Personal finance software for Mac is a comprehensive tool that helps you to manage money, pay bills and track expenses. In this article, I will talk about different personal finance software available on the market, their features, and what makes them different from one another. I’ll also give some advice on where to start with your search for the best personal finance software for Mac.
Are you looking for free personal finance software for mac? These days, there are much personal finance software for mac that you can use to manage your money effectively. While most of them look great, it’s important that the software you choose be functional in addition to being aesthetically pleasing. You should also opt for software that comes with a money-back guarantee if possible in order to protect yourself against any issues that might arise later down the line.
Personal finance software for mac is an important tool for everyone who wants to stay on top of their budget. Mac users have plenty of software options, from free personal financial software for mac to a business-class package. This article will help you find the best personal finance software for mac.
Being financially responsible is not an easy task, especially when it comes to keeping up with your finances. With interest rates and taxes constantly changing, you need personal finance software that is flexible and easy to use. If you are using a spreadsheet now and want to upgrade to something more professional, check out some of these great free personal financial software for Mac.
What is the best budgeting software for Mac?
The best budgeting software for Mac is Freshbooks. It’s a cloud-based solution you can access on any browser and device, including Mac desktops and laptops. Freshbooks packs robust features to help users simplify budgeting, track expenses, and report on their finances. Moreover, Freshbooks integrates with many popular business apps to bring all your processes together in one system.
Personal Capital
Personal Capital took top honors on our list because it provides so many different services. It offers a full wealth management service, which will handle complete investment management of various investment accounts. This is a premium service, but Personal Capital also has its free personal finance software.
The free version not only offers the ability to aggregate all your financial accounts on the platform, but it also provides budgeting capability. But maybe even more interesting is the fact that the free version also provides a significant amount of investing advice.
For example, it could help you in managing your overall investments, but also drill down into specifics, such as the fees you’re paying in your 401(k) plan.
Personal Capital may not be the very best in all categories, but it’s a combination of all the services it offers that makes it Number 1.
Try nowor read ourfull Personal Capital review
Runner-up: Quicken Premier
Much like Personal Capital, Quicken Premier offers both budgeting and investment features. But the platform has a strong emphasis on investments. Unlike Personal Capital, Quicken Premier doesn’t have a free version. But they charge a small annual fee for the service, which includes considerably more investment tools than Personal Capital provides.
In addition to helping you to maximize your investment worth, it also helps you to minimize your taxes. It does this by making sure you’ll get the maximum tax benefits with prepared reports, as well as tracking cost basis and estimated capital gains, to help you make trading decisions.
Our Selection Methodology
What makes it so difficult to narrow down a relatively small number of personal finance software plans is the sheer number that is available today. There are dozens, and each has its own specialization or specific flavor. In producing this list, we decided to emphasize the following criteria:
- Personal finance software available specifically for Mac owners
- Software that’s strong in a particular specialization
- Offers different services that would be of interest to most users
- Software costs
- Reviews from other sites (a consistent pattern of less than favorable reviews eliminated certain software)
- Personal experience in using some of the software
Our list of the best personal finance software for Mac was created with these guidelines in mind.
Top 6 Best Personal Finance Software for Mac
1. Personal Capital
Personal Capital is available for both Windows and Mac. And it’s one of the very best personal finance software ever created. This is because Personal Capital excels in both budgeting and investing.
Budgeting software is available through their Free Personal Software. You can add a variety of different accounts to the platform, including investments, loans, and bank accounts. It offers investment tracking, a retirement planner, a 401(k) fee analyzer, and an investment check-up tool that monitors the health of your investment allocation.
But if you decide you want more specific investment services, such as direct investment management, that’s available through Personal Capital Wealth Management. It provides full management services of your investments in various accounts.
But the downsides of the Wealth Management Service are that it does require a minimum of $100,000 to participate, and it has a high annual management fee 0.89% of funds under management, which is well above the typical range for robo-advisors.
Visit Personal Capital or read the Full Personal Capital Review
2. Quicken Premier
Quicken Premier offers both budgeting and investing, but it has a strong emphasis in favor of investing. It charges a flat annual fee of $67.49, and it packs a whole lot of investment services in that fee.
Quicken Premier provides an incredible line up of investment tools including:
- Informed buy/sell decisions
- Unrealized gains
- Continuous quotes
- Printable and exportable portfolios
- Investment performance displays
On the budgeting side, Quicken Premier enables you to view balances, budgets, accounts and transactions, track spending trends, and search your transaction history. You can also sync your data across your desktop, web, and mobile devices.
3. YNAB
YNAB is one of the most popular budgeting software programs available, and for good reason. They provide you with a simple four step process to manage your money:
- Give Every Dollar a Job: Here you decide what every dollar in your budget will do between now and your next paycheck.
- Embrace Your True Expenses: This step encourages you to prepare for large, future expenses, that way you’re ready before they arrive and they won’t upset your budget.
