The key to managing your money better is having the right financial tools.
With the right tools, money management can become so much easier. And who doesn’t need easy in their life?
So if you’re struggling with organizing your finances and keeping track of your money, keep reading!
I’ll share my best recommendations for financial tools that you can use to manage your money.
5 Personal Finance Tools to Manage your Money
1. Budget Spreadsheet
A budget spreadsheet is the first tool that I recommend for managing your finances.
It doesn’t have to be anything complicated. A simple spreadsheet to keep track of your income and expenses will suffice.
Using a spreadsheet makes keeping track of your finances easier because it takes care of calculations for you.
The other benefit is that you can access it from anywhere! You can budget from your computer, phone, or even a tablet and it will all sync together.
The great news is that you don’t have to worry about creating your budget spreadsheet from scratch, though. I’ve actually created one that’s available for you to use.
2. Budget printables
Not everyone wants to manage their money digitally.
Something can be said about writing things down.
So if you’re one of those people who like to write things out, budget printables are the right tool for you.
Much like the budget spreadsheet, printable budgets help you plan out your spending and track your expenses throughout the month. The only difference is you’re grabbing a pen and paper to do so.
If you’re new to budget, I definitely recommend using printables in a budget binder to get in the habit of sitting down and looking over your finances.
You can make budgeting with printables fun by using markers and stickers to highlight big wins, like paying off debt or meeting your savings goals! Having fun with it will make it something that you want to do and less of a chore.
Printable templates can be used over and over again by just printing new versions of your budget each month.
3. Debt Payoff Calculator
When I was working to pay off my debt, I wish I had a debt payoff calculator like the ones that exist now.
Instead, I created an excel spreadsheet that calculated my estimated payoff date based on my payments.
Thankfully, today there are several debt payoff calculators available for free that take out that tedious (and complicated) work of creating your own template.
Debt payoff calculators come in handy because they show you exactly what you need to do to reach your payoff goals and they also serve as motivation.
4. Automatic bill pay services
The next tool that I recommend is something that you can use for free with your bank. That is automatic bill pay.
A huge part of managing money is making sure that you pay your bills on time.
To ensure that you don’t lapse on your payments, you can set up automatic payments through your bank or service provider.
Each month, your bill payment amount will be automatically paid from your bank account. It will literally be out of sight and out of mind for you, making it one less thing to remember.
Automatic payments were a game-changer for me when I first started taking control of my finances. I didn’t have to worry about logging in to multiple accounts to pay bills, hoping that I didn’t forget one.
It’s super easy to set up and makes managing your money so much easier.
Nonetheless, if it brings you comfort, you can always check to ensure that your payment went through and mark it off on your bill tracker!
5. Automatic savings transfer service
Saving is important. Especially when you’re putting money in an emergency fund.
Although it’s important to save, it can be difficult. That’s where leveraging an automatic savings transfer tool is important.
You can set up automatic savings transfers within your bank account.
These transfers can be scheduled for a specific day each month to coincide with when you get paid.
If you struggle with seeing money leave your bank account, you can also set up automatic deposits to your savings account with your employer. Just specify how much of your paycheck you would like to send to your savings account.
Levering this free tool with your online bank can help you reach your savings goals on autopilot!
Summary of Best Financial Tools to Use
As you can see, there are so many financial tools available to you that will help make managing your money easier.
Take advantage of each of the tools that I mentioned above so that you can take control of your finances today!
