We get it. Budgeting requires great discipline. One of the hardest parts of managing your finances is building a budget (which our team of debt experts can help you with), but the harder part is following the budget that we help you create.
Budgeting apps sync information from all your different bank accounts and credit accounts and aggregate the information onto one dashboard. Real time balances are available for any of your bank, investment or credit accounts that you opt to connect.
All accounts considered, most people have at least ten different types of financial accounts that they use on a regular basis. Budgeting apps make it easier to know exactly where you’re at and what purchases you can afford to make.
When you set up your favorite budgeting app, you can enter your expected spending on different categories, such as groceries, rent, gas, and entertainment. You can view your budget any time to see how much you’ve spent and how much you have left to go in your budget for the month.
One of our favorite features of most budgeting apps is the ability to set automatic alerts, to inform you of important events or account changes. It is easier to avoid missing an important due date because you can opt to get a notification ahead of any of your payment dates. If you want to keep your checking account balance above a certain threshold, you can set up alerts to tell you if its balance ever falls below that amount. Customizable alerts allow you to setup notifications for events that are important to you. This way, even if you aren’t able to check the app every day, you will still get important notifications.
Another great feature of most budgeting apps is the ability to set a savings goal. If you want to set a certain amount of money aside to put towards a future home project, or special vacation, you can setup the app to track the progress you’re making.
If you take your time to set up effective alerts, you’ll have a better awareness of your own money. Less mistakes will be made tracking your payment due dates, which helps to avoid late fees, increased interest rates and overdraft fees. Given the high stakes of managing your money, using an app to help avoid mistakes is a great idea!
Do a little research to figure out which budgeting app makes the most sense for your finances. It will be a great investment in your future wealth building efforts!
Finance & Savings Blog 