Make Your Money Work (Harder) For You With The Best Personal Finance Software

Hey there, fellow finance aficionados! Are you ready to embark on a financial adventure worthy of Indiana Jones? It's time to grab your fedora and whip and uncover the treasures that lie within personal finance software.

Personal finance software is like your trusty sidekick, helping you navigate the financial landscape and make smart money moves. You can manage your money like a pro with the right tool in your arsenal.

However, choosing the right one for you can be overwhelming with many options. That's why this post is here to help. We've rounded up some of the most popular personal finance software, from apps tracking your expenses to websites simplifying your taxes.

So, put on your adventure hat and get ready to explore the world of personal finance software. With the right tool, you can conquer your finances and achieve your long-term goals. Let's get started!

Best Personal Finance Software

These are the best personal finance software. You'll get an overview of the software and its unique pros and cons for each one.

Chronifi

Founded recently in 2020, ChroniFI is a personal finance application/dashboard that gives users control over their time and money. The founder Ben Miller realized that the accurate measure of wealth is not money but time. The ChroniFI dashboard lets users quickly see how many years of FI (financial independence) they have and how many more years it will take to reach true financial freedom.

To use the dashboard, enter your current financial situation and update snapshots twice a month, and you'll receive a clear outlook of your net worth, where things stand currently, and where things are going. ChroniFI costs $9.99/month, but you can get a 30-day free trial if you sign up now.

Pros:

  • Secure – Unlike various other online personal finance management software, ChroniFI does not require you to link your bank account information with their system. You can rest assured knowing there won't be any potential security breaches to your accounts.
  • Simple – ChroniFI's dashboard is highly intuitive and easy to understand. You can see your total net worth and graphs that forecast your ChroniFI number from it. This information lets you quickly gain various personal finance applications you can implement immediately.
  • Cheap – At $9.99/month, ChroniFI is relatively inexpensive compared to alternative services. Plus, you get a 30-day free trial to test the software without committing to anything.

Cons:

  • Manual information entering – Though you won't give anyone access to your financial accounts, the lack of linking to bank information means you must manually input information twice a month to get the most out of ChroniFI.

Try ChroniFI

Mint

One of the best budgeting apps available today, Mint syncs up seamlessly to your bank accounts, credit cards, and retirement accounts. It dynamically tracks your income, purchases, and savings and comes with a daily budget planner. Mint can help anyone trying to get a high-level overview of their financial health but doesn't want to do it manually themselves.

After you connect your accounts, Mint automatically categorizes your transactions into budget categories to simplify your tracking. You can also make unique categories to fit your own needs if you want.

Pros:

  • Free – The Mint personal finance app is entirely free for all users, and there isn't even a premium version that you can purchase. All users are getting the highest level of service that Mint can provide.
  • Credit score access – Mint lets you easily view your credit score in the app. Daily credit score reminders can be a good reminder to use your credit wisely in the long run.

Cons:

  • Advertisements – Because Mint is free, it makes all its money from strategic partnerships and promotions. The ads on the app may seem intrusive and annoying for some people (and there's no paid option to get rid of them).

Ynab

YNAB stands for You Need A Budget, and after you start using this money management software for a few months, you'll realize that you perhaps needed a budget sooner! YNAB's basic philosophy is to assign a role to every dollar you earn. Whether the part is spending the dollar or saving it up is up to your long-term goals. YNAB does not intend to control your spending habits but instead helps you become more conscientious about your money.

YNAB connects directly to your accounts so that you can see transactions flowing into your budget at all times and quickly set savings goals. This budgeting service costs $11.99 a month, but it's personal finance software worth much more than that for many people!

Pros:

  • Free in the beginning – With YNAB, you get a 34-day free trial if you sign up right now (essentially saving you $11.99 you can put towards investments).
  • Flexibility in bank provider – YNAB syncs to over 12,000 banks, meaning you don't need to worry about whether you need to input your financial information manually.
  • Supports multiple currencies – Regardless of where you're from, YNAB will convert the money you earn into the cash you budget to keep everything consistent.

Cons:

  • No investment tracking – YNAB lacks a solid investment tracking feature, unlike many competitors. YNAB is one of the best personal finance software for budgeting but not for financial freedom projections/attainment.

Futureadvisor

FutureAdvisor is a Robo-advisor that also provides you with retirement analysis. The tool lets you link your accounts and receive custom recommendations based on your portfolio and long-term goals.

The paid offering requires a balance of $5000 or more. With it, you'll receive comprehensive investment management through tax-loss harvesting, automatic rebalancing, and access to a team of financial advisors.

Pros:

  • Partnerships with popular online brokers – To use FutureAdvisor's premium offering, you must hold an account with TD Ameritrade or Fidelity. If you already use one of these brokers, there's no need to switch, and you can seamlessly integrate it into the program.
  • Comprehensive free tools – FutureAdvisor offers one of the industry's best free personal portfolio analysis services today. You'll get investment recommendations and notifications to know when to rebalance your portfolio.

