The Best Budget App for Australians to Track Net Worth, Account Balances and So Much More!

If you've ever used a budgeting app, the first thing you would have done is set up a budget and then reviewed your recent spending, with the hope of taming the household budget. And that is a great place to start.

But at some point you will find yourself asking a bigger question. Not "where is my money going?" but "how am I tracking?" and "what else could I be doing?"

With your budget under control, you need to move on to your Net Worth and Wealth View, along with tracking your account holdings and balances (and we'll go through them in more detail below).

After that, you might want to start tracking goals, saving for a house deposit, planning your mortgage and offset account, crushing debt, tracking your wealth and setting up an emergency fund, giving you a full picture of your personal finances.

As well as a feature rich app that will grow with you, the other thing to think about is the devices, security and access you want.

For example, you might start with an IOS app on your iPhone and set everything up, just to find your work switches you out to a Samsung Android phone, and that extra access you were hoping for on your laptop also isn't available - and neither is couples logins.

You suddenly find all your finances are locked into a single device app.

So it helps to understand that there are a whole range of benefits that you may or may not get depending on the Australian budget app you choose

I am going to start with your Net Worth and tracking of all your account balances as they are the natural next step to your budget journey, but I will also touch on a range of others features that can make the world of difference to your personal finances.

A budget tells you where your money goes each month. A spending review tells you where it actually went. Both are essential.

But neither of them tells you how you are progressing. After working, saving, paying down debt and chipping away at the mortgage, have you actually got anywhere?

That is a different question. And it needs a different tool.

Your Net Worth is the perfect tool to help you track your progress over time.

In its simplest form it adds up everything you own and compares it to everything you owe. The difference is your Net Worth.

Bank accounts, properties, shares, superannuation, cryptocurrencies, cars, home contents, gold bullion - everything goes in.

Then every debt, credit card, personal loan and mortgage comes off. What is left is your number.

Compare that number to where you were six months ago and you can instantly see how far you have come. Are the debts going down? Are the assets going up? Is the gap getting bigger? That is progress you can actually see.

Some of the more premium budget apps go a step further and offer a second view of your assets specifically for tracking your wealth building progress.

For example, the Australian MoneyFormula budget app includes a Wealth View alongside the traditional Net Worth.

The difference is simple - the Wealth View only includes the accounts you have tagged as Wealth Assets. Everything else that is a personal use item, your home, your car, your home contents, gets excluded.

Why does that matter?

Your home might add $600,000 to your Net Worth, but if you live in it, you can use it to generate income.

The Wealth View strips out the personal use assets so you can focus on what generates income - your investments, superannuation, shares, rental properties and savings working towards your goals.

One view shows you the complete picture. The other shows you what is growing.

But here is the catch, your Net Worth is only as good as the accounts and assets you are tracking. And this is where budget apps can vary quite a bit.

Some apps limit you to Open Banking accounts only - bank accounts, credit cards and loans from the major financial institutions.

That is a reasonable start, but it means your property, your car, your superannuation, your shares, your crypto currency and your investment properties are missing. You end up with half a picture.

Ideally you want a budget app that lets you capture everything you will ever own and owe, which means pick a budget app that lets you track everything, so your Net Worth (and Wealth View) is a true reflection of your holdings.

So what does a complete list look like in Australia? Let's borrow MoneyFormula's list of assets, debts and savings as a great example of what to look for:

So as you can see, MoneyFormula covers every asset and debt type you can think of in Australia, providing one of the most complete Net Worth values you can achieve.

The other thing to keep in mind is how to maintain these account values (after all, you are trying to track your progress so you need some sort of values against each flowing into your Net Worth).

There are three main ways to do this, Open Banking, file import and manually entering a balance or valuation on a given day. This is where you have to pick your budget app carefully, because if any of these are missing - your Net Worth won't be complete.

For example, I find MoneyFormula shines in this area, as it provides secure Open Banking to the top 110+ financial institutions, so anything that can be automatically loaded is pushed through to your Net Worth in real time.

Then it also includes advanced file importing (CSV, OFX, QIF), so if you have some second tier assets with transactions, you can easily load them.

And it also lets you capture a balance or valuation at any point in time on any asset or debt, which is perfect for fairly static assets.

For example, your house, car, gold and even your superannuation, you can go in and enter a new balance every few months or even yearly depending on how closely you are tracking.

The combination of all three means your Net Worth stays accurate and complete, not just the bank account bits.

So far we have covered how to use your Net Worth (and optionally Wealth View) view to track your progress, and the importance of being able to track your accounts, asset and debt holdings.

This makes a perfect 'next step' if you've just been budgeting and reviewing you spending so far.

Next, let's take a look at some of the premium features that can really make a difference to your budgeting experience, and help you level-up your personal finances another notch.

We saw above that having all three ways of updating your balances is a great way to maintain your full Net Worth picture so you can accurately track your progress. But, being able to use all three on the SAME asset or debt can be extremely useful.

