Online Budgeting Tools

Budgeting can be stressful. I know — you’re trying to keep track of all those receipts and bills. And some months you just feel overwhelmed by it all. So, how can the process be easier? The answer technology — or better yet, your smartphone (truth is that it’s pretty smart).

There are several tools available online to help you with your budgeting needs. And you guessed it — there’s an app for that. These tools will help you track every transaction and categorize them according to your budgeting needs. Fort Worth Community Credit Union offers a service called Finance Works (powered by Quicken), which allows you to add any type of financial account to monitor and track all transactions. Once the accounts are added, Finance Works will begin to import and categorize all transactions. You can customize what categories you want to monitor and setup monthly goals for each budget category. Once your goals are setup Finance Works will give you a breakdown of your progress throughout the month as well as weekly or monthly updates. We’re talking pie charts, ladies — clean and easy to read! This is a budgeting tool that is easy to use and keeps you on top of your money.

A budget really just means that you have a plan for your money, and that you are keeping track of where it goes so you can adjust your plan if you need to. Tools and resources such as Finance Works and budgeting worksheets allow you to get a realistic view of your finances, and then help you reach your goals.

Here are a few smartphone apps and online resources to check out.

• Mint.com — Mint pulls all your financial accounts into one place. Set a budget, track your goals and do more with your money, for free!

• Pageonce — Pageonce is the award-winning app that organizes and tracks your cash, credit cards, and pays your bills. 

• Dave Ramsey — Tools provided by Dave Ramsey to keep you on track and focused.
• Get Your Worth On — There is also budgeting resources and tools available on my website. 

Establishing and maintaining a budget takes some work but once you get the hang of it there are plenty of tools and resources available to make it easy to keep up with.

Here’s to sticking to your budget!