Mobile apps that help you set and meet your personal finance goals

They also offer a great deal of convenience, helping you track your investments and spending on your handset. But just go the larger and more reputable players

Whatsapp Pay has finally rolled out in India, and now you will be able to send money through the app. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has allowed the popular messaging app to go live on Unified Payments Interface (UPI). India currently has many payment apps, including Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay, among others. Mandar Agashe, founder, managing director and vice chairman, Sarvatra Technologies, says, “Smartphone usage is ubiquitous across the country, taking into account the burgeoning digital-savvy cohort. About 400 million Indians use WhatsApp currently.” While payments apps have been adopted extensively by users, especially post-demonetisation, there are several others that you can use to manage your personal finances effectively.  

To app or not to 

With the number of investment avenues growing, managing our personal finances is becoming a complex exercise. Keeping track of your finances today involves remembering multiple login IDs, passwords, and personal identification numbers (PINs). Besides, there are mutual fund net asset values to track and stock prices to monitor. So, what is the way out? One effective method is to use personal finance apps that help you manage your money and offer financial planning services. They serve as a one-stop shop for storing all your investment details and for following up on them.

Some experts believe these apps make the task of managing finances easier. M Barve, founder, MB Wealth Solutions, says, “These days an individual has two-three bank accounts, more than one credit card, open credit lines, along with investments in several mutual funds and stocks. Keeping track of all these in the traditional way is difficult. Apps can help.” But not everyone agrees. Swapnil Kendhe, a fee-only financial planner and founder of VivekTaru, says, “If you understand the basics of personal finance and follow them, you don’t need such apps. Keep things simple and do not complicate them. A lot of people download apps, use them for a few months, and then stop using them later.” Irrespective of which school of thought you subscribe to, the fact remains that even here you are spoilt for choices.

Personal finance apps fall into three categories: expense tracker-cum-budgeting and account aggregator apps, investment apps, and payment apps. 

Budgeting, expense tracker apps 

Such apps let you track your daily expenses on food, entertainment, shopping, and the like. They also allow you to track your income and debt levels. These apps also allow you to view all your accounts, like bank, credit card balance, etc. at one place, thereby saving you the trouble of remembering multiple login IDs and passwords. They also offer you bill payment reminders. Some apps show your expenses through visually appealing graphs. Others make budgeting easy by letting you add and edit your monthly budget targets and track spending. 

Walnut, Monefy-Budget Manager and Expense Tracker, Goodbudget, HomeBudget and Andromone, to name a few, belong to this space. Sashank Rishyasringa, co-founder and managing director, Capital Float, which offers the Walnut app, says, “Our app is for individuals looking to gain control over their finances. It also provides insight into how users are spending and saving.”  

Some digital ledger apps like Khatabook, Dukan and Okcredit let individuals track some of their expenses indirectly. Ravish Naresh, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Khatabook, says, “It replaces the offline udhar bahi khata with a digital ledger cash book. Shop owners can use the app to record the credit (Jama) and debit (Udhar) transactions of their trusted customers.” While these apps are used by the local grocery store or chemist, the customer gets an SMS update on every transaction. So, he has a digital record of the month’s purchases via SMS, which he can use to track his monthly expenses.  

Investment apps

Some of the large players in this space are Groww, Kuvera.in, ETmoney and Paytm Money. Gaurav Rastogi, CEO, Kuvera.in, says, “We offer tracking, advice and execution in one place." Kuvera allows you to buy direct mutual funds, gold and international stocks. One can also get loan and insurance products here, apart from availing of tax and financial advice. 

Groww allows you to invest in direct mutual funds. It also offers online demat and trading service, and lets you invest in fixed deposits and gold. It also provides evaluation of mutual funds. Paytm Money lets you invest in mutual funds, stocks and the National Pension System.

While most apps are free, a few charge money for their premium services. Perfios, for instance, offers its basic service free, but the Gold service comes for Rs 499 per year and the Platinum service for Rs 1,499 a year.  

Watch out for security risks 

You run an inherent risk whenever you share sensitive financial information. Ritesh Bhatia, cybercrime investigator, and cybersecurity and data privacy consultant, says, “I would prefer to work with institutions like banks directly as they are regulated, and security lies at their core. In their case, even if one financial relationship is compromised, others will not be affected. If you want to use these personal finance apps, pay heed to the types of permissions they ask for.”

To manage money, even a pen and paper or an excel sheet-based system can work for someone who is motivated. But if you are looking for convenience, you may adopt the app route, provided you go with one of the larger players.