College students often lose track of their finances. They either don’t have the time or lack the knowledge to be their own accountants. Paying rent, performing academic work, and maintaining a social life takes a lot of time and effort. While daily routine is important, neglecting the budget can leave them in poor financial circumstances.
Luckily, they don’t have to pay high fees for an accountant to balance their money. Everything can be done from the palm of a hand. One can choose from countless budgeting and investment apps that will be invaluable for students.
Acorns
Acorns is a great app that uses small portions of funds and invests them in various ventures. Unfortunately, these can’t be used for paying an essay writer online service or addressing other expenses. The good part is that Acorns is entirely free for college goers and everybody under 24 years old with a strict budget.
The app saves pocket money from retail purchases and turns them into micro-investments. People with scarce funds and limited investment knowledge can use Acorns for their journey toward financial independence. They’ll get advice from pros working at such firms as BlackRock and Vanguard. This way, students may earn without getting a part-time job.
Developers boast that they helped over 10 million users invest $150 million. Depending on the account type, other users must pay $1+ a month per investment. It can be a lot for students and other users with low funds. Putting in $5 a month will give 20% to the app. So, better wait for more substantial funds.
Albert
This program has many features for students to explore. They may link business accounts to Albert and automatically track income and spending habits. This solution saves money in small batches on a weekly basis for various objectives. For example, building an emergency fund, saving up for a trip, or paying next month’s rent.
Students can look at their funds in the Overview tab. It tracks payments, savings, and bills in all accounts at their disposal. They also receive notifications about their finances. Combined, these features show how one spends to better adjust their habits. Additionally, the app automatically locates suspicious transactions, bill hikes, and overdraft fees.
Albert informs its users about their investments and saved funds through weekly or monthly statistics. The best part is that everybody gets yearly cash bonuses via the savings system. Not bad for a free budgeting app.
Dollarbird
This software works slightly differently from other money-saving and budgeting apps. Dollarbird tracks expenses through a calendar system instead of making budget categories. With this app, people can better manage daily spending activities instead of looking at monthly and weekly reports. The downside is that Dollarbird isn’t linked to cards or bank accounts.
Users have to manually enter transaction data. The app also asks people to confirm recurring payments and sets reminders about them on the calendar. This way, students have a clearer picture of their daily expenses. Dollarbird’s feature tells how well clients follow their budgets. Paying too much for takeout and Amazon books may signal that it’s time to adjust one’s habits.
Mint
This is one of the most popular apps available. It allows students to categorize all types of expenses and bills. They can attach credit and debit cards to their Mint accounts to observe the transaction history. This information is crucial for building healthy spending habits. Students often learn about subscriptions to unvisited news sites or streaming services through Mint.
The app also notifies users about suspicious transactions, upcoming payments, or insufficient funds in their budget. Additionally, students can track their credit scores for free. This way, they’ll most likely get loans and mortgages later on. The app allows adding expenses and maintaining a budget. One can even use it to track student loan debt fees.
PocketGuard
This budgeting app has free basic features that can be upgraded for $34.99 a year. PocketGuard has everything that makes a great financial solution. Users can link all investment and banking accounts in a single interface. It tracks bills and organizes expenses. PocketGuard also calculates estimated income, upcoming payments, and saving goals.
This way, the app gives users a more precise picture of funds available for daily spending. People clearly see which expenses take too much out of their budget. It helps people meet their goals efficiently. Students may also work on payment strategies for any current debts. Reports can be personalized with hashtags and custom categories.
Wally
College students may select this free budgeting app to track their spending behavior. Note that Wally doesn’t work with bank accounts. There’s no way to monitor daily spending automatically. Each transaction has to be entered manually. Of course, it keeps payment information from hackers. But, failing to write an expense down can damage the overall budget.
Despite some of the drawbacks, Wally is a genuinely solid app. Since students usually don’t work with stocks or have a mortgage to pay off, this solution will do the job. This way, they’ll spend more responsibly and may even save some money for graduation.
You Need a Budget (YNAB)
This budgeting app allows students to make the most out of available funds. It uses a zero-based budgeting system. YNAB imports transactions from all bank accounts. Students can use this information to create custom spending categories. The app allows setting budget goals and investing savings for $11.99 per month.
You Need a Budget makes detailed reports demonstrating spending areas that need improvement. The developers claim that on average new users save up to $600 in the first two months of using the app. This number can go up to $6,000 during the first year of working with YNAB. Students can benefit from a 34-day trial period.
Conclusion
Due to the high price of admission, college can be financially straining for everybody. These apps ensure that you’ll graduate with more money in your pocket and cultivate better spending habits.
