Being smarter about spending and saving money is one of the most overused templates for a New Year's resolution, and like most New Year's resolutions, it almost always doesn't carry through.
Luckily, users who want to gird their money with wiser decisions don't necessarily need to be alone for the duration of the task, as a trove of apps that readily function as money-saving companions litter around both iOS and Android platforms.
So to welcome the new year, here are the best apps that'll help users be smarter about finance management.
Coinkeeper
Coinkeeper employs the same psychological effect as spurred by the envelop method, wherein users are treated to a visual display of the budget being carefully allocated from accounts into different categories, in this case by virtue of a nifty coin animation.
The interface is clean, light, and well-designed, which makes the app a breeze to use. Users can manually enter their expenses and income, and the data will be streamlined in a single, uncluttered place. The app is free, but there's a premium option for expanded features.
• Price: Free
Qapital
Qapital is a banking app poised to help users save for what they want to buy. Users can set up goals, and set up corresponding rules that will trigger deposits to the user's Qapital account. For example, things such as marathon runs, exercises, and simple day-to-day tasks often the victims of procrastination could be set up as rules. When rules are fulfilled, small increments will be deposited to users' Qapital account, thereby bringing them closer to reaching their desired purchase guilt-free.
Additionally, Qapital works with If This Then That, or IFTTT, to open up expanded automation triggers, such as setting up the app to automatically add deposits every time an item in a user's to-do list is completed, or each time a hashtag is used in a tweet, and so on.
• Price: Free
CheckoutSmart
The smartest way to save money on shopping is checking if there are applicable cashbacks for products users purchase. CheckoutSmart works by providing its users a daily list of items with cashback offers, alongside symbols indicating which retailers or supermarkets host the deal. All that's required of users is to purchase the said items, pay for them at checkout, snap a photo of the receipt, and then submit it to the app. It will automatically add the cashback credit to the user's account, which can then be transferred to PayPal or a bank account.
One caveat, though: CheckoutSmart will incur a 5 percent fee for every account withdrawal, so keep that in mind before going all-out on a shopping binge.
• Price: Free
Mint
Mint is currently heralded as the queen of personal finance apps, and it's easy to see why. Mint takes care of all accounts tied to a user: checking, savings, retirement, and more. Each transaction that goes through is automatically recorded and sorted. The app even analyzes a user's spending habits and created a budget based on extrapolated data. Mint is a catch-all personal finance solution that's easy, intuitive, and secure.
• Price: Free
• Platform: iOS and Android
You Need a Budget
You Need A Budget, or more commonly referred to its acronym, YNAB, is an extremely detailed but dead-simple budgeting app. YNAB aims to change the way a user manages money for stress-free finances. It works by letting users assign categories, or where parts of the salary should go. From there, users can set aside piecemeal increments for less-frequent expenses, such as insurance, so when they arrive, they can be paid immediately, instead of worrying about them.
• Price: Free for Mobile, $50 a year for Windows and Mac
