Does the thought of scratching out a monthly budget on a legal pad or spreadsheet make your eyes glaze over? That old money management method still works, but there are also plenty of fun and user-friendly money apps available to help you manage your household finances.
From budgeting and saving apps to those that track your spending and long-term financial goals, there’s a personal finance app or two that’s just right for your needs.
Here are four personal finance apps to help you get on track and stay there when it comes to money management, saving and retirement goals.
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Mint
Mint, a free budgeting app that links to your bank accounts, lets you view and track spending, credit card and loan balances. Mint also guides you step-by-step with creating a monthly budget and planning short-term and long-term financial and savings goals, automatically updating your financial information with real-time stats, figures and money management suggestions.
To make bill paying easier, Mint lets you set up notifications for payment due dates and subscription tracking, too. Mint even comes with a free 15-minute session with a personal finance coach to help you figure out your financial goals like budgeting or saving for a major purchase.
Download the Mint app to your mobile device from Google Play or the Apple App Store.
Find out: Build a Budget That Works for Your Goals
Debt Payoff Planner
If you’re working to pay off debt, Debt Payoff Planner is a free app where you can input all your credit card debts and loans. Once you’ve got all your debt in one place, Debt Payoff Planner guides you step-by-step to create a debt payoff strategy, showing you amounts you must pay on each debt every month to eventually knock out the balance.
Debt Payoff Planner also lets you look up the details of each debt, including the current balance, interest rate, minimum payment, last payment and next payment due dates while tracking your debt payoff progress.
Download the Debt Payoff Planner app from Google Play or the App Store.
Find out: How to Pay Off Credit Card Debt
Debt Manager
Debt Manager uses the “snowball method,” which pays off a select debt first. Once that debt is paid, the app lets you apply that debt’s monthly payment on top of the next selected debt’s regular monthly payment, knocking out each debt one-by-one.
Debt Manager for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch lets you pick from several debt payoff strategies, including tackling the lowest or highest balance first or coming up with your custom debt payoff plan to achieve your zero-balance goals. Meanwhile, the app’s progress bar displays savings on interest and your projected payoff date for each debt.
Download Debt Manager for .99 from the App Store.
Find out: How to Prioritize Which Debt to Pay Off First
Qapital
Saving and investing app Qapital lets you input your savings, budget and money management goals and then offers suggestions on how to achieve them. The app even motivates you to save by showing your beach vacation, emergency fund or other savings goals each time you log into your account.
Qapital has a saving feature that lets you designate small amounts of money towards savings with automatic deposits or by “rounding-up” purchase amounts to the next dollar. This app has other fun features, too, like Payday Divvy, which categorizes your paycheck to allocate money for rent and other monthly expenses, leaving extra money for other needs.
You can even apply “rules” to help you achieve each of your financial goals. For example, you can set the round-up rule, spend less rule, money missions rule, spending sweet spot rule and even a “guilty pleasure” rule that allows the occasional splurge.
Download the Qapital app, which has plans ranging from $3 to $12 a month from Google Play or the App Store.
