5 Best Budgeting Tools For Financial Independence
If you are looking for the best budgeting tools to help you achieve financial independence, then look no further. Here, I share my findings on the best budgeting tools.
I thought budgeting was just about tracking your expenses and limiting your spending. But as I started to do the research, I soon realized that budgeting apps can get very advanced. By the way, if you want to get a background on budgeting for Financial Independence, check out the post on Budgeting For Financial Independence.
Note on Finding the Best budgeting tools
Basically, budget apps help you track your money. The basic budgeting apps allow you to enter how much you earn and organizes your expenses into separate categories so that you can see where and how much you spend.
A bit more advanced features include connecting with your financial institutions and bringing all of your transaction data to help automate your data entry process. But there is a caveat here. There is no app that can get all data from all financial institutions perfectly. Depending on where you are living and which financial institutions you are using, they may not be able to perfectly retrieve all data and categorize all of your expenses. You will need to do some tweaking and data entry yourself.
Basically, there is no perfect budgeting app.
Also, it’s important to note these apps utilize different methods of budgeting: zero-based budgeting vs. envelop budgeting vs. pay-yourself-first budgeting vs. 50/30/20 budgeting. All these different methods can get kind of confusing. If you want to learn more about different methods of budgeting, here is an external article that might help you: 8 budgeting methods to help you reach your goals.
As for me, I prefer to not get too bogged down with all the methods. I like keeping things simple. I want simply input my income (salary, interest, dividend, etc.), enter how much I plan to spend in different categories (groceries, utilities, vacation, etc.), and lastly, enter how much I plan to save and invest (time deposits, IRAs, ETFs, etc.). I think this is zero based budgeting… or it’s envelop? I don’t know… don’t really care.
Lastly, one of the more popular apps called, Mint, suddenly retired. This was a surprise to everyone because Mint was hailed as one of the most popular budgeting apps in the market… Anyway, I guess you can say Mint has achieved the “FIRE” status. 🙂
Alright, here we go with the best budgeting tools.
Summary
Here is a summary table of the 5 tools for quick glance.
| Empower | YNAB | EveryDollar | Goodbudget | Tiller | |
| Score | 8.5 | 9.1 | 8.7 | 9.3 | 9.5 |
| Price | Free | 14.99/mo | 12.99/mo | 8.00/mo | 6.50/mo |
| Good for | Investment freaks | Impulse spenders | Ramsey followers | Families | Control freak DIY’ers |
Empower
Empower is really an investment platform with a free budgeting app. You can connect and monitor checking, savings and credit card accounts, as well as IRAs, 401(k)s, mortgages and loans. The app provides a spending snapshot by listing recent transactions by category. You can customize those categories and see the percentage of total monthly spending each category represents. Empower also has net worth and portfolio tracker and can be accessed through both phone and desktop.
My Take
This budget app is good if you are looking to use their investment platform along with the budget app. But, if you are not looking to use Empower’s investment features, then, I think the budget app alone falls short. There are other apps with better capabilities. For example, Empower doesn’t allow you to manually enter transactions. Also, you cannot set multiple categories for your budget. So, it’s difficult to really personalize for your needs.
| Best For | Using with Empower’s Investment app |
| Price | Free |
| Pros | It’s free |
| Cons | Not very flexible for budgeting |
YNAB
YNAB stands for You Need A Budget. That is a very straight-forward name. But, the tool is not as straight-forward. It does take some time getting used to. It’s because the way this budgeting tool works is different from others. YNAB forces you to think before you actually spend. So this is a great tool if you are suffering from compulsive spending syndrome.
My Take
If you are looking for an app that helps with your impulse buying behavior, then this is the app you have been looking for. It teaches you how to be proactive with your money. However, for me, the 14.99/month does seem a little bit on the high side, especially because there are many free alternatives out there. But, if you are ok with spending some money on a budget app, this is a great tool.
| Best For | Curbing your spending habit |
| Price | 14.99/month |
| Pros | Helps you to control your spending |
| Cons | Some learning curve, Expensive |
EveryDollar
Made by the famous financial guru Dave Ramsey, EveryDollar is a budgeting app that helps users build a zero-based budget. It basically allows you to start with your income and then allocate for “every dollar” until you are net zero. It also allows you to create sinking funds, where you set some money aside each month for upcoming expenses such as vacations, down payments, or expenses that are charged annually.
