In a world where financial pressures seem to be ever-increasing, personal budgeting has become more crucial than ever. Effective budgeting empowers individuals to gain control over their finances, helping them make informed decisions about spending, saving, and investing. By creating a clear picture of income versus expenses, budgeting allows you to identify areas for improvement, prioritize financial goals, and build a safety net for unexpected events. Whether you’re looking to pay off debt, save for a dream vacation, or simply ensure you’re living within your means, mastering the art of budgeting is the first step toward achieving financial stability and peace of mind.
Establishing and tracking a budget on your own can be a large and sometimes overwhelming task. There are many options out there so to help make this easier, we took a look at some of the top budgeting apps and give our thoughts on below:
YNAB – You Need A Budget
You Need A Budget is one of the more popular options out there and, like most of the apps on this list, uses a zero dollar system. This means that you assign all dollars in your accounts a job so everything is accounted for. In our experience, YNAB works better for money that has already been accumulated rather than budgeting future income like your paycheck. This works great for users enjoying retirement, but takes some extra work for people who are currently working. This app also focuses on what they call “true expenses” – these are expenses that can be anticipated, but might not fit into a regular monthly budget (i.e. car maintenance, holiday shopping, etc). One aspect we liked was the acknowledgement that there is never a “normal month” so you can set up your budget so if you underspend in an area for a month, that extra is rolled into the next month as you may need to spend more depending on the timing of payments. You can link your bank account/credit card to automatically import transactions.
(free 34 day trial, $14.99/month or $109/year)
Pocket Guard
Pocket Guard has emphasized being an alternative to Mint (a popular budgeting app that recently shut down). They offer some similar features such as alerts for maxing out budget categories and users can import their transactions from Mint. Pocket Guard’s unique “in my pocket” feature analyzes your spending habits and determines how much cash you have left for daily spending after accounting for bills, savings goals, and budget constraints. In addition to normal budgeting expenses, it is easy to set up savings goals or debt pay-plans on this platform. Unfortunately, Pocket Guard does not offer rollover budgets like YNAB and you cannot set up transaction rules to automatically categorize transactions by merchant or amount. Features like connecting your bank account and debt payoff plans are only available in the premium version.
(Free or Premium: $12.99/month, $74.99/year)
Goodbudget
While the other apps on this list use zero-dollar budgeting, Goodbudget utilizes envelope-based budgeting. This is an older method that is done by creating envelopes of money for each expense on your budget and tracking your expenses by pulling funds from those envelopes with each transaction. The plus side of this is its simplicity. It is quicker to set up and can be easier to wrap your head around an envelope budget rather than a zero-dollar budget. The free version of this app offers limited monthly and annual envelopes which can be annoying, but with a little creativity we found we were able to work around this (i.e. lumping subscriptions together and assigning annual expenses to be broken out monthly). While there is a paid version of the app to get unlimited envelopes and some further features, we think you’re better off with one of the other options here if you’re going to pay for a budgeting app.
(Free or Premium: $10/month, $80 annually)
EveryDollar
EveryDollar is another zero-dollar budgeting system so after assigning all your income, expenses, savings, investing, and debt payments you should hit the $0 mark as each dollar is assigned a job. EveryDollar felt like a blend of the zero-dollar budget of YNAB but with some of the simplicity of GoodBudget. We found that EveryDollar’s zero-dollar system was better suited to working with an active paycheck income than YNAB.
(Free or Premium: 14 free trial, $17.99/month, $79.99/year)
In conclusion, YNAB seemed like a good option for people in retirement or those who really want to dig in to setting up a comprehensive budget. PocketGuard is a great option for people who are looking for a new budgeting app after the shutting down of Mint or those looking to build a specific debt payoff plan. GoodBudget offers a quick and simple budgeting option especially for people looking for something free. EveryDollar is a good blend of YNAB and GoodBudget that may be the best option for people who are still earning a paycheck. There are many options for budgeting apps out there, these are just a few that we liked. The trick is to find one that you like and will use on a consistent basis to help create a sound financial spending plan and stick to it.