Table of Contents
What is Personal Finance Software?
Rise is a mobile app that organizes your spending and saving effortlessly. The interface is easy on the eyes, and the app is easily exportable.
Cons
Not ideal for people with many cashflows, such as a business owner.
Great Personal Finance Software
I’ll start this off by listing the following things I am no good at so you know where this is probably going to end up.
I’m an unorganized mess. I’m a spender and a dreamer. I like my money in my pocket, not in my head or in a spreadsheet or in some online account. I’m a lazy guy and am easily distracted. I’m a DIY kind of guy and like to save as much money as I can.
This leaves me open to one thing only: using personal finance software to get my money swag back. I could go on and on with excuses why why programs are for me, but “I don’t like it” is the one and only excuse I’m going to use to explain away why you don’t feel this way.
Well, I’ve got good news—you don’t have to a be die hard Excel geek, a professional financial advisor, or have an account already with UBS, TD Ameritrade, or Goldman Sachs.
Budgeting Software Tools
If you have ever tried to budget your money with an Excel spreadsheet, and found it impossible to stick to, then it is time to get some budgeting software. This is the only way you will be able to keep up with your expenditures and follow a budget. While you can go to your local bank, your community library is a viable option for budgeting software.
You have so many options for this type of software. Here are the 11 best personal finance software to get your money swag on.
Mint
Mint is a free budgeting software, that you can access through your desktop or your mobile device. It is simple to easily track all of your accounts and manage your credit card information.
Mint provides budgeting resources as well. All you have to do is add this software to your Google toolbar, and you are ready to go. You can track your credit card, investments and your bank accounts, all in one place.
Moneyspire
Moneyspire can be used on your desktop, or laptop. It is a free product, but there is a paid version. It has thousands of users across the globe, with a high success rate when it comes to staying with the budgeting goals.
You Need a Budget (YNAB)
Mint
Mint is one of the most popular personal finance management software. It has Quicken compatibility and gives you reports and historical analysis on all your accounts. You get a pie chart or bar graph that show you a breakdown of your spending and a categorization of your purchases. If you have a bunch of bank and credit accounts, you can connect them to your Mint dashboard with ease. It has powerful tools like budgeting, investing, and net worth.
Manilla
Manilla Personal Finance is one of the best personal finance software. Manilla is a free and open source personal financial management tool. Manilla is modeled loosely after the YNAB (You Need A Budget) software, the granddaddy of personal finance software.
This all-in-one piece of freeware is a desktop app that supports budgeting, expense tracking, and other personal financial management functions. It’s free, easy to use, and it’s going to help you get your financial situation under control.
Manilla comes packed with a task list, expense tracking features, goal setting tools, and a slew of other features that help you track and control your finances.
The interface is easy to navigate, especially if you’ve used YNAB before. The software is open source and it’s getting new features, including an app store, all the time.
Overall, Manilla Personal Finance gets the job done with no strings attached.
You Need a Budget
(YNAB)
This app is in its 4th edition. It has been around for a while and has been featured in many different publications, both online and in print. With it, you can properly budget any amount of disposable income you might have. You can also assign categories to balance your financial budget. YNAB4 is functional, polished, and offers a lot of flexibility. For instance, you can move your money around any time you want.
What We like about YNAB4
YNAB4 is fairly easy to use, and they have done what they can to make it user-friendly. (If not, that’s what we’re here for!) YNAB4 is also great for students because of their newly introduced “every dollar has a job” feature; and it’s free, which is fantastic.
First of all, YNAB4 lets you choose budgets as per your needs. You have the freedom to create more than one budget and choose precisely how much you need to allocate to a certain budget
Investment Management Software Tools
If you are in the investing game, you will need some good investment management software tools to keep your finances in order. There are many different types of investing tools available. Each investing tool is different from one another. Some tools are more specific for certain types of investing, such as retirement planning, college savings, healthcare, and so on.
One of the most important things you can do even if you are a beginner investor is to create a budget for yourself so you know what can go into your investing account and where you should be spending your money.
An investor doesn’t have to use the investing software to create a budget for themselves. There are many free resources online that allow you to create a budget for yourself for free. Your personal budget can help guide you into the right investing strategy for you.
Personal Capital
This is basically a complete account aggregation tool. It’s a free web-based tool that will show the real-time analysis of your account.
There’s a lot you can do with this software and comes with a few great features. The data provided in this tool focuses on three things:
- Cash Flow
- Wealth
- Risk
With these three distinctive components, it shows you what you can expect from your current financial situation.
Personal Capital also has a pretty good mobile app, which is completely free and can be used in tandem with the desktop version. With this mobile apps, you’ll be able to track your spending as well.
The mobile app also lets you manage your accounts while on the go. After all, the faster you can know your financial situation, the better.
Quicken
When it comes to financial software, Quicken gets a lot of attention for its depth of features and ease of use. If your goal is to use a personal finance software to help you manage your budget, keep your personal balance sheet, and analyze your investment portfolio, Quicken does all that well.
Two versions are available: Quicken 2015 serves Mac and Windows users while Quicken Premier 2015 is designed for Mac users only. The Premier version comes packaged with Quicken 2015, which means that any experience you have with Quicken 2015 transfers to its premium counterpart (Quicken Premier 2015). If you’re a Quicken 2015 customer and want to take your usage to the next level, consider upgrading to Quicken Premier 2015.
