgage, car loan, etc., it often helps minimize the interest rate you'll pay. So it's important to know not only what it is at any given time, but also to understand how it gets calculated and what you can do to improve it.
Credit Karma and NerdWallet, both free websites, can meet all of these critical needs. Credit Karma is especially comprehensive and efficient here. It pulls your score regularly from two of the three major bureaus, and gives you access to your credit reports.
One of the ways you can improve your credit score is to use financial products—credit cards, mortgages—that have attractive interest rates and other benefits, making it easier for you to pay off debt as quickly as possible. The three free websites we reviewed (Mint, Credit Karma, and NerdWallet) help pay for the services they provide by displaying ads for products that might appeal to you based on your credit profile. You can also browse marketplaces for additional candidates.
Of course, frequently cancelling credit cards to get new, different ones can affect your credit score. Still, it's good to learn about these suggested products so that when the time comes, you'll know what the best options are.
Other Considerations
You may only want to use a personal finance site for day-to-day income- and expense-management, budgeting, and goal setting. But financial sites like Quicken and Mint let you track all of your assets, including homes, vehicles, and investment holdings. If you keep your financial data updated, the applications keep a running tally that, when combined with your debt, give you your total net worth.
You probably don't need advanced tools when you're away from your computer or laptop. But when you're out spending money, it's good to know how much you have. All of the solutions we reviewed offer both Android apps and iOS apps. They don't have all of the features found on the browser-based or software versions, but you can at least check your account balances, view and add transactions, and see graphs illustrating numbers related to things like spending and cash flow. You may also be able to get your credit score and check the status of pending bills.
Are all of the applications reviewed easy to use? The short answer is yes. Credit Karma and Mint are the most user-friendly, incorporating state-of-the-art interfaces with can't-miss navigation tools. NerdWallet tries to blend editorial content on personal finance with credit score and limited income/expense-tracking tools; these dual purposes make the site somewhat confusing until you understand how the two co-exist. CountAbout is certainly easy enough to use, but its user interface looks outdated. And because Quicken has been around for so long and offers so much, its user experience is a little uneven. This blending of old and new content can be a little jarring when compared with a solution built from the ground up to live online.
Each of these personal finance solutions offers something the others don't. But their skill at delivering the tools consumers need, and the cost at which they offer them, varies widely. Mint has won our Editors' Choice before, and it does so again this time for free personal finance services. Quicken, on the other hand, wins the Editors' Choice for paid personal finance services. We'd absolutely send people first to Mint if they're considering online personal finance because of its usability, its thorough selection of tools, and the feedback it provides users who keep up their end of the bargain by visiting it regularly. And, of course, it's free.
If you're looking to keep your life further organized, you can also check out our roundup of the best to-do list apps.
Best Personal Finance Services Featured in This Roundup:
Mint.com Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Free, fast, and easy. Highly automated. Simple budgeting tools. Alerts. Checks credit score. Good mobile support, including Apple Watch.Cons: Only supports US and Canadian accounts. Discontinued bill pay. Weak investing tools. No account reconciliation.Bottom Line: Mint is a free personal finance service that's in a class by itself. No rival provides such a comprehensive collection of tools if you want to track your spending and budgeting or want a comprehensive overview of your net worth.Read ReviewQuicken Deluxe Review
MSRP: $49.99Pros: Robust set of personal finance, planning, and investment tools. New companion site. Flexible transaction tracking. Useful reports and graphs. Excellent support options.Cons: Expensive. Inconsistent user experience. Electronic bill pay not available in all plans.Bottom Line: Quicken Deluxe contains more personal finance management tools than any competitor, but it's relatively expensive and many features aren't available in the mobile apps.Read ReviewCredit Karma Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Free. Excellent user experience. Explains rationale for credit scores and reports. Suggests solutions for problem areas. Pulls data from third-party services.Cons: Intrusive financial product recommendations. Only displays two credit scores. Can't change auto-logout setting.Bottom Line: Credit Karma offers credit scores and reports, along with recommendations for financial products. It does a good job of helping you understand your credit, though some may find the ads distracting.Read ReviewNerdWallet Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Tracks income and expenses. Thorough handling of credit score issues. Includes useful editorial content. Strong financial product browsing and educational tools.Cons: Only five transaction categories. Confusing navigation. Only displays one credit score.Bottom Line: NerdWallet helps you understand and improve your credit score via numerous useful tools. Still, the service would be more effective if it offered a better organized user experience.Read ReviewCountAbout Review
MSRP: $9.99Pros: Imports Mint and Quicken data. Thorough budget. Good transaction tracking. Customizable categories and tags. Exceptional recurring transaction options.Cons: Dated user interface. No dashboard. Unwieldy category list. Limited mobile apps.Bottom Line: If you need a reasonably priced personal finance service that doesn't have tons of adds, CountAbout is a decent alternative to Mint and Quicken. It has a dated interface and limited mobile apps, however.Read Review
Whether you have a lot or a little, everyone needs to manage their money. Like so many areas of life, you can do things entirely by hand, or you can turn to software to make your life easier. There's a wealth – if you'll pardon the pun – of personal finance tools out there, but many of them involve having to put your hand into your pocket, dig deep and part with some hard-earned cash.
