We only get so much money in our Paychecks, and since life is so damn expensive we need to make it stretch as far as possible. Some people may practice budgeting by intuition…but those people usually wonder what happened to all their money at the end of the month. If you want to actually know how much you’ve got at the end of the month, there are ways!
The Wall Street Journal recently reviewed the best budgeting apps, and we thought it was worth passing along to you. After all, it’s still January, so there’s still a chance of sticking to your new year’s resolutions! 😉
Here are Five Fast Facts on the best budgeting apps for 2025:
- 🥇 Best Overall - Let’s start at the top! Monarch was rated the best overall budgeting app. It’s got great automation with all your accounts, and it lets you see how much you’re spending per category or even for a specific retailer. You can also set savings goals, spending limits, and investment trackers on a customizable dashboard. If you’re serious about budgeting it’s got everything you could want.
- 🆕 Best For Newbies - If budgeting is something you’ve never really done, then you probably want something simple and intuitive. For you, PocketGuard might be just the thing! You have to set things up once, but then it’ll just run like the Energizer bunny. It clearly tells you how much money you’ll have left at the end of the month. You know, pretty much the single most important thing about a budget.
- 👫 Best For Couples - If you’re blending the finances of two people, sometimes things can get a bit tricky. This is where Honeydue comes in. You connect all your accounts and set up your automation like all the others, but here you can also specify which person’s expense it is or even split it between you. You can even set reminders for your partner’s payments (how helpful, right??)!
- 0️⃣ Best Zero-Based - This method requires tracking every penny you make and putting it in one spending bucket or another. The best here is YNAB (You Need A Budget). It’s great for those who want to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty (proverbially speaking)...every day. But hey, at least you’ll know your budget!
- 💸 Best Free - Back to the original point - life is expensive! If you want a full-featured budget app without paying anything, then check out NerdWallet’s free app. It simplifies the setup process more than most other free apps, and it’s got great charts and graphs to show you how you’re doing every month.
🔥Bottom line: Budgeting can help you get control of your money. We all know we should follow a budget of some kind, but sometimes it’s hard to just get started. Any of these are great options, so pick the one that fits you best and give it a shot!
What do you do for a budget?
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