Efficient money-managing apps that make budgeting easy

Budgeting is a crucial life skill, especially in college. Whether you’re balancing term bills, money for food or cash for the commute, you might need to keep a closer eye on your finances. Thankfully, in our digital age, there’s an app for that. Here are a few online services that can help you stay on top of your cash. Don’t worry — they’re all free.

1. Wela - Wela is a money management app that acts as a digital financial advisor. The virtual counselor’s name is Benjamin, and “he” checks in on you whenever you’d like. The app gives personalized advice based on the user’s habits. The app can track your spending on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Other interesting features are the ability to compare your finances to your peers and calculate your personal net worth at any time. 

2. Clarity Money - This app is a more intrusive program. According to their website, they "harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and data science to personalize your experience.” Some of the features of their personalized experience are practical and effective. All of your various subscriptions, from Apple Music to Netflix, are available on the app, and you can see what all the services are costing you every month. You can cancel subscriptions through the app as well. It’s easy to join many services and lose track, so having all of them centralized and calculated as a part of your monthly spending money is incredibly helpful.

3. Wally - Wally is an app that compares your income to your expenses and helps you understand where and when you should be spending your money. Tracking your spending is Wally’s goal. One of the special features of Wally is scanning your receipts and adding the amount to your list of spending. Wally also saves locations where you shop often, so you can easily put them into your budget. The ability to track your tendencies can help you make smarter financial decisions. 

4. Tiller - Tiller is a service that directly feeds your bank data into a Google Sheets document. Linking your bank accounts through Tiller allows you to format the spreadsheet through their carefully crafted templates. If you need a spreadsheet to help keep a tight budget, Tiller is definitely a good option for streamlined bookkeeping.

5. Toshl Finance - Toshl is an app that attempts to bring fun to finance. The app initially takes account of all the money you have, then you can link them to your accounts. Toshl then immediately tracks your purchases and reminds you of upcoming bills or when you’re approaching spending limits. Toshl’s engaging interface includes creatures called Toshl monsters who interact with you while you’re arranging your finances.

6. Mint - This app is part of the Intuit/TurboTax family, and aligns with the company's goal of making finances easy and accessible to the average person. Mint helps you set financial goals and lets you know your progress for the benchmarks you set. Mint is easy to understand as the app does most of the categorizing for you, and is completely automatic after you initially put in your information. You can also check your credit score and schedule bill payments. Great for someone who’s starting to budget.

Keeping track of your money is crucial since it’s so easy to lose track while you’re busy with school. Budgeting apps can help keep your wallet as stable as your GPA (hopefully).