You could, of course, pay an accountant to take care of your money for you, but this involves and outlay that you might well prefer to avoid. Take a look through the selection of free tools we've collected together, and you should find something that suits your personal finance needs, making it easier to keep track of your money. This free personal finance software could hopefully save you some money too or, at the very least, see where you're currently spending it.
1. GnuCash
Flexible enough for home users and small businesses
Imports data from other apps
Cross-platform
GnuCash is simple enough to be used for home finances, but flexible enough to be put to use by small businesses as well. While the software is easy to use, the fact that it's suitable for small business accounting is thanks to the inclusion of a number of extra features that you would not necessarily expect to find – support for payroll management and double-entry accounting, for instance.
Although relatively easy to use, this free personal finance software does really require some familiarity with accounting software, and it's simple to migrate from another program because you can import data in QIF and dOFX formats. Support for expense tracking makes this ideal software for preparing for tax season, and there are a huge number of reporting options to help you to make sense of your cashflow. The software is available for macOS, Windows and Linux, as well as Android, and it's highly recommended that you try out this great tool before you consider any of the paid-for alternatives.
2. Buddi
Clear and well designed – ideal if you're new to finance software
Excellent budgeting tools
Proving that free personal finance software doesn’t have to be complicated, Buddi keeps things about as simple as they can be. In a matter of minutes, you can set up all of the accounts you need and start keeping track of your incomings and outgoings.
Money can be easily pulled from and moved between different accounts, and Buddi can generate all sort of reports about your spending and earnings broken down in a variety of ways. If you're looking to save money, the program can help you to stick to a budget and for anyone who is completely new to the concept of accounting, the Buddi website has a number of helpful guides to help get you started.
On the downside, Buddi requires you to have Java installed which is not going to be to everyone's liking, and the software itself has not been updated for a little while. Neither of these two factors are enough to stop us from recommending that you take a look at the program – it could well be just what you've been looking for.
3. AceMoney Lite
A great choice if your financial affairs are relatively straightforward
Intuitive interface
Only supports two accounts
Billing itself as an alternative to Quicken sets a high bar for AceMoney, but it's a target it manages to reach, even in its free, cut-down iteration. There's only support for two accounts in AceMoney Lite, but this should be enough for many people – and the full edition of the program is only $40 (around £30, AU$50) anyway. You can even use the program to keep track of your PayPal account.
Managing accounts in different currencies is no problem, but you'll have to enter data into this free personal finance software rather than having your transactions pulled in from your bank account. That said, if you download statements from your online bank account, these can then be imported to saved time with manual entry. AceMoney Lite also makes it easy to track your spending and investments, making it a great financial tool for anyone looking to take control of their finances.
4. HomeBank
Powerful finance software with handy reports to keep you on track
Imports data from other apps
HomeBank will appeal if you work on multiple platforms, or don't use Windows by default. Available for Windows, macOS and Linux (there's also an Android app in development) HomeBank can be installed normally or as a portable app, and it makes the topic of personal finance easily accessible. If you've been using another program – such as Quicken or Microsoft Money – to manage your finances, you can import data to save having to start from scratch.
You can add an unlimited number of accounts to the program, and they can be linked to each other to allow for easy money transfers – it is all entirely dependent on manual editing, though. With enough data entered, it's possible to generate all manner of reports, including helpful predictive reports for car ownership and the like. Very much designed with the average person in mind, this is a personal finance app for people who hate personal finance apps.
5. Buxfer
An online-only tool that imports data directly from your bank
Buxfer Pilot$1.99
Buxfer Plus$3.99
Buxfer Basic
Supports hundreds of banks
Imports data from other apps
Buxfer is an online tool that makes it easy to manage all of your accounts in one place – although there is also an Android app available. There's support for over 15,000 online bank accounts from all over the world, so you should find that yours is there, and then you can pull in all of your transactions without the need for manual entry.
Buxfer can also pull in data in from the likes of Quicken and Mint, help you manage budgets and forecast costs and earnings, and track investments with ease. You will have to spend time categorizing transactions manually if you upload them from your statements, but this isn't too much of a chore. You can set up alerts, track bills, and predict spending patterns; it's a highly versatile tool.
There is a free version of service available, but there are also three paid-for tiers ranging in price from $1.99 to $4.99 per month. It's worth taking the free version for a spin to see if it could do the job for you – this will let you work with up to five accounts, which is likely to be enough for most people.
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