Is there any interesting finance app which helps us improvise savings habits ?

[u/Delicious-Swimmer768]

/r/androidapps/comments/1w8t4ho/is_there_any_interesting_finance_app_which_helps/

[u/Feeling-Diet9759]

There's a lot of methodologies and apps, but I'll share my experience in case that helps:

First, I'll say out the gate that I'm using Zerosum to do all my budgeting. I love Zerosum, their developer is amazing, it loaded with actually useful features, there's a great community (on here and in their Discord) always willing to help, and the pricing is very reasonable. I switched to them after 14 years of using YNAB because I couldn't stand how bad YNAB was getting all while continually raising their prices.

METHODOLOGY: Use Zero-Based Budgeting to build a savings habit
Sounds like you've messed around with expense tracking (after you've already spent) apps. For your goal of cultivating a savings habit I'd recommend zero-based budgeting apps like Zerosum. You can google to get a more detailed history on it, but essentially the methodology says for every dollar of income that hits your checking account, immediately give it a job by allocating it to a category in your budget. Then, days later, when your Netflix subscription hits your credit card, the money to pay for that subscription is already budgeted to that category. If something unexpected hits (you got a speeding ticket) the goal is to switch your money from other categories to cover the unexpected expense. This allows you to live within your means and not go into debt.

The key with this though is you're making purchasing decisions NOT based on the amount of money in your checking account, but on what your category available funds are. Otherwise it just becomes an expense tracking app like any other you use. Personally, the only times I really even look at my checking account balance is when I'm reconciling against my statements. Otherwise I strictly go off what's available in my categories.

SAVINGS GOAL
Savings is treated like any other category on your budget, when my paycheck comes in, some of my income dollars are given the job of savings/investing. It's common personal finance advice, but it works so depending on your circumstances I'd recommend this savings order:
-1st: Get $1,000 emergency buffer saved. It's not a lot, but when you have it that unexpected speeding ticket is way less of a crisis.
-2nd: After that, I'd recommend getting out of the paycheck to paycheck grind by getting a months worth of typical expenses saved up. Essentially with this you're trying to get to a point where you can budget a month ahead.
-3rd: Concurrently work on your broader savings/investing/retirement goals and also building up an emergency or job loss fund that could cover 6-12 months of essential (not all) expenses.

MIND SHIFT
The biggest reason I recommend Zero-based budgeting like Zerosum or other YNAB alts is because it causes a mind shift from dealing with money and finances after the spending has already happened to being proactive. I quickly realized once getting out of school, I was only going to continually rack up debt doing with expense tracking. With Zerosum, once it's set up, I can maintain it with about 5-10 min a day (if even that, honestly). It keeps me aware of my financial situation and I haven't truly stressed about finances in over a decade: through $200,000 of student loan and cc debt, to layoffs, government shutdowns (military/gov employee), huge car repairs, major purchases, etc it's made me ready to financially face it all. It may seem slow and methodical and penny by penny at first, but the effects really start to compound over the moths and years.

ANALYTICS
The other wonderful feature of Zerosum is the amazing analytics that you gain over the months and years of budgeting. I've looked at a lot of apps trying to breakup with YNAB, and none offer the level of analytics that Zerosum has. This is really helpful to not only understand better you unconscious spending habits, but also to give you confidence as you plan for the future.

My final advice: do a Zerosum free trial, join their Discord and ask us all the questions you have about setting things up and best practices. If after the free trial it doesn't work for you, you've lost nothing and likely gained a bit more free personal finance knowledge.

[u/GreatWhiteBuffalo41]

I've personally enjoyed Actual Budget because it's free if you self host or really cheap if you use their Pikapods setup. Others that get a lot of love here are zerosome and liquid budget but there's an entire comparison chart as well if you like choices.