Susannah’s Financial Resource List

Clarity Money App

Free Personal Finance App though Goldman Sachs

The app is touted as the all-powered tool that brings your finances all together in one place. Links bank accounts to the app and categorizes expenses. The app identifies recurring expenses and highlights unused subscriptions with cancellation information provided. The app does not allow customization of Interface or Categories.

Review: Clarity Money is also a good money management app for someone who can’t or doesn’t want to invest in a paid app like YNAB (You Need a Budget) or Ramsey Plus. If you don’t have a need for custom budget categories and you’re fine with only tracking spending from linked bank accounts, then give Clarity Money a try.

Goodbudget App – $60 Annually

The app digitizes cash envelope budgeting model and it provides 20 digital envelopes to utilize within the app.  It is possible to log in from multiple devices. The app does NOT link to financial accounts. And it must be updated manually.

Review: Goodbudget seems to be an effective budgeting tool for many people as of this writing, it has 4.7 stars out of 5 in the App Store — but it’s also high-maintenance. It doesn’t automatically sync with your bank accounts or credit cards, which means you have to manually enter all of your transactions to stay up to date.

Mint App – FREE from Inuit

Touted as an outstanding app that syncs bank accounts, with customizable features allowing as many spending categories you can think of.

Review: Mint presents your financial information in a slick, easy-to-use web interface, with pretty graphs and all. Although the service appears to be more about glitz than useful functionality, it’s still very helpful for things like budgeting, creating goals, and aggregating all your financial accounts in one place.

Every Dollar – Created by Dave Ramsey

Zero-based budgeting method.

This app is completely customizable. The app is FREE for you to customize manually. Or you may upgrade to get Ramsey+ for $129.99 annually. The app will sync your bank accounts, though you still have to manually categorize expenditures. It will allow you to set reminders and to allow syncing funds to empower you to meet savings goals.

Review: EveryDollar Basic (the free version) is a great product. The budgeting feature is much simpler and easier to use than Mint, especially for the first-time user of budgeting software. It’s a great choice if you have the time and discipline to enter manually your spending transactions every month.

Article by Nerd Wallet:

The 7 Best Budget Apps for 2021
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/best-budget-apps

ACORN Investment, Savings

Review: Acorn has modernized the old-school practice of saving loose change, merging the robo-advisor model with an automated savings tool. Acorns works by rounding up your purchases on linked credit or debit cards, then sweeping the change into a computer-managed investment portfolio. That approach is certainly a useful tool to save more. Acorns offers three levels of membership:

• Lite: $1 a month. Includes a taxable investment account.
• Personal: $3 a month. Adds on an individual retirement account and a checking account.
• Family: $5 a month. Includes everything in the lower tiers, plus Acorns Early, which lets you open investment accounts for kids.

Acorn is best for:

• Hands-off investors.
• People who struggle to save.
• Custodial accounts for kids.

Robinhood App – Commission-Free Investment and Trading App

Robinhood provides free stock, options, ETF and cryptocurrency trades, and its account minimum is $0, too. Mutual funds and bonds aren’t offered, and only taxable investment accounts are available. Still, if you’re looking to limit costs or trade crypto, Robinhood is a solid choice. Robinhood is best suited for newcomers to investing who want to trade small quantities, including fractional shares and cryptocurrencies, and require little in terms of research beyond seeing what others are trading. Robinhood’s overall simplicity makes the app and website very easy to use and charging zero commissions appeals to extremely cost-conscious investors who trade small quantities. That said, the offerings are very light on research and analysis, and there are serious questions about the quality of the trade executions.

Best Real Estate Investing Apps:

• Best for Entry-Level Investors: DiversyFund
• Best for Accredited Investors: Origin Investments
• Best for Variety: Yieldstreet
• Best for Rental Income: Roofstock
• Best for REITs: Fundrise
• Best for Vetted Projects: CrowdStreet
• Best for Low-Cost Investment: Streitwise
• Best for Farmland: FarmTogether
• Best for Simplicity: AcreTrader
• Best for Multi-Family Real Estate: ArborCrowd
• Best for Fractional Investment: Groundfloor
• Best Public Nontraded REITs: RealtyMogul

Clarity Money – Reviewed above

Every Dollar – Reviewed above

Goodbudget – Reviewed above

Mint – Reviewed above

Personal Capital – Reviewed above

YNAB (You Need A Budget)

For those more serious about budgeting who don’t mind paying a monthly or annual fee, consider the You Need A Budget (YNAB) budgeting app. Instead of using traditional budgeting buckets, users allocate every dollar they earn to something (known as the “zero-based budgeting system” where no dollar goes unaccounted for).

Fudget

Fudget has no extra features, so you may have to turn somewhere else for personal finance support and advice. It’s the only budgeting app I reviewed with ads, which puts it behind the others. But if you want budgeting made extremely simple, Fudget is for you.

Qapital

Qapital’s allows users to save money through round-ups and other activities, including social media participation.

Review: One of the best things about Qapital is that it lets you save towards specific goals. Rather than lumping all your money into a single goal, you can devote money from each rule to specific savings goals. You can set up as many goals as you’d like, and you can set up goals for any amount.

Best expense tracker apps:

• Best overall free app: Mint.
• Best app for beginners: Goodbudget.
• Best app for serious budgeters: You Need a Budget (YNAB)
• Best app for small business owners: QuickBooks Online.
• Best app for business expenses: Expensify.