5 Budget Apps To Secure Your Household’s Finances Immediately
Paying your bills on time can be stressful.
You know you have a mortgage, credit card loans, and other bills every month. But it’s hard to say no to a night out with your family or to buy your kid the newest Xbox.
Flash forward a couple of years and thousands of dollars of debt later. You wished you’d have done something to stop the bills from piling up.
Without a system in place to help you better manage your household finances, you feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle to try to get them under control. Luckily, your family can use many personal finance apps to manage money in a hassle-free way that fits your lifestyle.
Why does your family need a personal finance app?
Most families ignore the problem or record every purchase on a spreadsheet, but an app can make money management a lot easier. With features such as bill reminders and customized budgets, you can build habits and financial goals for your household.
But it doesn’t stop there.
Spent an extra $100 on an impromptu shopping trip? Now there’s no hiding the receipt with the hopes your partner won’t notice.
Most finance apps have options like real-time account management, syncing bank accounts, or even live chatting to keep you and your partner accountable for each other’s habits and long-term goals.
If you want a hassle-free tool to better manage the family budget, here’s my list of the top 5 personal finance apps. As you’ll see, each one will have a different approach. But don’t worry. Any of these apps can put you and your family on the path to financial security in no time.
Top 5 Personal Finance Apps for Families in 2021
Best for couple financial planning, setting budget categories, chat options
Honeydue includes various features that make it easy for you and your family to coordinate everything from household budgets to spending habits. As part of the app’s setup, you and your partner can see personal information about bank accounts, loans, credit cards, and other expenses.
Want to pay bills together?
The joint bank account option gives you more control over mortgage payments or electricity bills. To avoid late fees, upcoming bill alerts notify both of you when anything is due. Arguably the best part about Honeydue, though, is the chance for you and your partner to create categories for your budget.
Let me give you an example.
Let’s say you and your family love dining out. By placing a ‘dining out’ category in your budget, you set a monthly limit on that activity. And as long as you stay within that limit, you and your family can enjoy yourselves guilt-free.
If you’re cutting it close with a specific category budget for the month, Honeydue will instantly send you and your partner alerts to keep your spending in check.
This app can help you build a simple household budget system that works without sacrificing your lifestyle.
Pricing: free to use with the option to “tip”
2. Goodbudget
Best for shared envelope-budgeting users, manually adding expenses, multiple devices
If you and your partner have multiple devices or other family members who want to join in on the household budgeting, Goodbudget’s premium plan is the way to go. The app’s selling point is its “shared envelope budgeting,” which, like Honeydue, lets you divide your budget into categories.
But unlike other apps, Goodbudget won’t require everyone to put in their information. You manually enter your incomes, cash amounts, and debts. Based on what you and your family entered, you can create specific “envelopes” for different goals and expenses.
On one end, Goodbudget creates a more proactive approach to managing your family’s wallet. But if you’re looking for something more automated, it can be tedious to enter every transaction.
But if you love the idea of a more hands-on approach where the whole family’s involved, this app’s perfect for you.
Pricing: Premium: $7/mo or $60/year Best for: suggested household budget, highlighting recurring expenses
Firstly, formerly HoneyFi, offers you a full-service experience for your finances. In fact, one of this app’s best features is its suggested household budget.
Besides the usual bank account information, you and your partner have to fill out a survey that asks about your money management styles. The app then creates a rough budget estimate based on your entered information.
Like other apps, you can set categories for your funds, chat with your partner over transactions, create customized automated savings systems, and sync accounts to see each other’s bank info.
But Firstly’s excellent if you want a bit more hand-holding when you create your household budget. If you’ve never made one before, the automated system can give you an idea of where to start.
Pricing 30-day free trial $9.99/mo or $59.99/yr
Best for zero-based budget fans, paying off debt, easy tax filing, multiple device management
With YNAB, no dollar goes to waste. Its emphasis on a zero-sum budget system will ensure that everything you make will go towards something productive. Other systems can tempt you to spend a little extra “play money” here and there. But the zero-based system shows you exactly what every dollar’s job should be.
So instead of keeping that $20 bill you have in your pocket, an app like YNAB can give it a real purpose towards your long-term goals. It’s perfect for detail-oriented families with specific goals they want to accomplish in a set time, such as saving up for a holiday vacation or chipping away at that credit card bill.
YNAB creates exportable reports that save hours of looking through everything if you dread tax season like the rest of us. Talk about making your accountant’s job a lot easier!
This app also markets itself as a secure system that teaches you how to manage your finances. One of its biggest draws is the sheer amount of free resources available to you, with over 100 Q and A’s every week.
So if your family’s serious about putting your household’s last dollar to good use and building their financial literacy, YNAB is definitely worth a try!
Pricing: 34-day free trial then $11.99/mo or $59.99/yr Best for higher-income families, retirement account tracking, large investment planning
Personal Capital’s app is a free one-stop shop for those who want a big picture view of their finances. Their free app and website offer many free-to-use features that you and your family can use for long-term financial goals.
If you’re a couple saving for retirement, Personal Capital’s the perfect system to help you save more and make your retirement investments work for you. The retirement account investment tool analysis ensures you’re not paying extra fees. And as you’ve probably heard before, a few dollars saved now can mean thousands more in your family’s wallet down the road.
The app also gives you an asset allocation grade to see where your portfolio can improve. This gives you a chance to optimize it based on what’ll work best for your family’s future.
Despite its impressive app, Personal Capital’s real strength comes from its broad access to live professionals that can give you and your family more personalized service.
Unfortunately, these features aren’t free. The service fees are where the app makes most of its revenue. But for a high-income family who doesn’t mind paying the extra costs, it can be a great way to receive exclusive service you can’t get through an app.
If you don’t mind paying a little extra for a professional’s help with managing your family’s wealth, take advantage of everything Personal Capital has to offer.
Pricing App: Free to Use Wealth Management Services
+ FREE consultation with a financial planner for those who invest over $100,000 in investable assets then:
Investment Services and Wealth Management Client Fees
Private Client Fees
First $3M: 0.79% Over $10M: 0.49%
Final Thoughts
Using personal finance apps to manage your household budget’s a great way to see where your family’s money is going. It takes the hassle out of financial planning and gives your family control over anything from paying the bills to affording that trip you’ve fantasized about for years.
But choosing an app and downloading it is only the first step.
Becoming financially secure takes discipline, consistency, and open communication with your partner and other family members to ensure everyone’s financial goals are on the same page.
That’s not to say that you can’t enjoy yourself. As you saw earlier, building financial responsibility means designing what’s best for your household’s needs and lifestyle.
Whether that’s through investing every last dollar or having a big picture approach, there’s no doubt you’ll find a personal finance app that’ll help you and your family reach financial freedom in no time.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
