Apps That Have Helped Me Reach My Money Goals

I’ve recently been reading Financially Forward: How to use today’s digital tools to earn more, save better and spend smarter. It’s a great book with a whole glossary of apps you might want to try, including apps that help you take advantage of on-demand services, the sharing economy, and peer-to-peer lending.

Everyone has their own favorite stable of apps and tools they use for money management. For me, however, there are just a few that are helping me meet my money goals, in different ways, and I’m sharing them with you today

Notion

Notion is an organization and productivity tool that helps me in too many ways to list. It actually supports my money making activities as much as anything, because it helps me run my content creation business, organize my ideas and do things like research, write and create on the go.

It also has an awesome habit tracker where I include some of my good money habits, and there are various money management templates you can use to help with tracking and organizing your saving, spending and investing. Notion’s personal finance templates can help you budget effectively, invest strategically, monitor your spending, or track your net worth. There’s both a free and paid version of Notion, and so far I’m finding the free one is fine for my needs.

Monarch Money

Like many of you, I used to use the Mint app, and decided to give this one a try when Mint shut down and Forbes suggested this as the best replacement. It’s since won Best Budgeting App 2024 from the Wall Street Journal as well.

Monarch Money comes with flexible budgeting tools, charting facilities that let you get a good visual on how you’re managing your money, and the ability to link your account with your partner, or even your financial advisor, if that could help you hit your goals. This one is a paid app, but it’s highly affordable and has a free trial if you want to try it out first.

Habitify

I never intended this one to help with finances. I initially used it to build the habits of exercising daily, eating healthier and — very specifically — tracking the books I read. (A friend recommended it for this initially as it reminds you to read daily, keeps track of your reading, and shows you stats about your reading habits.) Habitify has a paid and free version. Again, so far I’ve only needed the free one.

I’ve also ended up using this one to develop better habits around my freelancing, which has definitely helped me hit more money goals. The trick here is, of course, to sit down and really work out where the money is coming from in your freelance business first. I found there were around a dozen small habits that I needed to tick off regularly to make sure my so called passive income kept rolling in. Things like engaging on my main writing platforms, sharing my newsletter sign up page, and regularly checking in with my accountability group to report progress.

Unsplurge

Unsplurge is a fun, free app that puts things in perspective, financially speaking. It’s only available for iOS users, so if that’s not you, skip this one. It’s designed to help you save up for something specific like a vacation, a new car, a wedding, or maybe an apartment deposit or down payment.

You can sync with someone else’s app to help you hit joint financial goals, so you can save with a partner, or even a friend you want to share that vay-cay with. First you set a saving goal, then you use Unsplurge to track your daily savings, including the money you consciously set aside for your goal and any small daily savings on everyday purchases, which you can then add to your savings goal.

Combined together, these apps are helping me earn more, manage my finances better, and save more fun money. Which apps help you most and why? Feel free to share.