4 Best Money and Investment Management Apps Budgeting apps let you monitor, save and invest your money in a few taps on your smartphones

Budgeting is indispensable to keeping your finances in order. While the task of monitoring each and every penny you spend may seem daunting, it actually is not. Budgeting apps have made money management easier than ever.

Budgeting apps let you monitor, save and invest your money in a few taps on your smartphones. BIZ Experiences India sifted through various money management apps available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store, and zeroed down on four most helpful apps across categories. What more? These services are free of cost.

ET Money

ET Money

This Times Internet-backed expense tracker plus investment management app lets you do it all on one platform. Apart from tracking your expenses, ET Money offers several financial products, such as mutual funds, gold deposit and insurance. It also offers unsecured personal loans of up to INR 20 lakh.

Basic features: Tracks and records expenses through SMSes
-Offers investment options in direct and regular mutual fund schemes and gold deposit
-Lets you track investments made through the app as well as made externally
-Gives motor, health and term insurance buying option

Specialty: Unique "SmartDeposit' option lets you deposit and withdraw money in Nippon India Liquid Fund in less than two minute

Ratings: 4.6 stars, 5 million+ downloads

Walnut

Walnut

Walnut is one of the first players in the money management app space. It has largely stuck to its original product of expense tracking and has not experimented with other financial services too much. This focused approach and friendly user interface makes Walnut one of the easy to use expense trackers in the space.

Basic features: Tracks and auto-organizes all expenses by reading SMSes
-Lets you check bank balance and gives monthly summaries on spending pattern
-Detects bills automatically and sends timely reminders
-Allows BHIM UPI transfers
-Walnut Prime (at no extra cost) offers unsecured loans up to INR 5 lakh to its users

Specialty: Lets record and split expenses with friends and settle them through the app itself

Ratings: 4.3 stars, 5 million+ downloads

Google Playstore

HomeBudget

A basic money management app that lets multiple members of a family manage their cash flow as well as investments on a single app. However, unlike other apps, HomeBudget does not track expenses through SMSes, so you will have to manually add/edit/delete all expenses.

Basic features: Add income and expenses to manage cash flow
Set bill reminders to avoid defaulting on payments

Specialty: Family synch feature lets multiple devices within the family to share information and work on a single budget

Ratings: 4.4 stars, 10,000+ downloads

Slonkit

Slonkit

One of its kind, Slonkit lets parents of children aged 10-18 to manage their child's pocket money and teaches children smart ways of money management. This is done by issuing a Visa-powered prepaid Slonkit card in the child's name, which can be instantly charged from any debit or credit card. Slonkit card offers a variety of discounts and cashbacks on transactions.

The parent can set budget on the card, track expenses, set alerts and create spending limits through the app.

Basic features: Records expenses
-Gives tips for money management
-Lets you manage Slonkit card. You can transfer money, freeze or even discontinue the card in one tap

Specialty: Parents can monitor their kid's expenses, set budget for them and limit their spend

Ratings: 4.3 stars, 50,000+ downloads