Cons:

  • Management fee – To use their premium offering, you must give up 0.5% of your total portfolio value in management fees. This cost can be pretty high compared to other paid personal finance services.

Personal Capital

Personal Capital is another robot-advisor service that isn't for every day individuals just starting their investing journey. Instead, it's for affluent individuals that will take advantage of the high standard of service and custom investment advice. With that in mind, everyone can still utilize their free suite of products every day.

Those who use Personal Capital for the latter reason will receive a slick-looking budgeting dashboard that syncs up with your financial accounts and lets you track your spending and cashflows.

Pros:

  • Robust retirement planning platform – Personal Capital is pretty high on the list, with a proper set of free budgeting and management tools for finance software options.
  • Access to live professionals – Unlike some software, Personal Capital lets you speak with real financial professionals about your financial situation.

Cons:

  • Very high account minimum for the Robo-advisor – To invest with the Robo-advisor, you need an account minimum of $100,000.

Credit Karma

Credit Karma is a top personal finance software that helps you build your credit score. Not only does it keep you up-to-date and informed about your current credit score, but it also notifies you of any potential credit breaches. On top of that, it will also help you secure today's best deals for auto insurance, loans, and credit cards (so you can stop worrying about which credit card accounts are best).

With a subscriber base of over 110 million people, Credit Karma is one of the most popular free personal finance software on the market today.

Pros:

  • User-friendly – To use personal finance software, you need to make sure you can understand it. Credit Karma's dashboard and graphs are incredibly easy-to-use, meaning you won't need to waste any time trying to interpret the meaning of metrics.
  • Daily credit score – Seeing your credit score daily is helpful when trying to increase it.

Cons:

  • Advertisements – Since Credit Karma is free, it makes money solely off ads. Credit Karma might bug you if you're uncomfortable seeing ads and would rather pay for an ad-free experience.

Quicken

You're likely to run across Quicken when you choose personal finance software. Don't let its age fool you, though. Quicken has been around since 1983 and is a dinosaur regarding budgeting applications. Over time, Quicken revised its software and added newer features to keep up with the times. Today it's one of the best personal finance products on the market, whether running a small business or managing your own money.

Pros:

  • Flexible pricing – With Quicken, you don't need to stick to one payment plan. You'll find a level that fits your needs, from the lowest tier with just the basics to the more advanced (and expensive) offerings.
  • Secure – Quicken encrypts your data using 256-bit encryption, meaning it's safe and secure.

Cons:

  • No app – Nowadays, almost every personal finance software comes in app form. Unfortunately, Quicken has not caught on yet and offers no option to use it with a mobile device.

Honeydue

Designed for couples specifically, Honeydue is an app that can help make money matters more straightforward for the entire household. Honeydue lets you seamlessly set spending limits and oversee and collaborate on all transactions and bills.

Not only does Honeydue come with an app, but they also offer a joint bank account for partners who choose to manage money together. The best part is that Honeydue is entirely free. The only way you pay is through watching advertisements on their app.

Pros:

  • Share budgets and transactions – Honeydue is one of the only apps on the market today that lets you share your budget and transaction details with your partner.
  • Free – You can download Honeydue entirely and get a no-fee checking account with the app.

Cons:

  • Only available on mobile devices – Honeydue does not have a computer-supported application and is just a personal finance app. If you don't like managing your finances from your phone, you might find Honeydue a little tedious.

Turbotax

TurboTax is currently one of the best tax software available for purchase. If you dread the tax season, consider using TurboTax to help you prepare your returns and simplify your filing situation.

TurboTax provides online and desktop versions of its application, packaging up complex and unique tax situations to make the process easier. Whether you work a regular 9-5 job or make your money primarily through passive income, TurboTax will let you know precisely how you should file your taxes.

Pros:

  • Easy to use – Some of TurboTax's best features are how intuitive and straightforward it is. For example, you can automatically fill out your tax forms by snapping photos of your W-2.
  • Customer service – TurboTax is one of the best personal finance software in support and customer service. There are many links to articles helping specific situations, an online forum to discuss real problems, and tax experts available to you in real-time.

Recap: Best Personal Finance Software

Managing money is challenging to keep up in today's fast-paced world.

There are too many things to track and insufficient time to do so. Thankfully, personal finance software can make money management significantly more straightforward. From forecasting investments into the future to getting out of debt to creating a spending plan, whatever your need, it's likely to be satisfied by one of the software on this list. As a quick recap, here are some of the best personal finance software you should consider:

  • 1. ChroniFI
  • 2. Mint
  • 3. YNAB
  • 4. FutureAdvisor
  • 5. Personal Capital
  • 6. Credit Karma
  • 7. Quicken
  • 8. Honeydue
  • 9. TurboTax

There's an app for everyone, from budgeting software to personal finance apps. Don't waste more time managing your money, and start streamlining your process today with this unique finance software.

This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.


Jeff is a current Harvard student and author of the blog Financial Pupil who is passionate about learning, living, and sharing all things personal finance-related. He has experience working in the financial industry and enjoys the pursuit of financial freedom. Outside of blogging, he loves to cook, read, and golf in his spare time.