So now that you’re a student, you should be ready for one of the most fun times of your life. Being at a college you’ll have a lot of opportunities to work on your assignments, make friends and of course, enjoy yourself. So even though you’re young and free, this won’t excuse you from acting recklessly with your finances. After all, college is a time to grow and mature as a person, and that means learning to budge too. The “b” word may feel ominous to you, but sticking to a budget will help your college experience to be smooth sailing.
So whatever your finance qualms may be, in no particular order, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best Apps out there for all your student finance needs.
1. Personal Capital
This app is an all complete free finance center. Using its smart and user-friendly interface, you’ll find that you can do a bit of investing on the side of studying to make the most of your finances. Who said that investments have to be for after college? People who invest smartly early on are likely to make huge gains just because of the time that’s accrued since their investment. Using Personal Capital allows you to gain a complete outlook of the finance world, with intuitive graphs, statistics and charts to provide investment information. If you’re more of a visual learner, this App is likely to be the one for you.
2. Wally
A funny name, but a serious App. You’ll be no wally if you use this one, in fact, you’ll be as smart as a whip. Using this app, you can very simply get to grips with your budget allowing you to track various categories of spending. The key is simplicity, with Wally allowing you to type in manual expenses yourself and so there’s no need to link to external sites or databases. Log in how much you’ve paid for whatever category and in no time you’ll have a comprehensive picture of how much is left, how much you can afford and what you may need to work a little harder on. A great tool all around.
3. PocketGuard
This App provides a fully secure link to your banking system and accounts, allowing you to have smooth access to current transactions and a live overview of your balance. This eliminates the need for a lot of tedious and manual input. Perhaps as a student, you’re out on the town with your friends or you’ve got assignments that need custom writing and don’t have the time to input every pint as you’ll be chatting to your friends. If so, this App may be the one for you. Along with a live overview, there are a lot of options for ways to optimize your budget and many analyses that can be done for further optimization. Plus, it’s all very simple to use.
4. Goodbudget
This App allows you to tailor make your budget by deciding how much you’d like to spend on any category of payment. After you’ve decided on the correct categories of spending for you, you can log in how much you’d ideally prefer to spend in any of the categories. Upon completion, you can let Goodbudget track how you’re sticking to any goals. This is great for the student that has many unique categories of spending and is great for a self-confidence boost if you’re sticking to your targets.
5. Every Dollar
Every dollar you earn is a lesson you learn. Equally every dollar you spend is quite important. Using this App, one is able to link all accounts to monitor exactly how much is left. The App makes use of cozy visuals to help guide you through the process, so you won’t be amused by a series of complex charts and jargon here. Any App to help motivate you as a student to budget accordingly is a godsend in our eyes – the aesthetics of the app can certainly help you do this.
6. Money Manager
This is one of the most functional applications to manage your student finances out there. This is large to do with the ability to monitor your expenses and the vast array of statistics that are provided to users. Money Manager offers the chance to access data from computers, a management system for credit cards and various budget planning based on categories you can easily tweak.
7. Acorns
As a student you probably won’t embark on some crazy spending frenzy, meaning that you’ll have a little spare change to go around. Acorns allow you to take the spare change that you’d get from every transaction if you were using cash to make wise investments. For example, if you were paying $9.90 for a student textbook with a $10 note, Acorns will round up and invest the difference of 10 cents. This allows you as a student to save up automatically without any hassle. Another great thing is that it’s totally free for any college students. It’s never too early to make sound investments – you’re retirement will certainly be a lot smoother as a result.
8. Bills Monitor
It won’t take a smart student like yourself to work out from the name exactly what’s in store here. Bills Monitor takes those dreaded monthly bills and monitors them each month, allowing you to be sure that you’ve paid bills on time. This can be a great automated system if you’re a student that has too much going on. Let’s face it, with college life ahead of you, paying your bills is probably going to be the last thing on your mind. You can be sure with Bills Monitor that all your bills will be paid promptly – no more frustrating charges from late payments if you’re using this app.
So there you go – top tips for top finance management. Any of these apps may serve you well as a student so be sure to check them out and see which one works for you. It couldn’t hurt to get a firmer grip on your financial situation as you don’t want to be in serious debt just after the fun has begun. Remember that there’s no reason for you to give up if you’re in a spot of bother with your finances as hopefully you’re now in a position to make wise choices with these Apps – better yet, let the Apps helps guide you into wise choice making.
