These 4 Savings & Budgeting Apps Can Help You Buy a Home

A home isn’t an impulse buy. Unless you’re Jeff Bezos or some sort of lottery winner, purchasing a home takes lots of forethought, planning and, you guessed, saving.

Fortunately, technology is here to help make that easier (and more enjoyable).

Is buying a home on your radar in the coming months or years? Then download these handy savings and budgeting apps to get your finances on track:

Mint

Mint is a good tool for watching your overall financial health. You can set up different monthly budgets — things like food/groceries budgets, entertainment budgets, and other category- and task-specific ones. Once you get too close to those budget maximums, you’ll get an alert to keep your spending in check. Mint also tracks your expenditures, watches for trends, and then makes personalized saving and spending recommendations based on its findings. It also helps you monitor your credit score and overall assets.

YNAB

YNAB, or You Need a Budget, helps you account for every dollar you make. Instead of having larger, more broad budgets, YNAB helps you assign a job to each and every penny that hits your bank account. It’s a great way to maximize the amount you’re putting into savings, while also ensuring your bills and debts are paid on time, every time.

Mvelopes

If you’re a fan of “envelope” budgeting, then Mvelopes is for you. Envelope budgeting has you put X amount of cash into an earmarked envelope each month, and when that cash is gone, so are your funds for whatever task you designated them for. There’s no replenishing or re-upping. Mvelopes helps you take this no-wiggle-room approach, but with digital currency and credit cards instead of cash.

Qapital

Qapital is a type of “round-off” app, that helps you save by rounding off uneven transactions and depositing that “extra change” into an interest-earning savings account. Here’s an example: You spend $1.75 on a pack of gum on your way to work. Qapital rounds it up to $2 and adds that extra quarter into savings. It might sound like small potatoes, but over time, it can make a big difference — especially if you’re someone who often forgets to transfer savings over. Acorns is another similar round-off app that helps you save, though instead of depositing extra change into a bank account, it puts those funds into an investment portfolio that can earn even more cash (potentially).  

No matter what you make or what price range you’re shopping in, the right financial moves can make your home purchase more affordable, more efficient, and more enjoyable. Want more help planning for your future home purchase? Get in touch with an Embrace loan officer today. We’re here to guide the way.