Budgeting Apps

Thinking about what to write for the blog, a discussion that was going rounds in our EMBA WhatsApp group chat was which budgeting app is the best one to be used. A lot of apps were shared including one that had a New York Times article to back it up however for someone who is kind of old school in managing the budgets I saw some advantages and some disadvantages of using a Mobile Budget app and hence came the topic of my blog.

I want to lay down some pros and cons here for the Budgeting app but ultimately you must do what suits you best and is less risky especially when it comes to sharing your financial information. Diving into the pros of budgeting app the first one is the ease of set up. Signing up for a budgeting app is as simple as verifying your email address and linking your financial accounts. How many accounts you have will determine how quickly you’re set up and tracking your economic life. The second is accessibility, the online budget tool comes with a mobile app, so you’re never more than a few taps from checking your financial health. Apps like Mint, You Need a Budget, and Clarity Money in particular offer easy-to-use dashboards and mobile experiences. Setting long-term visible goals is another benefit of the budgeting app. Budgeting apps break down your overall net worth, debts, savings goals, and other metrics that let you know where you always stand. These details may seem like common sense, but plenty of user reviews of debt settlement services like Freedom Debt Relief would tell you otherwise.

On the other side, the cons include some major concerns like most budget apps offer the simplicity of integrating with all your financial accounts and consolidating your activity into one dashboard. However, to get accurate analytics and forecasts, you’ll probably need to do some tweaking. Mint, for example, promises to categorize your spending automatically. But unless their predefined categories work for your budget, you’ll have to create your own sections and review your monthly transactions to ensure they’re being labeled correctly. Also, A budget app can tell you how much you’re spending each month, how far over-budget you are, or your progress with savings goals but it won’t make decisions for you. If you can’t carry out the plan a budget app lays out, you might have more success with the cash-envelope budget. This method gives every dollar of monthly income a destination by putting cash in different spending envelopes. People are starting to realize that using free products carries drawbacks, namely the fact that if the product is free, the user is the product. This is no different with free financial apps, which usually serve a lot of ads and “personalized” recommendations for banking products and institutions advertising on the platform. Last but in my view most critical is the security risk. using online budget apps means one more account for a cybercriminal to hack potentially. This is less a reflection on the companies providing these apps and more in tune with the realization that cyberattacks cannot be prevented, they can only be minimized. That’s why if you do use an online budget, make sure to use a secure password manager to store your login.

At the end of the day, budget apps will be as effective as the person using them. If you need an accessible system that’s easy to use and gives clarity over your situation, then a budget app will probably do wonders for you. But if you’re looking for an app to solve your mindset, never need any fine-tuning and pose no security risks or data sharing.