Apps to Help You Save More

Before deciding how much you can save, you need to know how much you’re spending. One of the best ways to track your spending is via an app. After all, we’re never far away from our phones! Because of that, apps are a great way to help form new habits. They are literally at our fingertips and once downloaded and set up, they are really easy to use.

In the same way you might use a sleep tracker or fitness app, savings apps can help you understand how you currently manage money and make suggestions for how you can improve. Being able to track your spending, which will be significantly higher when you’re back on shore, will help you make better decisions and hopefully save more in the long term.

In addition to tracking spending, most apps come with features that allow you to actively plan your finances, such as setting budgets in different currencies — which is an especially great feature for yacht crew. When you have access to your bank accounts, credit cards, savings, and investments in one place, you have a complete picture of your financial life. Seeing it in this way means you have greater control over your finances and can make easier and better decisions about your savings and financial goals.

Being able to track your spending, which will be significantly higher when you’re back on shore, will help you make better decisions and hopefully save more in the long term.

Some of the best and most intuitive money management apps we’ve come across include Goodbudget, You Need a Budget, Wallet, Joy, Mint, and Albert. Keep in mind these apps all come with slightly different features, some are free while others are paid versions, and their availability depends on where in the world you’re located. We’ve written a more detailed review of the six apps above on our website. However, whichever app helps manage your finances, the main objective is developing and sticking to good habits related to money management and savings. Your goal should be to establish automatic behaviors, so you don’t need to spend time thinking about how and where to save.

Our advice for developing great savings habits remains the same regardless of the app you choose to download. Don’t try and change all your spending habits at once: it’s better to make small changes that you can sustain before moving on to the next one. Incremental habits can lead to big changes and when it comes to saving your hard-earned cash, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by just how much that can add up to over time.

This article originally ran in the August 2020 issue of Dockwalk.