Your Broker’s Tools
Are Just as Good, if Not Better.
I used to think that going to a broker meant you were going to get poor advice and poor results. It’s a perception many people have, and one that brokers have been spending a lot of time and money trying to change. The reality is that plenty of brokers offer a solid full-service investment strategy. Take the time to weigh the pros, and cons and speak with various financial advisors to find one that’s a good fit for you. It’s a relationship, so it’s really important to trust the person. It’s also worth noting that the broker who sells you a specific investment product makes a lot of money off the actual investment. If you purchase directly from the company, however, they won’t make any money off of you coming back and re-investing. So if you re-invest and continue to stay with them, they will make a lot of money long term even if they don’t make anything by selling you the stock. In fact, they might even make less money, since you won’t be charged mutual fund fees.
Debt Reduction Software
Debt reduction software can help you avoid making costly mistakes when going on a debt elimination quest. So it’s always a good idea to have an effective debt reduction software to assist you in debt reduction plan.
One of the best debt reduction software which you can use online is CareOne Debt Solutions. This software is being used by debt professionals to help people get on a path of debt freedom.
The software has many useful features like the 24/7 online chat, automatic reminders, customized debt solutions, and premium financial analysis tools.
Ready for Zero
Ready for Zero is a great tool to help you visualize your net worth. You input your goal to be debt free in a certain amount of time. You are given a calendar with scheduled payments and debt pay off. You input your income and expenses to keep you in the loop. It is very easy to use and with their helpful tools you can make every dent you need on the road to becoming debt free.
Credit Sesame
Credit Sesame is a free personal finance software that gives you amazing insights into your credit report, credit score, and credit health. Above all it’s free to use and doesn’t have ads. The paid version (Credit Sesame Plus) will give you a more in-depth look at your credit score, credit report, and gives you a personal credit score breakdown. It also gives you PDF copies of your credit report.
Credit Sesame goes way beyond just helping you understand your credit report. You also get insights into where you can save money on your credit score, such as your credit card utilization and late bill pay. Credit Sesame also gives you actionable advice to help you improve your credit health and score.
Credit Monitoring Software Tools
If you are dealing with debt problem, it is important to monitor your credit. A lot of people don’t even know that they have a problem with their credit until they apply for a loan and then they find out that their credit score is below average.
Having a credit monitoring scheme in place, will help keep your financial situation on track.
Here is a list of the best Personal finance software that will help you to stay on top of your financial situation. These are mostly available as a software download, and some are also web based, so it doesn’t matter where you are, you can access them and have access to your financial situation no matter where you are, so it is really crucial to monitor your credit file and your financial situation if you want to be able to get the most control over your money. Having access to your financial situation will also mean that you will be able to address any problems with your credit as they arise.
Credit Karma
Credit Karma is a free app that allows you to check your credit reports and credit scores from Transunion, Equifax, and Experian.
Credit Sesame
Credit Sesame is a free personal finance software that gives you amazing insights into your credit report, credit score, and credit health. Above all it’s free to use and doesn’t have ads. The paid version (Credit Sesame Plus) will give you a more in-depth look at your credit score, credit report, and gives you a personal credit score breakdown. It also gives you PDF copies of your credit report.
Credit Sesame goes way beyond just helping you understand your credit report. You also get insights into where you can save money on your credit score, such as your credit card utilization and late bill pay. Credit Sesame also gives you actionable advice to help you improve your credit health and score.
Tax Software Tools
Drakeford is for tax payers and non-tax payers as it runs in the background and keeps track of when it is time to file your taxes. Drakeford works as an accountant by filling out the returns for you, checking that you haven’t missed out on any tax breaks. You can just shift the numbers around and Drakeford will fill out your tax return.
TurboTax
Intuit’s TurboTax saves you both time and money by providing personal tax-filing software. You can even pay your tax return as you go using their TurboTax Accelerated Online Payroll service.
Credit Karma
Credit Karma is a free tool that promises to keep track of your credit score on its website. By creating a free profile, you will gain access to your score along with suggestions to help you raise your credit score.
Credit Sesame
This free tool helps you manage your credit score. They send along alerts when something is wrong with your score along with tips to help you improve it.
Mint
Mint helps you keep track of your spending. You can track your progress towards saving money or reaching your budget. Mint will even alert you when your spending is getting out of control.
Personal Capital
Quicken
When it comes to financial software, Quicken gets a lot of attention for its depth of features and ease of use. If your goal is to use a personal finance software to help you manage your budget, keep your personal balance sheet, and analyze your investment portfolio, Quicken does all that well.
Two versions are available: Quicken 2015 serves Mac and Windows users while Quicken Premier 2015 is designed for Mac users only. The Premier version comes packaged with Quicken 2015, which means that any experience you have with Quicken 2015 transfers to its premium counterpart (Quicken Premier 2015). If you’re a Quicken 2015 customer and want to take your usage to the next level, consider upgrading to Quicken Premier 2015.
Turbo Tax
Whether you use it to file your taxes or to track your budget or investments, Turbo Tax is one of the most well-known and easy-to-use financial management software programs out there. It’s well known for its friendly interface and benefits from a wide range of features.
About the Author
The author is a top ranked Google author. He is also the founder of Personal Finance 101.
Jason has been writing articles on personal finance topics since 2008.