Every adult, at some point or another, realizes a monetary budget is necessary to be financially successful. There are countless ways to do it, but being constantly aware of income, investments, spending and bills is practically a daily requirement. With the percentage of smartphone users rising by the day, it comes as no surprise that app creators are inventing various apps to assist with this process. Somewhere in between supermarket rebate apps, such as Ibotta, and long-term investment apps, such as Acorns, is a lengthy list of available iPhone-friendly apps made specifically for budget planning and money managing. These personal finance-themed apps are fairly similar, each with their own differentiating characteristics. The following are the top five personal budgeting apps for 2016 available for iPhone users.
Mint: Money Manager, Budget & Personal FinanceCost: Free
App Store Rating: 4.5 stars
Aside from its attractive zero-dollar price tag, Mint hails as the most popular personal finance app available. This popularity is due to its user-friendly layout. The app allows the user to view all personal spending avenues at one time. Credit cards, bank accounts, 401(k) balance(s) and investments are incorporated, and it also offers options for budget setting, bill reminders and professional tips for financial success. The biggest con is some reviewers have run into issues with Mint's tech support and have expressed frustration over connection issues within the app.
Goodbudget Budget PlannerCost: Free for one bank account; offers the option for a $40/year subscription for more accounts
App Store Rating: 4.5 stars
Unlike other personal finance apps, such as Mint, that require the user to input account information to link accounts automatically, Goodbudget is solely manual. Users are completely in charge of their money by creating budget lists and inputting spending amounts. This app is visually attractive, as budget lists can also be viewed as pie charts. One of the most appreciated features of this app is it can be shared with another person, such as a spouse, making it easier to budget together.
HomeBudget with SyncCost: $5.99 for full version; free for "lite" version
App Store Rating: 4.5 stars
Like Goodbudget, HomeBudget with Sync allows for account information to be shared across multiple devices with multiple people. Referred to by HomeBudget's creators as Family Sync, this is a key feature of the budgeting app. HomeBudget also allows users to list expenses, and even capture and attach photos of receipts. While it costs $5.99 for the full version as of December 2015, the creators of the app also offer a lite version, limited to 20 expense entries and 10 income entries, making it ideal for beginners.
Money MonitorCost: Free for version with limited amount of accounts; $1.99 for full version
App Store Rating: 4.5 stars
The Money Monitor app comes along with eight default types of accounts, with the option of customizing additional accounts. This app also enables the Touch ID feature instead of making the user type in a passcode, which many other apps do not offer. In addition to tracking accounts and spending, Money Monitor has a calendar view for bills, complete with custom reminders for each one.
WallyCost: Free
App Store Rating: 4.5 stars
Like the rest of the apps on this list, Wally does a great job of assisting users in balancing expenses and keeping track of spending. Users can save receipts to this app, and can also export financial data to Excel and back it up to iCloud. Wally also utilizes location services with the spending tracker portion. While the user still has to manually enter the amount of money spent, the location tracker automatically identifies and categorizes the location of the spending.