C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Ever since AI made a hard landing in our lives, I wake up every day to a new way it could automate some random chore and make my life just a little less miserable and a lot easier. AI can do what it does best — analyze data and find patterns — and that basic system could help with a lot of everyday stuff in my life. One thing that matters a lot to me and where I really wish AI would help is expense tracking and budgeting.
There was a version of me a few years ago who did not care how often I swiped my cards or how much those random, expensive sprees were costing me. They were not all wasteful expenses, but I did not really know where exactly my money was going. After my bank balance started taking a hit, I could no longer ignore and did something I had never done before: I started tracking my expenses.
How do you track your expenses right now? 9 votes A dedicated expense app 56 % Manual notes 22 % Bank app categorization 11 % I don’t track anything 11 %
Manual is the worst kind of money tracking
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority
All my credit cards and bank apps have expense analyzers that categorize transactions. The problem is that the data is spread across too many cards and accounts for those pie charts to make sense. I wanted something that consolidated everything into one place with more cohesive categorization, so I knew I needed a third-party tool.
Before I settled on an app, I tried a bunch of them. It was not a decision I could make lightly because once you log months or years of financial data in one place, switching is painful, as it leaves you with a blank slate to start all over again. So, I was thorough.
The most convenient apps were the ones that tracked SMS on Android and picked up transaction data automatically. However, a lot of them moved my private data to the cloud for analysis, which often left me uncomfortable. I sure don’t want another living being knowing exactly how much I burn on food apps. But for the sake of science, I still tested them to see what they offered. I ditched most when they started selling me loans and credit cards. That is a clear sign of financial data misuse, and I could not spend another day with that.
Expenses Manager
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