Alamak! It’s two weeks until payday, and you’re already low on cash?! Where did all that money go? If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. It’s easy to lose track of where your money goes. Managing expenses can be a hassle—sometimes, it even feels like a full-time job. Budgeting apps are a great tool to help you stay on top of your spending. Let’s dive into the top five budgeting apps that can help you manage your money effectively.
1. Wally
Wally is an AI-powered budgeting app that helps you keep track of your finances. It automatically tracks income, spending, pending bills, budgets, and just about everything financial.
You can sign in with your email address, set savings goals, create daily budgets, log expenses and income, track expenses over time, set bill reminders, and more—all presented in a timeline feed or calendar. The app allows you to sync all your accounts and payments with over 15,000 banks in 60 different currencies across 70 countries. While the app is mostly free, it offers additional in-app features you can purchase, like a customised budget tool, handling foreign accounts, and additional currencies.
Subscription Fee: Free (with in-app purchases)
Platform Availability: Google Play
2. Money Coach
Money Coach boasts a 4.6 rating on the Apple Store. It’s a comprehensive budgeting app that offers personalised guidance and a suite of tools to make managing money easier. The Quick Entry feature lets you create a transaction shortcut in just 2 seconds.
Other key features include automatic expense tracking with auto-categorisation, customised budgets for various spending types, savings goals, and access to educational resources on personal finance. The app also connects directly to your bank accounts to automatically import and categorise transactions, so you'll have a complete view of your expenses and savings across checking, savings, credit card, and investment accounts. A bonus point for this app is that it automatically syncs data across your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch at the touch of a button.
Subscription Fee: Free with in-app purchases. Subscription offers additional bonus features from the early development team. You have the option to test them with a free trial; after the trial period, a monthly subscription fee is required to continue using the app and its services.
Platform Availability: App Store
3. YNAB (You Need A Budget)
If you’re serious about your financial goals, then you can learn to do money differently with the YNAB app. This award-winning budgeting app helps users achieve their financial goals using a zero-based budgeting approach.
You can organise your finances by linking your bank accounts, credit cards, and loan balances, all in one place for a centralised view of your finances. The app then guides you on how much of your income should go towards various categories such as goals, savings, debt, and expenses. For those looking to increase their financial literacy, YNAB includes financial education resources like free live classes offered by financial experts.
Subscription Fee: 34-day free trial, followed by a monthly subscription of $14.99*/month (approximately RM65/month)
Platform availability: Google Play | App Store
4. Wallet: Budget & Money Manager (BudgetBackers)
Wallet stands out as the best overall free app. It has the high ratings both on the App Store (4.6) and Google Play (4.7). The app is designed to help users save, plan, and manage their finances all in one place.
A unique feature of this app is its use of AI to generate automatic daily spending tracking and provide weekly spending reports. Another major plus is that the developers, BudgetBackers, do not sell customer data to third parties, so you don’t need to worry about your privacy.
Subscription fee: Free
Platform availability: Google Play | App Store | Web App
5. Bill Organizer Budget Planner (TimelyBills)
Never miss a bill again with Bill Organizer Budget Planner (TimelyBills). This app is one of the top-rated, reliable bill reminders and budget planners out there. It’ll automatically remind you to pay your bills and keep you on track to pay off your loans.
It also acts as your personal financial advisor to ensure you stay within your budget. You can see how much you need to save for retirement with the built-in retirement calculator. You can even download your expense reports into PDF and Excel formats to document your finances.
Subscription Fee: Free
Platform availability: Google Play | App Store
Disclaimer: All prices listed are accurate at the time of writing; however, prices may vary at the time of purchase.
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