Takeaways
- Budgeting is an essential financial tool in your money management toolkit.
- Over a third of Americans have a monthly budget to keep track of expenses.
- Almost 50% of people perform finance-related tasks on their phones daily.
- Budgeting apps increase financial transparency and reduce the burden of money management.
- Mobile budgeting apps produce spending reports, alert you on progress, and align your spending with your money goals.
Budgeting apps supply a treasure trove of information about your daily, monthly, and yearly spending patterns. The best budgeting apps give you insights into your money habits, categorize your expenses, and ping you when you have exceeded your money goals.
Most young professionals are adopting stand-alone budgeting applications while leveraging their mobile banking apps. Roughly 50% of people have three or more finance-related apps on their phones.[1] Chances are that you have tried budget apps but found it challenging to figure out which budget app is best for you.
We tried to take the heavy lifting away from you and analyzed the best budgeting apps on the market. As part of our assessment, we compared and contrasted features like reliability, interface design, ease of use, data presentation, and other supplemental features. Here are the best budgeting apps for your on-the-go financial management.
Try This: 16 Budgeting Tips Anyone Can Follow and Save Money
Best Budgeting Apps
Quicken’s Website
Quicken App
Smart Money Rating: 5/5
Best For: Tracking Personal Finances
Bonus Offer: 50% Off for New Customers (Terms Apply)
Empower’s Website
Empower
Smart Money Rating: 5/5
Best For: Tracking Personal Finances
Offers: Free Personaal Dashboard
When to Start Budgeting
The best time to start budgeting is when you are ready to take control of your finances. If you have not started a budget, now is the time. Anyone can start a budget and you don’t need to be a connoisseur of financial data to reap the benefits of the process.
Here are some natural times to start the budgeting process:
- Starting on Your Own: Detaching from the bank or mom or dad can be difficult. Navigating your career and adjusting to the real world is a shock for most people. Becoming financially independent requires you to take control of your monthly cash flow. There is no better time to start budgeting because it is a lifelong skill.
- Beginning a New Job: This allows you to adjust your spending level with your newfound source of income. Aligning your salary and compensation expectations with your spending can accelerate meeting goals, like paying off debt or investing in stocks.
- Recently Engaged or Married: Newly engaged or married couples will immediately start facing money questions. From discussing how to pay for the average wedding to how much you should save for a down payment for a house, starting the budget conversation early will only help. Starting a budget together will get you both rowing in the same direction and unearth any problems. (Try our Wedding Budget Calculator.)
- Aiming for Money Goals: Whether you are trying to pay off your credit card debt, start an emergency fund, or want to invest in cryptocurrency, creating a budget to reach your new money goal will catalyze your chances of success.
5 Types of Budgeting Systems
There is no perfect budgeting system, only one that best suits your spending patterns and personality. Here are five budget methodologies that have improved the financial lives of readers just like you:
- Pay Yourself First Budget: Advocates for meeting your savings goals first and then paying your bills like credit card payments, car note payments, or rent.
- 50/30/20 Budget: This budgeting method assigns a portion of your monthly income to needs, wants, and goals. Users who don’t know how much to spend on each category gravitate to this popular method.
- Envelope Budget: Users physically put cash into envelopes that are assigned a spending category. The envelope system can quickly blunt the spending of users who tend to swipe their credit cards too much.
- Zero-Based Budget: With this budgeting methodology, your income minus expenses equals zero. Every dollar of your income is assigned a task, whether paying off a credit card bill, investing in stock, or saving.
- Passion Budget: This budgeting system aligns your goals with your spending. For example, if you are a foodie, you can assign a higher percentage of your take-home pay to eating out with friends while cutting your cable bill (which you don’t care about).
What If I Don’t Stick with My Budget?
You should stick to your budget as best you can. Be realistic with yourself because your budget adherence isn’t going to be 100%; life happens.
You might need to pull from one spending category into another or accidentally overspend. However, there are measures you can take to make your budgeting habits pretty sticky. One of those measures is giving yourself a financial cushion with an emergency fund or a slush fund. Planning for the unexpected can make the chaos of unexpected bills or accidents seem totally manageable.
What is the best place to stash your cash? Learn more about the best high-yield savings account.
Ways to Cut Spending
Reducing your spending can add a jolt of extra cash to your budget to help you achieve your financial goals. Here are strategies that will help you cut your spending quickly:
Tracking your monthly spending is one of the fastest ways to aim for accountability around your spending patterns. By assessing your past spending patterns by reviewing your credit, debit, and savings account balances, you will gain a fresh perspective on how to start trimming expenses from your monthly budget.
Committing to no impulse purchasing will allow you to regain control over bad money habits and rewire your habit loop. High-dollar impulse purchases can wreak havoc on the best-laid budgets and only provide an ephemeral boost of enjoyment. Long-lasting happiness comes from mastering your budget, saving more, and giving yourself the freedom to pursue your passions.
Starting a no-spending challenge gives you permission to break ties with past spending patterns and form new habits. Implementing a 30-day no-spending challenge can illuminate areas of your personal finances that need improvement. After completing your challenge, you can accelerate your insights by working with a financial advisor or robo-advisor to map your financial goals.
Smart Summary
The best budgeting apps can transform your personal finances. With easy-to-use interfaces, goal-setting capabilities, data analysis, and regular reminders, these apps give you an excellent chance of modeling smart money moves. You can align your budgeting system with your app to supercharge your commitment to your financial goals. Use one of the best budget apps available to save more and spend less.
(1) Mx.com. What is Financial Wellness? It’s Not Today’s Consumer Money Experience. Last Accessed January 13, 2025.
