Managing money can be as difficult as earning it. Proverbs like “A dollar save is a dollar earned” are awfully nice to read and quote but can be tough to put into practice. Starting to track the money you spend is one of the simplest first steps one can take. Once you see how much is going where, you will automatically scramble to cut down wasteful expenses.
Since our generation is known for its acute ADD, noting down every expense on a notebook or an iPhone app won’t last more than a couple of days. In the aftermath of the personal finance revolution spearheaded by Mint, there are a ton of online apps to help you pinch personal & business pennies and after the jump we’ve a compiled a few for your financial well being.
Mint
Mint
Mint is just like YouTube; they weren’t the ones who invented the idea but killed it for their competitors with their execution. Mint brings all your financial accounts together online, automatically categorizes your transactions, lets you set budgets & helps you achieve your savings goals. You’ll be able to see all your balances and transactions together — on the web or your phone.
Mint automatically pulls all your financial information and categorizes them so you get the entire picture of your finances. Based on your spending patterns, the web app also suggests financial products that will serve you best. Now it’s open to users from Canada too.
Offers Investment Ideas?: No
Paid Upgrades: No
Yodlee
Yodlee
Yodlee offers financial management solutions for the entire spectrum, from corporate companies to consumers. Just like in Mint, you can link your accounts securely to view all balances and transactions and pull pre-categorized reports to analyze your where your expenses go. You can also pay bills from the Yodlee account for free and transfer funds too.
Five out of the ten top financial institutions in USA use Yodlee’s solutions and hence you don’t have to worry about the security of your financial information.
Offers Investment Ideas?: No
Paid Upgrades: Not for consumer accounts.
Moneytrackin’
Moneytrackin'
Moneytrackin’ is a free online web app that allows you to track all your expenses and income easily and without effort. The app intends to be a simple yet powerful online budget management tool that offers you a clear view of your financial situation. One interesting feature of the app is sharing and collaboration. If you are working with a family member or your room mate to keep budgets in line, you can do so with ease and work together on the same account to reach financial goals.
Offers Investment Ideas?: No
Paid Upgrades: Not for consumer accounts.
Buxfer
Buxfer
Buxfer automatically downloads and categorizes expenses from your checking, savings and credit card accounts. You can monitor your spending and set limits per category and Buxfer will monitor and send real time alerts to your mobile device if you go overboard.
Spent money on a group vacation or a movie with friends? Don’t worry, Buxfer will help you track group expenses like rent, grocery bills, etc. and will let you know how much each of your friends owe you. Buxfer also generates optimized settlement plans, shuffles debts and lets you make bill payments online.
Offers Investment Ideas?: No
Paid Upgrades: No
Mvelopes
Mvelopes
Mvelopes is an effective online personal finance and spending management system. This award winning app applies innovative financial software technology to the traditional envelope method of budgeting to help you manage your finances, while living within your income.
Mvelopes supports 14,000 financial institutions and rest assured that if you have an account, it can be imported. Thanks to Mvelopes Bill Pay, you can pay any company or individual and create recurring payments. Bills can be received, examined and paid from the app too. Note that after a free trial period you’ll have to pay a subscription to continue using the service.
Offers Investment Ideas?: No
Paid Upgrades: Yes
MySpendingPlan
MySpendingPlan
On top of assisting you in planing & managing your home budgets and special activities such as buying, selling or building a home, vacation planning etc., MySpendingPlan also helps you manage the budget, shopping, and tasks for organizations and social groups you are involved with.
Visit their Save More section, to print grocery coupons, find free stuff, get discounts and great bargains on a lot of items. Leveraging their predictive Auto-Assign Budget technology and based on your past and present spending habits, the app will recommend a future budget that is better suited with your income.
Offers Investment Ideas?: Yes
Paid Upgrades: No
SmartyPig
SmartyPig
SmartyPig is unlike a standard finance management app. It’s an FDIC-insured savings account, combined will all the goodies of a web 2.0 finance management app. SmartyPig helps you replace the destructive “buy-now-pay-later” approach with a constructive “save-then-spend” mentality. Decide how much you want to save and when you want to meet your goal and SmartyPig will suggest a monthly contribution automatically to help you get there fast.
Offers Investment Ideas?: Yes
Paid Upgrades: No
MoneyDesktop
MoneyDesktop
The holistic nature of MoneyDesktop provides users with powerful online financial management software as well as debt reduction tools and money saving programs. Rather than being a dormant web app, MoneyDesktop offers sound financial advice based on your actual financial situation.
Offers Investment Ideas?: Yes
Paid Upgrades: Yes
inDinero
inDinero
inDinero helps small businesses to integrate and manage all their financial accounts from an intuitive dashboard. inDinero will help you slash unnecessary costs, collect payments faster from customers and understand which of your products and services are earning you the most money. At the end of the day, inDinero cares a lot about helping you make more money.
Offers Investment Ideas?: No
Paid Upgrades: Yes
Outright
Outright
Small Business owners can get rid of tedious book keeping and data entry processes with the help of Outright. Outright records and organizes all your income and expenses for you. That way, come tax time, you don’t have to fret about taxes and deductions. Your numbers will be accurate, you’ll get all your deductions, and won’t pay more taxes than you have to.
Offers Investment Ideas?: No
Paid Upgrades: Yes
Thrive
Thrive
At Thrive, there are no complex tools or frightening financial jargon, just excellent financial advice tailored to your needs. With the help of their user friendly tools you can take control of your financial life, and start accomplishing your goals. Thrive gives you a clear understanding of what your money really means today and what it will mean tomorrow.
Offers Investment Ideas?: No
Paid Upgrades: Yes
Xero
Xero
Just like their domain name, Xero is a neat and simple web app that focuses on assisting you in all financial transactions and accounting tasks associated with your business. In addition to a gamut of impressive features, Xero will try and match transactions you’ve downloaded to transactions in Xero. You can easily identify unreconciled items and reconcile when you need to — daily, weekly or monthly.
Offers Investment Ideas?: No
Paid Upgrades: Yes
Share With The Class
Do you use a finance management app yourself? Are you sticking to the budgets and suggestions offered by the app all the time?