Your personal finances aren’t in the best shape right now. You’re hoping to start the New Year off fresh, leaving some of your bad money habits behind and replacing them with much savvier habits. You’re just not sure how you’re going to put these ambitious plans into motion.
Well, one way to set these plans into motion is to pull out your smartphone. There are several apps that can help you improve your finances in the upcoming year.
Mobile Banking App
Do you have your bank’s mobile app sitting on your smartphone’s homescreen? If you don’t, you should download it right away.
Having your bank’s mobile app will give you 24/7 access to the contents of your bank accounts. You’ll be able to check your current checking account balance to confirm whether you have enough funds to manage your expenses before your next paycheck is deposited into your account. You can view your digital bank statements to track your expenses and make note of any spending patterns that you’d like to eliminate. And, of course, you can manage essential payments, whether those payments are to bill providers or yourself (transferring money between your checking account and savings account is commonly referred to as “paying yourself”).
Your mobile banking app will also have built-in features that could improve your finances over the course of the year. These are some features your bank’s app might offer:
- Credit score tracking. Your app may help you view your current consumer credit score. If your score is not as high as you’d like it to be, this could motivate you to make certain financial changes that could boost it to a higher ranking.
- Mobile bank alerts. You can set up alerts that will notify you when something could potentially be wrong with one of your accounts, like when the balance is too low. This can help you avoid problems like overdrawing your checking account or bouncing a check.
- Savings tools. Your bank’s app might have specialized tools designed to help users save more money. For instance, it might offer to round up checking account transactions to the nearest dollar and then transfer the digital change into a connected savings account.
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Credit Card App
You’ll also want to have your credit card company’s app sitting on your smartphone. With this app, you’ll be able to log in to your credit card account at any time. This will make it easier to track your credit card charges and keep up with bill payments. It’s also an effective way to detect signs of credit card fraud early on and stop it from getting out of hand.
Personal Budgeting App
Your finances won’t improve until you put together a proper personal budget. A budget is a basic tool designed to divide up your monthly income and organize your expenses into clear-cut categories. Sticking to these spending categories should help you avoid stumbling into problems like spending beyond your means, overdrawing your account and missing bill payments throughout the month. Your spending will be right on track.
These are some popular budgeting apps available:
- Mint
- You Need A Budget (YNAB)
- EveryDollar
- Simplifi by Quicken
- PocketGuard
- HoneyDue
Most personal budgeting apps can sync with your financial accounts. You can sync the app to checking accounts, savings accounts, credit card accounts and investment accounts. You can even sync it with an outstanding loan like a personal line of credit. A personal line of credit is a borrowing solution that allows you to draw, repay and redraw whenever necessary, assuming you have available credit. It’s a particularly effective credit tool for emergencies when you don’t have enough personal savings available. As long as your account is in good standing, you can request a withdrawal from your line of credit to cover your emergency expense. Once that’s done, you can follow a simple repayment plan through a monthly billing cycle.
Why should you choose a budgeting app that can sync with your financial accounts? It will give you a streamlined view of your entire financial portfolio, and it will help you stay accountable to the boundaries that you’ve set in your budget. You’ll be able to see real-time updates of your checking account and credit card spending, which will confirm whether you’ve actually followed the limits of your budget’s expense categories or not. You might find that you’re suffering from lifestyle creep and that you’re pushing those budgeting limits! This is an important wake-up call that can push you to be more mindful with your money.
The key to improving your personal finances is sitting right in your pocket. Pull out your smartphone and start downloading these apps onto it. This is how you can start getting your finances in better shape.
