One of the best things you can do to get your finances in order is setting a budget for yourself. For some people, setting a budget is easy. For others it may be more of a struggle, either due to their spending habits or lack of steady income. However, the fact still stands that taking a look at your income vs your expenses and setting a reasonable and realistic budget is a great way to keep your finances in the green.
Nowadays, if you are looking for a quick and simple way to set a budget for yourself, technology can be of great assistance, especially phone apps. The most popular app on the market these days is Mint. It is part of the Intuit suite of products and can do cool things such as sending you an alert when a bill is due. You can sync it up with your bills and accounts right in the app to get an idea of where you stand financially. It will also suggest credit cards that might be better for your financial situation to help you build your credit score and maybe get some rewards along the way depending on the card.
The only thing we didn’t care for too much with the Mint app was that if you are making payments on something, like a car that you lease for instance, then it will take the whole amount of that car “loan” and say that you owe that much total. To better explain let’s say you are leasing a Honda HR-V and your car payment is $260 a month. Well the Mint app takes the full $26,000 or so that the car is worth and says that you are technically in debt that amount. While this is true in a greater sense, it does not give an “accurate” view of your finances right now with just the $260/month payment.
While Mint is just one of the many budgeting apps available to you, it is definitely worth checking out. If your needs differ from what this app offers though, here is an article that we found particularly informative by Nerd Wallet:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/budgeting-saving-tools/
Of course, if you have any questions feel free to reach out to us and we would be happy to help. Good luck and happy budgeting!
**Content provided is for informational purposes only and has not been reviewed by LPL Financial as to accuracy or completeness.**