Finding the Best Budget App
Budgeting is an important part of managing finances, for both personal and business. A helpful tool to use is a budgeting app. Budgeting apps help you get started with the budgeting process rather than having to come up with your own spreadsheet or ledger. It lays the groundwork for you so you can more quickly get to the important parts of knowing where your money is going and when.
Finding the best budgeting app is the first step. Thankfully there are people out there who have done the research already. According to Nerd Wallet, the top budget apps for 2024 are YNAB, Goodbudget, EveryDollar, Empower Personal Wealth, PocketGuard, and Honeydue. You can read more about each of these here. It is important to find the right budgeting app that suits your individual needs. This article explains the difference between these different apps and how they might be best suited for you.
A top recommended budget app is YNAB. A feature of YNAB that makes it stand out is that it guides you in financial planning, and not just tracking. It helps you create a plan for your money. While it is important to know where your money has gone, it’s also important to know where you want your money to go before you even start spending. This is a key feature of budgeting that helps you plan and prepare for your future, whether that be your next vacation or next big purchase. Having a plan for your money puts you in charge rather than just your wants.
Since part of budgeting is managing expenses, it's also good to keep expenses low where you can. The best free budget app for this is PocketGuard. While PocketGuard Plus does have a fee, PocketGuard Basic is free and has many features to help you with your budgeting and financial goals. The trick is when you download the app, skip the part where it asks about payment options and it will automatically put you in basic. If money is tight this is a good option to help you get started on your budgeting journey and help you plan to either upgrade to their Plus version or pay for another app you prefer.
Whether you need to manage your personal or business finances, or both, a budgeting app is a great way to get you started. For me, budgeting has been critical to my business’ success and I know it will be beneficial to you. Although I do use other tools (more specifically QuickBooks) this really does help me keep my budget, as well as my business’ budget, in line. The important thing is to get started on a budget. Budgeting apps provide the convenience of getting you going on this quicker without having to come up with a system by yourself. And if you have made it this far, click here to access my free Google sheet budgeting template! Happy budgeting!