- Roll With the Punches: This step helps you to prepare for the unexpected. If one budget item will be high, you simply move funds from other envelopes into that one. It enables you to deal with a higher expense category, without upsetting your overall budget.
- Age Your Money: This is one of the features makes YNAB unique in the budgeting software world. This step moves you towards spending money today that you earned last month. That is, it enables you to put your income/checking account one month ahead of your expenses.
YNAB charges $14.99 per month for the service, which is pricey, but you do get a 34-day free trial. The company claims new budgeters save $600 by the second month, and more than $6,000 the first year by using the service.
4. Mvelopes
Mvelopes is primarily a budgeting software. It enables you to connect unlimited accounts, and provides real time budgeting, with automatic transaction syncing so you’ll stay up to date on your spending activity.
But the stand out feature of this software is that you get access to financial coaching.
Every three months, you’ll get a session with a personal finance trainer, who will provide guidance and up-to-the-minute feedback on your progress. This will provide you with live support, which may be exactly the motivation you need.
Mvelopes offers three different plans:
- Basic – $5.97 per month
- Premier – $9.97 per month
- Plus – $19.97 per month
For most people, the Basic service will be sufficient. It provides unlimited envelopes and financial institution accounts, automatic transaction importing and account balance monitoring, live chat and knowledge base, and interactive reports. But if you need help specifically with debt issues, you can sign up for the Premier plan, which has specific debt reduction features.
If you want to maximize direct personal assistance, the Complete plan offers a dedicated personal coach, as well as a personalized financial plan and a quarterly meeting with a financial coach.
5. TurboTax
TurboTax is a bit different than the other software on this list, in that it doesn’t get involved in budgeting or investing. But it does focus on one critical aspect of personal finance, and that’s the preparation of your income tax return. And that’s what TurboTax does better than any other software available.
TurboTax is available for both Windows and Mac, and it’s a service well worth having. Not only does it cost a fraction of what you will pay a professional tax preparer, like a CPA, but it also gives you access to a tax expert, if you reach a point in the preparation process where you’re having difficulty.
TurboTax even gives you the option to purchase its Audit Defense Package to help you in case you’re audited. But should you decide – halfway through the preparation process – that you can’t complete your return, you can turn it over to a tax expert, who will complete the return by remotely accessing your computer.
It’s the closest thing to having a CPA prepare your tax return, but at a much lower price. And speaking of price, TurboTax offers five different packages, so you can match the service that’s appropriate for the complexity of your return.
Try TurboTax or read our full TurboTax review
Best For…
We recognize that when it comes to financial software, everyone has goals they hope to accomplish. For that reason, we’ve broken down the specializations where we think each of the six software excel. In most cases, each software serves several purposes, but the areas where each is at least a bit stronger than the others are as follows:
- Best All-around: Personal Capital
- Best for Investment Management: Quicken Premier
- Best for Financial Coaching: Mvelopes
- Best for Budgeting: YNAB
- Best for Income Tax Preparation: TurboTax
How to Choose Your Budgeting Software for Mac
A company’s financial health is crucial for it to survive in the long term. Budgeting software products can definitely help organizations in many ways when it comes to financial planning. The top products on our list all have their unique features but most importantly, they are some of the best budgeting software available in the market today.
When choosing among the best budgeting software for Mac, consider the product’s flexibility and mobility. For example, cloud-based platforms that also have native apps on Android and iOS have an advantage since you can use them on the go or for remote rework. Also, look out for products that are user-friendly even for non-accountants or finance professionals.
Factors to Consider
One of the complications in finding the best personal finance software for Mac or for Windows is that exactly which will serve you best will depend on your individual needs. In that regard, you should consider the following factors in making your decision:
- Decide which personal finance category you need the most help with: If it’s budgeting, YNAB may be the most appropriate, since that’s what they specialize in. But if you need the most help with investing, you may want to look carefully at Quicken Premier or Personal Capital.
- Determine how much personal assistance you may need: If you need help from a coach or a financial advisor in managing your budget, Mvelopes can provide it, and maybe a natural choice.
- Cost: This is always a factor, but maybe even more important if you’re on a very tight budget. You can consider using free budgeting software, such as Personal Capital. As your financial situation improves, you may want to move up to a premium service.
- If you already have significant investment assets: Budgeting may not be your primary concern, but investing might be. Quicken Premier and Personal Capital would be the better choice if you were in this category.
- You may need more than one software: That will certainly be true if you do your own taxes, and need to use TurboTax. But you may also want to use YNAB for budgeting, or Quicken Premier for investing.
Conclusion
Personal Finance Software for Mac can help you keep track of your personal spending and income, as well as investments and loans. Whether you use it for creating budgets or just planning for retirement, Personal Finance Software is a great tool to plan for the future.
Money management is a necessary part of life. There do come some cases when people learn about financial management is the easiest way possible – by experience. In case you are one of those who have been bitten by the finances bug, Free personal finance software for mac is, in fact, available for download. Some of the most popular choices among free personal accounting software for mac and free personal finance software for mac free.