Money Apps For College Students

Managing your finances as a student is often easier said than done. You may try to balance the different costs of attending school (paying for textbooks, meals, supplies, and commuting) to limited budget without a lot of guidance. Sometimes it can be hard to know where even start.

Establishing the habit of saving, investing, and budgeting as soon as possible can help you get on the path to financial flexibility. Have emergency fund, for example, will allow you to cover unexpected expenses that arise in everyday life, from car repairs to broken laptops. And if you start investing while you are young, you can avoid it holding a lot of money in cash and enjoy long-term benefits compound interest.

To help everyone who is just starting out, Select they rounded up some of the best money apps every student needs. They’re all easy to use, but they’re really effective when it comes to cash management, so you can start immersing yourself in money management and building a stronger foundation for your future.

Budgeting It may sound scary, but it is simply a plan for how you will spend your money each month. Once you know what awaits you (i.e. how much you earn), you can more effectively manage the way you decide to spend it. There are many different ones ways of creating a budget, but beginners who want to manage their money on the go should check it out Goodbudget application.

The application is a fairly digital version envelope method, a budgeting strategy where you label several envelopes with different spending categories and put a certain amount of money in each. Once you’ve spent all your money, you’ll have to wait for your next paycheck (or next month) to refill the envelopes.

Goodbudget pretty much uses the same idea, but instead of real envelopes, you’ll have digital ones. You can tag them to label things you normally spend on – for example, school supplies, gasoline, fun money, and food. Each category will have its own envelope. You will divide your salary on each of them, and you are only allowed to spend the amount allocated in each envelope.

If you spend too much, the envelope will turn red, which means that you have exceeded your budget.

Unlike most budgets and cost tracking applications, Goodbudget does not link to your bank accounts. You must manually create digital envelopes and enter your transactions. The app gives you 20 envelopes for free, or you can sign up for unlimited envelopes for $ 7 a month or $ 60 a year. You can find out more about Goodbudget in our review best budget apps.

One common misconception about investment is that you need a lot of money to get started. In fact, you can start with just a small thing, and that’s exactly what it is Acorn the application works.

The app rounds out a backup replacement from everyday purchases and invests it in pre-configured portfolios. In other words, you can invest even while buying cold coffee every day at a coffee shop on campus. Let’s say coffee costs $ 4.30 – An acorn will take 70 cents and invest it for you. Just be sure to connect your credit card to the app and use it to pay for items, otherwise you won’t be able to use the summary feature.

You can also deposit money into the app without making a purchase. The account is open to open, but you will need at least $ 5 to start investing.

When it comes to saving money, every dollar adds up – especially if you keep hiding small amounts over time. That’s about it Digit is there to help you with that.

The app connects to your bank account and automatically saves you small amounts of money every day. It can be 75 cents, one dollar, five dollars and everything in between. (You can specify the maximum amount you want Digit to save any day.) Digit saves on autopilot, so you don’t have to manually transfer money to a special account.

You can also create different savings goals, like a trip on a spring break or a new laptop. And if you don’t have some specific goals in mind, you can just save money to start your graduate life.

When you’re in college, it’s hard to avoid some expenses, like textbooks and groceries. But it’s nice to make a little money on these basic things. It’s there Rakuten is coming. It is both an application and browser extension it can help you make money when shopping online or in person.

To begin, connect your charge or credit cards) to the application. Then, when you make a purchase from a brand within Rakuten’s network (there are hundreds to choose from), you will receive a certain percentage in cash. The refund is paid quarterly and can be a great way to increase your savings just by buying the things you need anyway.

If you think you have a few too many financial accounts, keeping them all in one convenient place can make it easier for you to keep track of everything. Mint allows you to link a current account, savings account, credit cards, investment accounts and retirement accounts (if you have given priority to contributing to a Roth IRA or if you are lucky enough to already have a 401 (k) plan) under one application.

Updating your cash balance can help you avoid missing account payments or account overdrafts. But if you don’t check these accounts regularly, going through the process of resetting a forgotten password can often be more of a deal than you hoped for when you just want to know how much you have saved. With Mint you no longer have to remember multiple passwords. Just log in to the app and you will have a comprehensive insight into the status of your balance.

Discovery: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorn.