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10 Top Financial Planning Tools and Apps in 2024

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10 Top Financial Planning Tools and Apps in 2024

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Whether you’re trying to build wealth, saving for college or planning for retirement, financial planning tools can help you budget for day-to-day expenses and reach your long-term financial goals.

For You: 9 Easiest Ways To Maximize Your Savings in 2024

Up Next: 7 Reasons a Financial Advisor Can Grow Your Wealth in 2024

These 10 top financial apps and tools can help you save money while planning for your future.

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10 Top Finance Apps at a Glance

App

Pricing

Best for

Pros and Cons

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Acorns

Bronze $3/month, Silver $6/month, Gold $12/month

Individual long-term retirement investing

Pro: Only $5 to begin investing Con: No direct bitcoin investment access

Buddy

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$9.99/month, $49.99/year

Sharing budgets across multiple accounts

Pro: Can customize categories and colors Con: Only available on iOS

EveryDollar

Free, $17.99/month or $79.99/year

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Providing structure in giving, saving and spending

Pro: Can create unlimited budgeting categories Con: Limited features in free version

Fudget

Free, $14.99/6 months, $19.99/year

Providing a simple web-based and mobile budgeting system

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Pro: 7-day free trial with bi-annual and annual plans Con: Only one budget on one device with free version

Goodbudget

Free, $80/year

Those who like the envelope budgeting concept

Pro: Email support with paid version Con: Only community support with free version

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Honeydue

Free

Couples who manage finances together

Pro: Available on Android and iOS Con: Many customer-reported bugs and issues

PocketGuard

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Free, $6.25/month or $74.99/year$12.99/month or $155.99/year

Detail-oriented budgeters

Pro: Lots of features for the price of paid versions Con: Basically useless unless linked to bank accounts

Spendee

Free; $14.99/year; $22.99/year

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Those who want to manage money on the go

Pro: Connect to more than 2,500 banks worldwide on premium plan Con: Can’t share wallet with others on free plan

YNAB

$9.08/month, $109/year or $14.99 monthly plan

Providing a flexible method for managing money

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Pro: 34-day free trial Con: No free version after trial

Monarch

$5.83/month, $69.99/year

Tech-savvy personal investors

Pro: No in-app ads or credit card offers Con: Steep learning curve due to many features

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1. Acorns

Banking with Acorns lets you automatically save and invest your money. You’ll have access to some of the highest available APYs — 3% on checking accounts and 5% on emergency fund accounts. Starting with your spare change, you can sign up quickly to pursue your money goals with an Acorn-recommended investment portfolio. The Acorns app has articles and videos for new and experienced investors to learn strategies and build confidence in investing, saving, earning and other financial topics.

2. Buddy

This simple budgeting app, Buddy, lets you track your expenses to prevent overspending. It’s completely customizable, and you can invite others to share your budget and sync their transactions with yours. Another key feature is connecting multiple accounts, including debt, to monitor your net worth. You’ll always know which bills are paid by whom.

Find Out: Average Monthly Expenses by Age: Which Group Is Spending the Most?

3. EveryDollar

Based on the zero-based budgeting concept, EveryDollar helps you plan your giving according to your beliefs, save for emergency expenses and spend money on what you need to be debt free. You can download your budget to a CSV file using the free version. EveryDollar’s financial roadmap feature lets you track your debt payoff progress and see your net worth in real time.

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4. Fudget

The Fudget budgeting app is free to download on Windows and Mac desktop platforms and Android and iOS mobile platforms. Each paid subscription includes a seven-day free trial, unlimited budgets and entries, and the ability to share your budget and account with others at no additional charge. Fudget is a simple financial tool that basically works like a calculator without syncing your bank account.

5. Goodbudget

Goodbudget modernized the time-tested envelope budgeting system designed with families in mind to help you track your income and expenses. It’s ideal for couples and families to stay on top of household spending. Financial planning with Goodbudget prevents surprises.

Registering your household for free with Goodbudget gives you 20 envelopes that you can track with one bank account. You also get unlimited debt accounts and debt payoff envelopes, can sync the web app with up to two mobile devices and retain a year’s worth of transaction history.

6. Honeydue

Honeydue may be the answer to harmony in the home regarding couples sharing bills and budgeting. Whether you’re newly married or dating or have been wed for decades, you can track your bank accounts, loans and investments in one place. The app even reminds one or both partners before bills are due.

7. PocketGuard

PocketGuard features include an advanced bill payment tracker in which you can pay your bills on time, manage your subscriptions and prevent late fees by using automatic bill reminders. You can see and organize your bills in one location and track them manually or automatically, even those paid offline.

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8. Spendee

You can control your finances with Spendee, including your bank accounts, crypto wallets and e-wallets. Use Spendbee’s smart budgets feature to help you save for future expenses and emergencies. Spendee uses a three-step approach to managing personal finances: Track cash flow by connecting your bank accounts, understand and analyze your spending habits with visuals in the app, and use smart budgets to prevent overspending.

