The Best Money Management Apps for Baby Boomers

From retirement and estate planning, to understanding healthcare costs and tax implications, our financial concerns only seem to increase as we age. You could spend hours creating a budget, assessing your investments, projecting your retirement income and monitoring your credit score, or you could use your tablet or smartphone to complete these essential financial tasks — and more.

8 Easy Money Management Apps

If you’ve spent most of your life using a checkbook ledger to manage your finances, the switch to digital banking can seem overwhelming, and many tools seem to be designed for young professionals who are willing to take on a higher level of risk. But a new suite of financial apps and websites make it easier than ever for baby boomers to manage their money online. Here are eight of the best easy personal finance apps.

1. Best for Basic Budgeting: Intuit Mint 

One of the most popular money management apps, Intuit Mint, is best known for synching with your bank accounts to track spending and saving — but the free tool does so much more. You can use the app to track and pay bills, monitor investments, create a budget or access your credit score. It also features a tool to help you project how decisions like purchasing a big-ticket item or making extra contributions to your savings account will impact your finances.

1. Best for Easy Savings: PayPal Honey

This browser extension is free and easy to install and makes it easier than ever to save on the things you already buy. With one click, Honey will automatically look for and apply digital coupons and promo codes to the items in your cart (no matter what website you’re shopping on), helping you get the lowest price on some of your favorite brands.

1. Best for Subscription Management: Rocket Money

The Rocket Money app offers a bounty of budgeting services, but what sets it apart is its subscription management feature, which automatically checks your bank account for any recurring charges like magazine, newspaper and app subscriptions. This easy money management app will also flag any high cell phone or cable bills and, for a fee, negotiate a lower rate on your behalf.

1. Best for Managing Healthcare Costs: FairHealth

To help consumers manage healthcare costs, the nonprofit organization of the same name created a free Consumer Cost Lookup tool available online or as a smartphone app. Use the FairHealth tool to get free estimates on out-of-pocket costs for dental and medical procedures, compare costs between providers and estimate how much insurers will cover for out-of-network care.

1. Best for Retirement Planning: AARP Retirement Calculator

Are you saving enough for retirement? This free online calculator geared to baby boomers asks questions about salary, retirement savings and supplemental retirement income such as pensions and Social Security, and determines how much money you’ll need to retire (and how close you are to hitting your goal).

1. Best for Shopping: Key Ring

Download this free app and leave your loyalty cards at home. Key Ring stores all of your membership data so you can get store discounts without stuffing your wallet with bulky cards. Bonus: You can also use the app to create shopping lists and search for sales and coupons.

1. Best for Dedicated Credit Tracking: Credit Karma

Some apps offer credit score tracking as part of their software. If you prefer a dedicated app to monitor your credit score, download the free Credit Karma app. The app displays your current scores from TransUnion and Equifax, providing a numeric score and a rating such as “good” or “fair.” It also shows your credit accounts (mortgages, home equity lines of credit and credit cards) and their balances.

1. Best for Tax Information: State-by-State Guide to Taxes on Retirees

Kiplinger created an interactive map that provides a state-by-state breakdown of taxes on retirement income, property and purchases. The color-coded map also includes an at-a-glance look at which states are the most (and least) tax-friendly for retirees.

Get Professional Money Management Support

Online tools and money management apps are great, but for truly holistic financial planning, nothing compares to working with a personal advisor. Your goals are unique to you — so your plan to achieve them should be, too. At Farm Bureau, we have the tools and experience you’re looking for as you navigate decisions about your financial future.