![]() ![]() You can download our Interactive Budget Calculator Spreadsheet now for either Excel, OpenOffice, or Numbers. It’s just a downloadable file, so there are no security or privacy risks and you’re free to tinker with it for your own personal use. Our spreadsheet will work for you whether you earn money weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, monthly, or even seasonally. Rather than break out the old pen and paper, however, consider trying our free Budget Calculator Spreadsheet. Just be sure to stick with the Canadian versions of whatever you choose. Still not sure if a budgeting app is right for you? Another thing you can do is compare it to other budgeting options like personal finance software or whatever tool your bank, credit union, or lender provides. Personal Security Tips to Help Keep Your Money SafeĪ Simple, Offline, and Free Alternative to Budgeting Apps For many Canadians, these kinds of security and privacy concerns are simply not worth the benefits of using a budgeting app. Even if you don’t link your accounts, you may be worried about how the app collects, stores, and shares your personal information. Be sure to read the fine print of all of your agreements to see if disclosing your passwords and account information to an app is allowed. If you lose any money in the hack, or your credit card gets compromised, you could be on the hook because you violated the terms and conditions of your banking and card holder agreements. However, this means that if the app gets hacked or your password gets stolen, all of those other important accounts will be at risk. To get the full benefit of a budgeting app, you’ll probably want to link your financial accounts to it. If you’re used to a simple budgeting system, then all the bells and whistles of a modern app could also overcomplicate or distract you, making it harder to focus on your primary financial goals. If you’re dealing with debt or struggling to keep your spending under control, the last thing you need is a barrage of enticing offers for a new credit card or investment account. Speaking of differences, many budgeting apps today are not just budgeting apps – they are investing, bank account, or credit card apps too. Even the most minor differences could throw you off your budgeting rhythm and cause problems down the road.ģ Ways to Budget with Irregular Income 2. This is especially problematic if your situation falls outside of whatever the app considers “normal.” For example, if you get paid weekly and the app only supports biweekly or monthly pay cycles, then you’ll have to change how you organize your budget to fit with the app’s limitations. By casting that wide net, a budgeting app might roll into the ballpark of what you need however, it probably won’t be an exact fit for your financial situation. When designing their apps, it’s normal for companies to try and get as many users as possible. Here are 3 important warnings to keep in mind: 1. These can include limitations and even risks for users, and knowing these before you get invested into a specific app can save you trouble down the road. While the best budgeting apps will give all the benefits above, they also tend to share a few general cons. ![]() Is This Missing from Your Plan to Get Out of Debt? Following your budget like how you’d play a game could help you stay motivated to follow your spending plan. Your money is serious business, but that doesn’t mean managing it can’t be fun. This could include assigning regular activities for you to do, displaying colourful bars to help track progress towards your savings or debt repayment goals, and even giving you cash rewards for meeting those goals. Make Saving Money Funīudgeting isn’t exactly the most exciting activity in the world, but the right apps can make it more engaging with features like what you might find in your favourite video game. The time and effort this saves makes keeping up with your budget much easier. By connecting your accounts, you’ll allow the app to do the heavy lifting of entering numbers for you naturally, it should also take care of all calculations. ![]() The benefits of this are big, though the drawbacks are too (more on this later). In order for an app to give you notifications like the above, you’ll have to connect your accounts like your chequing and credit cards to it. ![]()
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