technology

Managing your money keeps getting easier through the use of apps. However, you need to ensure that you are choosing the right finance apps to use. To choose the right app you need to know what you are looking to accomplish with the app.

How Much Money You Have

If you are looking to keep track of your money and how much you are worth then you should consider Mint or LearnVest. Both of these apps excel in this area, but they do take a different approach. Both of the apps allow you to calculate your net worth while going through your spending habits and set financial goals.

Mint has been around longer and offers a more polished experience. Both apps are free, but LearnVest does have some upsell for a premium experience. Mint is ad-supported, but most of the adverts are actually very useful.

Specialty Finance Apps

There are times when you need to have more than just a personal finance apps and this is when you need to consider the specialty finance apps. These apps will help you when you have a specific financial objective in mind. One of these apps is Qapital which helps you save money through tiny actions and gamification.

Qaptial allows you to open a new saving account through the apps which is a bit of a hurdle. After this, the app will help you save small amounts of money that do actually add up in the long-run. Another app that you should consider is Stash Invest which will help you with starting your investments.

Stash Invest lets you start investing with as little as $5. The app will tell you about the different kinds of investing that you could complete and that might be suited to your needs. They will list the risks and the impact that the investment will have on the world.

How The Apps Know About Your Money

Before you look at downloading any apps you need to know how they are going to access your financial information. There are some apps where you have to manually input all of the information when you start using them. However, many of the best apps will extract real-time data from your accounts including checking and saving accounts. The information is then used to create a clear picture of your spending.

When downloading an app you need to ensure that it asked for read-only access. This means that the apps will not be able to move money from your account which is a safety risk. The only apps that may need to have access to your accounts will be investing apps such as Stash Invest and Qapital.

Using Bank Specific Apps

There are some bank-specific apps that are available, but many people feel that they do not provide the overall personal finance experience that others do. These apps are often helpful when looking for ATMs or checking your account remotely. They will often not link to other accounts which is necessary for a full personal finance app.