YNAB
Cost: Free
Platform: Web-based, Android, iPhone
This app had us sold the minute we knew what
it was called. You Need A Budget or YNAB is a free app for those looking to
budget their expenses from paycheck to paycheck. It is an easy to use app that
relies on your statements from last paycheck to determine your spending budget.
If you’re someone that doesn’t want to share your banking passwords with an
app, this is for you. YNAB asks all its users to manually upload their banking
documents each pay cycle. While this is a great budgeting app, it doesn’t offer
options to track investments or savings.
Personal Capital
Cost:
Free and Paid
Platform: Online web-based
Personal Capital is another free app to help you with all
your budgeting needs. The great thing about this app is that it is both a
budget and investment tracker. It tracks all your investments, including RRSPs.
This app directly connects with your financial institution giving you the
choice between manual and automatic uploads of financial documents. The cash
flow tool is handy and tracks all your spending by category. This means, you
don’t have to go in and set up categories unless you really want to. To add to
its fantastic features, personal capital also tracks your assets and their
allocations, returns, costs of investments and dividends.
Quicken
Cost:
Free and Paid
Platform: Windows, Macintosh, DOS
Quicken goes
a step further than personal capital. Not only does it help budget and track
investments, it can also help pay your bills and generate financial reports.
Documents are directly uploaded from your credit card and banking accounts.
Making it easier for you to check your finances without having to manually
input the data each time something changes on your account. A great feature of
quicken is that is allows for you to work off of different devices and sync all
the data to your quicken account.
Mint
Cost:
Free
Platform: Web-based
Mint is the
first cousin of Quicken. It is owned by Intuit Inc. a firm that also owns
Quicken. Mint is an online app that tracks your budget, investment, spending,
current trends, income, assets, net worth, debt and so on. The app comes with
built-in categories but users have the freedom to add more to the list. You can
also split transactions between your card and cash, when you make a purchase
that involves both forms of payments. You can also set budget alerts to keep
you from over spending. This app also comes with a free credit score!
Learnvest
Cost:
Paid
Platform: Web- based, iPhone and iPad
Learnvest is
a little more sophisticated than free personal finance apps. Which is why it’s
high initial cost is fairly reasonable. Learnvest gives its users more
flexibility than the free apps. It helps track your budget, set budget goals,
investments, assets, income and whole 9 yards. In addition to offering every
feature you will ever need to understand your personal finances, it also gives
you access to a financial advisor. The financial advisor can assist you with
questions or concerns. Learnvest can help you create and maintain a financial
plan long term. It also has offers tools to help you invest better.
November
marks National Financial Literacy Month. It is a month dedicated to ensure the
financial
well-being of Canadians. Take that extra step towards managing your finances today, for a better tomorrow!
If you are interested in going back to school but your financial situation stands in the way, get in touch with our Student Financial Administrators to discuss what options you have to pay for school.
well-being of Canadians. Take that extra step towards managing your finances today, for a better tomorrow!
If you are interested in going back to school but your financial situation stands in the way, get in touch with our Student Financial Administrators to discuss what options you have to pay for school.
