According to a recent Intuit study, Gen Z would rather talk about politics than their finances. More than half of those surveyed said they’ve lied about their financial wealth in order to keep up with the social media pressure. Gen Z has made great strides in mental health initiatives but may leave their financial futures in ruin. What can we do? Let’s go back to the basics. I’ve already written about the importance of emergency funds and how to begin investing, so let’s take a look at budgeting. Managing your money can be complicated and certainly overwhelming, however budgeting apps are a great way to keep track of your dollars and learn ways to manage your finances better. Today, we take a look at 3 of the best budgeting apps for couples, friends and your personal wealth.
YNAB is a personalized budgeting app that helps educate you about being fiscally responsible while tracking your expenses. They focus on 4 rules for budgeting: 1) give every dollar a job, 2) embrace your true expenses, 3) roll with the punches, 4) age your money. They offer online workshops on ways to budget, allow you set budgeting goals and provides holistic reports of your finances. YNAB does have a free version, but the subscription is required to get into the nitty-gritty. Right now, you can try it out for free for 34 days before committing to the $99/year price tag. They don’t sell or share your data to third parties.
Like YNAB, Mint is one of the most popular budgeting apps. I like it because you can link all your external financial accounts to the Mint dashboard, making it super easy to track all your spending. They have a daily budget planner, bill tracking tool and credit score monitoring. I have already given some great tips on ways to boost your credit score, and Mint is a great way to help monitor your credit. While Mint is a completely free budgeting software, you can expect marketing ads for financial products, such as mortgage loans or credit cards. Regardless, I trust the software’s encryption and security features in the app and web platform. Mint is a great app for couples to tie in all their finances and manage their money.
Do you travel with friends and are constantly trying to figure out who owes who for that hotel room or steak dinner?
Are you a bachelorette party trying to simplify the trip expenses?
Roommates who have to split utilities and household bills?
A couple looking to keep financial transparency and split expenses evenly?
Tricount is for you all! I LOVE this app. You can create a trip with custom label, invite all the members of your travel group and start filling in the costs. All the expenses are visible to the whole group, and everyone can add their own. You can select multiple currencies, making that Scandinavia trip even easier to convert. You can select specific members for payment of each item, splitting expenses unevenly when needed.
For example, you bought extra drinks for 2 of the 5 girls in your group at the concert. You can just have those 2 girls pay for their drinks!
The app keeps a running total of who owes who what so at the end of the trip or activity you can easily see what is outstanding. Payments to square up are so easy! Best of all, the app is free and works offline.
IMO, these three are the best budgeting apps for couples, friends and your own personal wealth story. If you want to strengthen your budgeting skills, I suggest starting with Mint’s free mobile app to build a daily budget plan and learn tools for better spending habits. Daily group activities or travel with friends just got so much easier with Tricount. Download one, or all 3, today!