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Modern Money
5 free mobile apps to help you manage your finances

By Monica Worsley

 
For Lauren Goray of Fayetteville, N.C., it’s all about seeing her student loan balance shrink. The recent Northern Illinois University graduate uses Mint.com, a personal finance website and mobile application, to watch her debt disappear.

“They have different tools on the website that actually show you the difference made from when you first started using it until now,” Goray said.

Debt repayment tracking is just one of the many features drawing users to personal finance technology. John Ulzheimer, president of the Ulzheimer Group and Credit Expert Consumer at CreditSesame.com, said personal finance apps are making it easier for people to manage their budget. Of course, there are standard benefits like automatic bill paying and paper reduction. But Ulzheimer sees other benefits — psychological ones. Personal finances sites and apps have “made transactions real time and results of the transaction real time. It makes consumers realize that they’ve spent their money,” he said.

It “makes it almost like a computer game to track (your) finances,” Ulzheimer said.

Here are five great apps that will help you set your own monetary high scores:

Mint.com
The app and website provide specific insight about where users strayed from budget goals and keep individuals aware of bill due dates with bill pay alerts.

Devices: Free on Apple and Android

Moni
This self-proclaimed “future of cash management on the fly” app brings a user’s bank accounts together in one place. Consumers can replace the old-school checkbook ledger with Moni by inputing their account balances and cash on-hand.

Devices: Free on Apple

Check
Check is a free-proactive mobile payments app. It monitors bills, accounts and credit cards. This resource helps consumers avoid late fees with bill-pay reminders, alerts users of low funds to avoid unnecessary overdraft fees and includes a scheduled bill-pay option. Individuals can also use it for bill payment.

Devices: Free on Apple and Android

Manilla
This free bill and account manager helps users track their finances with reminders about upcoming due dates. Consumers can pull all of their accounts into one place with the additional option of sharing this information with others like family, roommates and friends.

Devices: Free on Apple and Android 

Simple
Simple is a personal finance resource for goal-setters. Individuals track how much they can afford to spend by factoring in information about the user’s available funds, upcoming expenses and pending transactions combined with specific savings goals. It has additional bank-like features with photo check deposit and a Simple Visa debit card.

Devices: Free on Apple and Android

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Photo by Bailey Berg

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