Find the Right Budgeting App

Mint is closing up shop. Luckily, you have alternatives.

- ELLA VINCENT

THE popular budgeting app Mint is shutting down, leaving about 3.6 million customers in search of another way to track their spending. Intuit, the company that owns Mint, is encouraging users to migrate to Credit Karma, a credit-focused app that Intuit owns. But so far, Credit Karma doesn’t offer the budget-setting tools that Mint provided, and it’s unclear what features will be added in the future. Here’s a look at other budget apps you can download through the Apple App Store or Google Play. All prices listed are as of November 2023.

Best App Overall: You Need a Budget

You Need a Budget (www.ynab .com) is a strong choice if you want to use a detailed and hands-on budgeting app to monitor expenses. By helping you prioritize where you spend your money, YNAB offers a holistic approach to monitoring your spending habits.

YNAB provides four rules for users to follow. The first is based on what’s known as the zerobased budgeting method, in which you assign every dollar in your bank account to a specific expense. If an emergency arises, the app helps you make changes to your budget to accommodate any unexpected expenses.

The second rule is to plan for large, infrequent expenses (say, for home repairs or annual insurance premiums) by setting aside money for them each month, while the third rule encourages you to make adjustments if you run out of money in one of your budgeting categories by moving money to it from a different category. YNAB’s fourth rule is to “age your money”—in other words, once you get used to budgeting and spending less, you can pay for your current monthly bills with money you saved from the previous month rather than from your most recent paycheck.