9. YNAB

YNAB uses four rules to manage personal finances: Assign every dollar a job, plan and account for irregular expenses, be flexible and regroup when life happens and stay ahead of the game by using last month’s money to pay for this month’s expenses. YNAB takes the stress out of managing money.

10. Monarch

Monarch lets you manage and track your finances in one app, including investment transactions. Collaborating with your financial advisor or another family member is easy and at no additional cost. You can access Monarch on the web, Android and iOS devices. Monarch uses AI technology to create transaction rules, categorize expenses and predictably organize your payments.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 10 Top Financial Planning Tools and Apps in 2024

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The case against saving when building a business

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The case against saving when building a business
Listen and subscribe to The Big Idea with Elizabeth Gore on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcast.Would you rather play it safe, or grow your business? This expert breaks down why investing is everything.This week on The Big Idea with Elizabeth Gore, Howard Enterprise founder and the Wall Street Trapper Leon Howard joins the show to answer the question: How can I use a Wall Street mindset for my business? Howard offers expert insight on why it is absolutely critical that founders take risks and invest capital, versus just saving.To learn more, click here. Yahoo Finance’s The Big Idea with Elizabeth Gore takes you on a journey with America’s entrepreneurs as they navigate the world of small business. This post was written by Lauren Pokedoff
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This Is the Best Thing to Do With Your 2026 Military Pay Raise

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This Is the Best Thing to Do With Your 2026 Military Pay Raise

Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment of New Year, New You, a weeklong look at your financial health headed into 2026. 

The military’s regularly occurring pay raises provide an opportunity that many civilians only dream of. Not only do the annual percentage increases troops receive each January provide frequent chances to rebalance financial priorities — savings vs. current standard of living — so do time-in-service increases for every two years of military service, not to mention promotions.

Two experts in military pay and personal finance — a retired admiral and a retired general, each at the head of their respective military mutual aid associations — advised taking a similarly predictable approach to managing each new raise: 

Cut it in half.

In one variation of the strategy, a service member simply adds to their savings: whatever it is they prioritize. In the other, consistent increases in retirement contributions soon add up to a desirable threshold.

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Rainy Day Fund

The active military’s 3.8% pay raise in 2026 came in a percentage point higher than retirees and disabled veterans received, meaning troops “should be able to afford the market basket of goods that the average American is afforded,” said Michael Meese, a retired Army brigadier general and president of Armed Forces Mutual.

While the veterans’ lower rate relies exclusively on the rate of inflation, Congress has the option to offer more; and in doing so is making up for recent years when the pay raise didn’t keep up with unusually high inflation, Meese said.

“So this is helping us catch up a little bit.”

He also speculated that the government shutdown “upset a lot of people” and that widespread support of the 3.8% raise across party lines and in both houses of Congress showed “that it has confidence in the military and wants to take care of the military and restore government credibility with service men and women,” Meese said.

His suggestion for managing pay raises: 

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“If you’ve been living already without the pay raise and now you see this pay raise, if you can,” Meese advised, “I always said … you should save half and spend half,” Meese said. “That way, you don’t instantly increase your spending habits just because you see more money at the end of the month.” 

A service member who makes only $1,000 every two weeks, for example, gets another $38 every two weeks starting this month. Put $19 into savings, and you can put the other $19 toward “beer and pizza or whatever you’re going to do,” Meese said.

“That way you’re putting money away for a rainy day,” he said — to help prepare for a vacation, for example, “so you’re not putting those on a credit card.” If you set aside only $25 more per pay period, “at the end of the year, you’ve got an extra $300 in there, and that may be great for Christmas vacation or Christmas presents or something like that.”

Retirement Strategy

Brian Luther, retired rear admiral and the president and chief executive officer of Navy Mutual, recognizes that “personal finance is personal” — in other words, “every situation is different.” Nevertheless, he insists that “everyone should have a plan” that includes: 

  • What your cash flow is
  • Where your money is going
  • Where you need to go in the future

But even if you don’t know a lot of those details, Luther said, the most important thing:

Luther also advised an approach based on cutting the 3.8% pay raise in half, keeping half for expenses and putting the other half into the Thrift Savings Plan. Then “that pay will work for you until you need it in retirement,” Luther said. With every subsequent increase, put half into the TSP until you’re setting aside a full 15% of your pay. 

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For a relatively young service member, “Once you hit 15%, and [with] the 5% match from the government, that’s enough for your future,” Luther said. 

Previously in this series:

Part 1: 2026 Guide to Pay and Allowances for Military Service Members, Veterans and Retirees

Part 2: Understanding All the Deductions on Your 2026 Military Leave and Earnings Statements

Part 3: Should You Let the Military Set Aside Allotments from Your Pay?

Get the Latest Financial Tips

Whether you’re trying to balance your budget, build up your credit, select a good life insurance program or are gearing up for a home purchase, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to Military.com and get the latest military benefit updates and tips delivered straight to your inbox.

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Tech trade needs 2 things to remain 'in favor' this year

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Tech trade needs 2 things to remain 'in favor' this year
MJP Wealth Advisors chief investment officer Brian Vendig sits down with Morning Brief host Julie Hyman to discuss the tech trade’s (XLK) outlook for 2026. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief.
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