Kim Komando's 6 Finance Apps You Can't Do Without
As my son, Ian, is growing up, I'm teaching him how to manage his money. I stress the importance of saving, how to make good decisions about what to buy, the value of work and other essentials lessons.
But I keep realizing that, no matter how well I prepare him, there's still a huge difference between managing money as a kid and doing it as an adult. Kids don't have to worry about where the money is coming from, or how to juggle car payments, house payments, utility bills, groceries bills and dozens of other money drains
And it's something you can easily get wrong if you aren't paying close attention. I mean, more than a few people have missed a credit card payment, or other bill, at least once because they got busy and it just slipped their mind.
Fortunately, technology is here to help. There are plenty of apps that can help you set and keep a budget, track what you spend, keep an eye on the almighty credit score, and help you remember to pay bills. Here are some of my favorites.
1. Make and keep a budget
Mint (Android, Apple; Free) is a very handy app for monitoring your finances. It can automatically track your spending and income. Just enter your bank account information to get started.
You can set up categories and set aside how much you can spend per month for each one. For example, you can set $150 on gas, or $300 on groceries. At the end of each month, Mint gives you a financial report, which will let you see how closely you stayed to your budget.
I find the savings plans very helpful. You can set monetary goals for things you want to buy and Mint will keep you updated on how much money you've saved and progress toward your goal.
2. A budget with spending limits
Not everyone has the willpower to spend only a certain amount of money each month. You might need to set weekly or even daily limits for yourself.
Level Money (Android, Apple; Free) does just that. It connects with your financial accounts and automatically generates a rough budget based on your past transactions. You can see how much money, not counting expenses and the amount you want to put into savings, you have available to spend each month.
From there, you can set a limit on how much of that you can spend for a certain time period, and it will warn you in real time if you get near or go over the limit.
3. Budgeting for the whole family
If you have a significant other, or a family, sticking to a budget becomes harder. Money causes endless problems when one person spends more money than the budget allows because they just don't know how much is available.
Goodbudget (Android, Apple; Free) is a great solution. It uses the tried-and-true "envelope" method of budgeting with custom virtual envelopes that you put a certain amount of money into each month. So you can create an envelope for groceries, gas, spending money, money for the kids, and more.
You can check at a glance to see how much money is left in each envelope for that month. Even better, Goodbudget will sync this information to multiple gadgets, so everyone in the family knows how much money is available before they buy anything.
4. Pay every bill on time
It's a terrible feeling to realize you forgot to pay a bill. Not only is there some panic because it could lead to extra fees or service cancellations, missing a payment makes you look less responsible than you are.
Never have that feeling again with
Check (Android, Apple; Free). Check collects and stores your bills and financial information. It will send you a reminder when a bill is due and you can pay right from the app.
You can also set up recurring payments and set schedules so you never miss a due date again. Check even includes notifications when your balance is running low.
5. Keep an eye on your credit score
A good credit score can mean the difference between getting that important loan or finding yourself out of luck. If you don't know your credit score, you should really look it up.
Credit Karma has you covered. With this app, you can access your credit score completely free. There's no credit card required and no penalty for checking often.
If you find yourself needing tips on how to improve your credit score, the app offers a credit report card that will compare your credit against the national averages. Plus, it gives advice on ways to boost your score.
6. Tracking money while traveling
Travel, and especially world travel, can wreak havoc on your finances. It's easy to lose track of how much you're spending and stick to a budget when you're spending in more than one currency.
Toshl Finance Budget & Expense is a must-have money app if you travel a lot. It lets you track your day-to-day expenses in any currency and gives you the exchange rates for 160 countries updated daily.
Even if you aren't traveling, it's a great app to have. You can track income and expenses with an easy-to-use interface. Plus it can sync your data to the app on other gadgets and toshl.com, and you can included multiple family member budgets in the same account.