My Take
My view is that this is good for those who are creating budget for the first time. It is straightforward and easy to use. However, in order to link your bank accounts, you will need to upgrade to their premium version. I think that for newbies it’s not a bad idea to start with this one, especially because you can also get into the whole Ramsey financial support system (books, group coaching, etc.). But, if you are sort of advanced or do not really need the training wheels, you might want to look for something more independent.
| Best For | Following Ramsey’s program |
| Price | 12.99/month (or free) |
| Pros | Ramsey’s support system |
| Cons | Almost always need to upgrade |
Goodbudget
Goodbudget uses the envelop method. Each month, users allocate a certain amount of their income into categories (envelops) for things like groceries, rent, gas, etc. This allows you to plan ahead. If they go beyond their budget, the envelop will show red to indicate that they overspent. It’s also family friendly, you can track your expenses and goals with your partner. It doesn’t automatically pull your transaction data so, you will need to manually enter and track your expenses. So, if you were looking for something a bit more automated, then this is not for you. Goodbudget’s view is that entering and tracking your expenses manually helps you to take better control of your budget.
My Take
I think this is a solid, best of breed app and ideal for those who are looking for hands-on budgeting and co-budgeting with a partner. For simplicity, fair pricing, and doing the simple things well, it’s great – almost on par with YNAB. YNAB is more for individual tracking, richer features but more expensive, while Goodbudget is for families, less features but less expensive.
| Best For | Families |
| Price | 8/month (or free) |
| Pros | Less expensive, good for family |
| Cons | No syncing |
Tiller
Tiller Money is a super-powered spreadsheet platform that connects to all your bank accounts. It uses customizable spreadsheets to help you set goals and budget better. Tiller Money is perfect if you prefer to use spreadsheets (Google sheets or Excel). What makes it ideal is the wide variety of templates that can be customized to fit your needs. If you are into the techie DIY spreadsheet thing, then look no further. This is the ultimate spreadsheet budget on steroids. There are a lot of templates so, you will likely find something you can use. Even if you don’t, you can just customize the spreadsheet to your liking. There’s also a big community so, you can share and get good support.
My Take
This is the only spreadsheet based tool on the market. If you are into having total control and working with spreadsheets, this is it. Well, of course you can just work with spreadsheet as a standalone without connectivity. But if you are looking to take your spreadsheet-based budgeting system to the next level and you don’t mind the 79/year fee, then give Tiller a try.
| Best For | Control freaks, techie DIY’ers |
| Price | 79/year |
| Pros | Customizable |
| Cons | No app, just spreadsheet |
In Conclusion
First, I am not an affiliate with any of the tools mentioned here. I am just sharing the results from my own research when I was looking to do my own budget. These are my personal opinions and depending on your situation, you might have a different opinion.
Second, I did not go with any of the options above. My personal reasons are:
- I have some philosophical issue with continuing to pay (subscription) for a budgeting tool. A budget tool should be budget friendly. And I have a mental thing about seeing this fee constantly appear when I do my budget every month.
- I am a control freak; I need to be able to customize my own data and input things in my own way. So, the closest tool in this regard was Tiller. If Tiller was free, then that would have been my choice. :). But, since it wasn’t, I decided to go with just a spreadsheet and import the data in myself. No hassle, no subscription.
Besides Tiller, if I were forced to choose another app from above, I would probably go with the Goodbudget because I am a family man (tracking your partner’s spending sounds good!) and I can do almost everything with the free version.
Hope this was useful. If you have any comments or suggestions, leave them down below in the comments section.
If you are interested in seeing the hands-on Google sheet that I am using, I link a post here: The Best Budget-Friendly Budget Tool – Google Sheets.
