Trying to keep track of your money and all the various aspects that make up your personal finances can feel nearly impossible. There are so many different numbers coming from different places, each meaning different things. It’s just too much to memorize, and too much to stay on top of. But thankfully, now we have technology. So, no, you don’t have to ‘balance your checkbook’ with a pen and paper and calculator. You can let your phone do that for you.
Smart phone applications are becoming more and more advanced, and this is excellent for personal financial planning. Here are some of the best personal finance apps that will change how you relate to money in 2020:
The Acorns App
Acorns is an automated savings tool that functions on the metaphor of squirrels saving up extra acorns for the winter. This app automatically rounds up your purchases to the next dollar and send the extra from your connected accounts and puts that money into an investment portfolio. It’s a bit like a virtual piggy bank. It makes it easy for people who struggle to save and those who would never think of investing in the first place.
The Mint App
Mint is definitely the gold standard for budgeting technology and has been for a while. This app is the best one around for making, keeping, and monitoring your budget. You can categorize your transactions with custom categories you made so that your real time spending falls automatically into your budget. You can track bills, split transactions between categories, create alerts when you are reaching your budget limit, and set goals for saving and debt repayment!
The Credit Karma App
Credit Karma should be your go-to source for general credit score upkeep. With this app, you get to view your credit score and report whenever you wish, giving you access to the TransUnion Report and scores from both TransUnion and Equifax. Your credit score is incredibly important to the overall health of your personal finances, so it is vital you check in on it often. With it, you can see other important graphs and statistics like your score over time, how your score compares to other by age and income and state, as well as tools that can show you simulations of how paying down debt might improve your score.
The Tally App
Our country’s debt rates are pretty high right now and it is giving many Americans major financial anxiety. You likely know exactly what we mean, as you probably have debt yourself. Whether you have credit card debt, a mortgage, an auto loan, medical debt, or you recently got a title loan, it is always a good idea to be consistent in your repayment and pay debts off early whenever possible. The Tally App can help you do that. What’s great about Tally is that it’s not your typical debt payoff app, because it specifically helps customers with high-interest debts who are unsure how to pay off debt in an efficient way. Tally is automated to make payments towards your highest interest debts while paying the minimums on the others, so you end up paying less money in interest on your journey to financial freedom.
Check out all of these apps to see if they can help you be your best financial self in this brand-new decade!