For example, with MoneyFormula you can switch between any update type, at any time, so for example, if you start out manually capturing a valuation on an asset, then switch to importing transactions, and then you find the institution comes online with Open Banking so you switch to using Bank Sync.

Without this type of option you might be stuck always manually updating assets, or importing files, or needing to delete accounts and start again.

The other trick with manually updated accounts is they are only as accurate as the last time you remembered to update them.

So when life gets busy (pretty much always!), unless you get a little nudge and reminder to update them, your Net Worth will probably go a little stale.

Again, MoneyFormula's Balance Reminders are a premium feature that gives you that nudge when it is time to update a manually tracked account.

You get to choose how often you want to update each asset or debt (for example, monthly, quarterly, six monthly, yearly) and if you forget to update the balance MoneyFormula will gently remind you a balance needs reviewing.

It is a great feature that can make all the difference to the accuracy of your Net Worth over time.

Once your Net Worth is set up and your balances are flowing in, the natural next step is to start putting your money to work.

Being able to set up savings goals and wealth goals directly inside the app - whether you're setting up an emergency fund, saving for a house deposit, crushing your mortgage or working towards a holiday - it is the easiest way to achieve them.

Each goal should track your progress automatically as your balances update, so you always know how close you are.

As you manage your finances, not only does the Net Worth show you your progress so far, the goal tracking helps keep you motivated and moving forwards.

For example, with MoneyFormula you can set up Wealth Goals (create and top up an emergency fund, crush bad debt, save for a home deposit, crush your mortgage, pay down investment loans and other debt) and you can set up Rewards Goals (saving for a trip to Fiji, buying the new electric car, preparing for the big wedding, renovating the house), all automatically updated in real-time as your balances change making it super easy to track your progress and see exactly when you will achieve every goal.

For most Australian homeowners, the mortgage is the biggest debt in their Net Worth, and the biggest single expense on the household budget.

If you have a mortgage, then look for more than just the basic "mortgage balance" functionality.

Ideally you need a set of simple mortgage planning tools that show you exactly how long it will take to pay off your home loan, what happens if you make extra repayments, or you switch to fortnightly repayments, or how much benefit you get linking multiple offset accounts, or what happens to your mortgage when interest rates rise.

Each one of these can have a huge impact on your budget (good or bad) so having the answers in real time on your current mortgage balance is incredibly powerful.

For example, MoneyFormula comes with a dedicated Mortgage Tracker section that contains planning reports (including Interest Rate Change , Extra Payments, Mortgage Payout Options, Fortnightly / Weekly and Offset Benefits) and a set of error checking reports (including the Interest Calculation Checker and Refund Calculator and Daily Interest) giving you full control over your mortgage.

Beyond the mortgage, most households carry a mix of credit cards, personal loans and other debts which come with huge interest rates. While a mortgage does damage to your budget over the long term, bad debts hit hard straight away.

It's not enough just knowing the balances, you need a plan to pay them down fast.

There are different debt strategies you can apply from avalanche (largest interest rate first), snowball (smallest balance first) and custom (where you pick based on emotional, or personal criteria) and the premium apps out there will let you test them all on your current debts.

If your budget is drowning in bad debt repayments, test the different strategies, pick the one that works for you and lock it in.

For example, in MoneyFormula all your bad debts are automatically grouped up and listed on the Debt Crusher showing you exactly when each will end and how much you have left to pay. And, you can easily switch between the different debt strategies to work out which is best for you (and you can even custom sort the debts if there is a particular emotional debt you just want to clear first), then you can lock it in and have a crystal clear plan of when each debt will be gone from your life and your budget.

Managing your finances is easier when both partners are across it. Look for a budget app that includes partner and family login so two people can access the same account from their own secure login, each with their own multi-factor authentication.

The more premium apps will actually let you choose whether both people have full access, or one of you is set up as full access and the other read only (see everything, change nothing). This read only option is particularly useful if you have a less financially savvy partner with fat fingers (and can help avoid the "honey, did you just delete the budget again?" arguments)

Oh, and make sure it works across iOS, Android and desktop so it does not matter what device either of you is on.

For example, with MoneyFormula you can set up your account and easily invite your partner, giving them either full access or read only. Best of all you can change this access at any time, so if you start them on read only as they first have a play, you can switch them over to full access when they are ready. And with MoneyFormula working on any device from mobile to desktop, with the web browser version, and native mobile apps available on both Apple and Google play stores, there is something for everyone.

So if you are looking around for a budget app, make sure you get one that will grow with you.

Budgeting is a great first step, along with tracking your net worth and everything you own.

But it doesn't stop there. Do you have a mortgage? Will you be saving for a holiday? Do you have debts you need to crush? Will it work on all your devices? Have you set up your emergency fund? Do you need partner login? Does it use Open Banking?

If you are looking for the perfect Australian made and loved budget app, that includes everything we've covered above (including all the premium features) then MoneyFormula is for you.

Try MoneyFormula today and see what you think.