As apps and software become increasingly advanced, we can use them for a greater and more complex range of tasks, as well as integrating them more and more into our everyday lives. Personal finance apps are a great example of this; in this article, we’ll be examining the way we can use these apps to make managing our finances easier than ever.
Background: Smartphones and the Personal Finance Landscape of the Digital Age
Given how ubiquitous smartphones have become in most countries and cultures, it’s perhaps no surprise that the role they play in our lives is ever evolving. Even gambling apps have become amazingly popular in recent years; now, you can play crypto roulette online, as well as blackjack, poker, and other casino games, right on your smartphone.
Naturally, as our lives become increasingly intertwined with technology, the ways in which it can enhance our lives continue to grow. There’s an app or software for just about everything nowadays, and the integration of tech into the everyday can lead to substantial improvements to our overall quality of life.
For instance, there are plenty of apps and programs that can assist students in their overall productivity, by helping them transcribe lectures or study more effectively. We can use apps for entertainment, relaxation, manage our diet and nutrition, plan our weeks, and more.
Personal finance is another area made infinitely simpler to navigate because of recent technological innovations. Tasks like budgeting, tracking expenses, and investing, can all be managed via a range of straightforward smartphone apps.
Thanks to neobanks like Monzo and Revolut, even banking can now be handled entirely through your smartphone. And, as these technologies become even more sophisticated, the role they play in helping us keep on top of our personal finances is pretty much guaranteed to continue to grow.
Expense Trackers
Knowing how much money we have to spend, and budgeting, accordingly, is much simpler in theory than it often ends up being in reality. It’s common for people to struggle with overspending; thankfully, expense tracker apps and software are here to help.
Apps like Goodbudget and You Need A Budget offer plenty of functionality and flexibility for users from all walks of life to come up with detailed budget plans, making it easier to stick to them (hopefully). You Need A Budget is considerably more complex than Goodbudget; users looking for a more straightforward experience will probably find Goodbudget to be more than sufficient.
Investment Apps
Many leading financial advisors strongly recommend learning to invest once you have a stable, regular income. Put simply, it’s a fantastic way to shore up your future; invest wisely, and your money can increase in value at a faster rate than inflation. This allows you to build up a source of passive income that can pay dividends when you reach retirement age.
Getting started with investing can be daunting, though, and understandably so. The commonly held notion that trading is an inherently risky endeavor certainly puts many would-be investors off the practice. Some people fear that, by investing, they’re more or less throwing their money away, with no guarantee that they’ll ever see any return on it.
Thankfully, we now have access to a range of apps that make the process of investing far simpler and easier to understand. Robinhood, for instance, is a highly popular trading app that offers stock trading with no commission. Additionally, it boasts a range of complementary features, including the option to securely buy and sell crypto through the platform.
On top of all that, some investing apps and programs even afford users the option of automated investing. This is a great option if you have some disposable income and aren’t too precious about what it goes towards; these so-called ‘robo-investors’ will work within your budget to come up with an investment plan and manage it for you. All you need to do is approve its funding (manually, of course).
Apps for Budgeting
Easily one of the greatest contributions that financial technologies have made to the world of personal finance is through budgeting apps and programs. Budgeting is such a crucial life skill, too; without the ability to properly manage our income and expenses and save for the future, we can easily end up spending far more money than we should.
Thankfully, there’s an app for that (or many apps, in fact). Mint is a clear industry leader in this area; not only is it free, but it offers users a suite of finance management features, including credit score breakdowns, spending tracking, investment tracking, and, of course, the creation and management of budgets.
It’s also remarkably easy to set up and use. Upon registering for a Mint account, the app can be linked to a bank card; it will then automatically download a range of financial data, which is then broken down and displayed clearly and easy to understand.