When we thought about the best personal finance apps we wanted to choose those that would take an individual from being in debt to financial freedom. Starting with the analysis of monthly spending, then earning more money and finally how to make that money grow. It’s not a magic bullet, it will take time, but the payoff is worth it.

When it comes to personal finance tracking, budgeting and getting smart about your money, there is one app at the top of everyone’s list…Mint. Simply connect your bank and credit card accounts and track all your spending in one place. Mint will notify you when payments are due and will offer advice on where to reduce spending. Bonus.. They give you your credit score for free.

Mint – Money Manager, Bill Pay, Credit Score, Budgeting & Investing

This may be one of the most useful savings apps out there. Billshark actually negotiates your existing bills for you. Here’s how it works. Take a picture of your bill and upload it to Billshark. Billshark calls that company, works through the phone tree, waits on hold for you and politely chats with the customer service rep to negotiate your bill down. They claim to have an 85% success rate. If your bill is not reduced, you owe nothing. Here’s the catch, if they are successful, half of the savings on each bill will be collected by Billshark. This may seem expensive, but only for the first 12 months of the negotiated deal.

Billshark – Lower Your Bills

After analyzing your spending and reducing the bills you already have, the next step is to reduce your credit balances. Snowball applies the spare change from the purchases you make everyday to your debt. Just like Mint, Snowball makes it easy to connect your accounts, monitoring transactions and rounding them up to the nearest dollar. When your spare change hits $5.00, it’s debited from your account and applied to your debt twice per month. The Snowball App can be set to Automatic or Manual, it’s up to you.

You can pay off anything with Snowball, credit cards, student loans, auto loans or even your mortgage. Snowball works with over 3,000 creditors and has a built in calculator to estimate how much you will save by using the app. And because such a small amount is withdrawn each time, you won’t need to make any major adjustments to your monthly budget.

Learn More About the Snowball App

Want to put more money toward your debt, but don’t want to get a part time job? Well, Fivver may be the answer. A global online marketplace offering tasks and services all starting at a cost of $5.00 for each gig completed. Don’t let the cheap starting price fool you, the upsell potential for each gig is huge. Some Fivver sellers charge a $45 upcharge to deliver the gig in 24 hours.

Fivver – Freelance Services

The final piece of the personal finance puzzle…”How do I GROW my money?”. Wealthfront is different than your typical online brokerage. You only need $500 to start investing, and Wealthfront manages your money for FREE until your account reaches $10,000 (.25% per year above $10,000). Set up is easy, answer a short questionnaire and Wealthfront automatically invests your money based on your style and risk appetite.

Wealthfront – Planning & Investing Made Easy