The "Best" Personal Finance App

How does a fancy chart pie improve your finances? (Stockimages, Word).

Introduction

Today´s blog is going to be of philosophical character. Applications or apps are common these days. They are used in various areas of life – for better or worse.  The area of personal finance is no exception to that. Probably every bank has its own application whether you use it or not. I am sure there are also applications from independent providers. It turns out, many people search the internet for: the best personal finance app. Today I talk about my perspective on this topic. In particular the difficulties with this statement: it raises questions that need answering before resuming the search.

Main

When I first heard  the statement “best personal finance app” I asked myself: what is best? When I look at sports, at tennis, the best player is the player ranked 1^st in the ATP ranking.  When I think of football, for example the best team in Spain that is currently FC Barcelona. The club Real Madrid is a couple of points behind FC Barcelona. In a few of weeks the answer  could be a different one: Real Madrid. Back to our topic – what is the best personal finance app? What is the criteria for best? Is this the app being downloaded by the majority of people in a particular country? And how is this an indicator of quality? The hamburger eaten by most people in the world is probably sold at a chain. Is this also the tastiest hamburger? Probably not. I think when people have no idea what they are looking for, they look for “the best”. No idea what it is but it sounds good. I find this approach not decisive in improving your finances. I prefer to ask myself what suits me? That requires some thinking and some doing, some experience. The advantage of suiting is: it´s definable. The term “best” is a fluid expression. There is no such thing.

I move now away from discussing the difficulties of what is best, to write about apps. This comes as a surprise but I am convinced all that needs doing for your personal finances can be sorted out easily with a pen and paper or with an Excel spreadsheet. That applies to your monthly expenses and your investments. The fact that it may be viewed as old fashioned does not impact the quality of the solution. Before the rise of applications people have successfully saved more money or invested well. I find apps even counter-productive because they give the illusion that the work is going to be done for me by the app. That´s wrong. Apps reinforce comfortability, yeah some laziness. I am convinced successful personal finances depend exclusively on the work done by you, not on the medium you use as assistance: paper, excel or an app.

Do you want to spend regular hours on your finances? Like a hobby tennis player? (Shutterstock)

When you want to calculate your expected portfolio´s value in say five years – there´s already enough sites allowing you to do that – for free.

"Best" app or effort?

Back to sports – I´d say when coaches are asked what they prefer between talent or work ethic. They respond: work ethic. For some reason I often hear people talk more about talent though. To me the focus on talent is like focusing on the “best app”, rather than focusing on doing the work. Depending on your motivation and time availability you can do more of it or less. Still you will have to do some work on your own. No one can do it for you. I write about false beliefs around personal finances here Personal Finance. The process starts with yourself, not with an app. If you are not willing to spend, say one hour per month on those topics as a minimum, I don´t see how you can improve your finances situation.

When you are interested in personal finances, move your attention to your input and move away from finding the right app. When your effort stops after searching for the best finance app, it´s probable you are not interested in improving your personal finances overall. How much you want something is to a big degree shown in the effort you make. Something else is more important to you.

Summary

There are hardly (quick) fixes in personal finances coming from an app. Fixing it or improving your finances takes time and effort. The effort can solely come from you. From no one else. No app can do it for you. If you are serious about getting some work done, you will have to invest your time and your attention to the topic. In the same way you do it at work or your fitness. Or whatever is important to you.

Apps for me support an illusion of someone doing it for me and me getting a "free lunch". That is receiving the benefit without doing the work. I think when you look for the best personal finance app first you start the process “by putting on your shoes before your socks". You must ultimately want to do something about personal finances on your own. It starts with motivation and later discipline, not with an app. When you want to tackle the area of personal investing I offer a course here Courses (List).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the best personal finance app?  There is no such thing unless you can say what is "best" for you.

2. What do I need to do when I want to improve my personal finances? You need to get started somewhere and go from there. And not stop shortly after.

3. Do I need an app to improve my personal finances? People have improved their finances whether it is monthly expenses or their investments many years before the rise of applications. Pen and paper is sufficient. A lot more important is your effort.