Best Personal Finance Apps
May 15, 2018
A quick look at some personal finance apps.
First, what you should look for when choosing financial software:
- Customizable budget categories – most people’s spending is unique to their situation, so the app should allow you to go beyond the usual predesignated categories of rent/mortgage, income, utilities, etc.
- Flexibility for irregular income and expenses – the app should be able to handle these more unusual items, such as annual expenses or once-per-year income.
- Reporting – at a minimum, your budgeting software should generate reports that break down income and expenses by category and show spending trends on a monthly basis.
- Security – it goes without saying that when dealing with your financial life, data security is a must. A full-featured app will have connections to your various financial accounts so that data can be imported rather than entered manually. Those connections must be secured by encryption and password protection.
As for recommendations, here are two. YNAB (You Need a Budget) doesn't just track your finances, it also teaches you to be a better money manager. If you're new to budgeting, the app's hands-on approach also helps drive home the idea of being intentional about how you spend and save money. If you have more budgeting experience, you might prefer Mint, which automatically aggregates and analyzes all your linked financial accounts and gives you a comprehensive look at your money matters.
Stout Bowman regularly posts important and interesting information on our blog. Current topics include credit/debit/loans, estate planning, insurance, investing, Medicare, retirement, Social Security and taxes, as well as general information that we think you might find of interest. 
We have been publishing an email newsletter for our clients and friends since 2016. Links to all of the newsletters can be found on our newsletter page, with the most recent listed first. We try to keep our emails short, so there are typically only three articles in each one, most of which link to other articles in the financial and mainstream press. 
We also have a page on our site for the latest news about our company, notice of any upcoming events, and a market commentary to discuss what our advisors and other financial industry experts conclude about the previous investment performance and what we might expect the markets and the economy will do in the coming months. 
Many news organizations offer what is called a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed, a listing of the latest changes to their site's content. We have subscribed to several of these news feeds and present a list of their latest ten articles on a page on this website to save our clients the hassle of going to multiple websites just to see what is available. Currently, we subscribe to 
At Stout Bowman every investment client is first a financial planning client; it's important to go through that process before we make any professional investment recommendations. Therefore, we strive to make financial planning understandable and comfortable every step of the way. One way to do that is to provide our clients access to financial education resources. To that end, we have subscribed to educational websites to receive their news feeds and present a list of their latest ten articles on a page on this website. Currently, we offer