Are you tired of finding there’s too much month left at the end of the money? Or feeling okay about your finances, but know you could do better?
Whatever the state of your finances, a budget is a huge part of making sure you’re on steady ground with your money.
Not everyone gets excited about keeping track of every single purchase, but with an app like Quicken Simplifi, you can manage your money with ease.
Quicken Simplifi allows you to see all of your income and expenses at a glance, as well as make plans for saving and investing. It’s easy to set up and sync with all your accounts, so budget management isn’t such a chore.
Pros and Cons of Quicken Simplifi
Pros
- Inexpensive budgeting tool
- Simple auto-generated spending plan
- Multiple budget methods available
Cons
- Investment monitoring could use more features
- No free trial period (though there’s a money-back guarantee)
Quicken Simplifi Features
Here’s a glance at the primary features of Quicken Simplifi:
Budgeting
Budgeting help is likely the primary goal and reason why you’d choose Quicken Simplifi. Organizing income and expenses can go a long way toward making you feel financially secure.
Once you’ve added your accounts to your Quicken Simplifi account, it pulls in your income and planned expenses. You track your planned spending (items like rent/mortgage payments, car payments, subscriptions, etc.) alongside other spending (miscellaneous or variable expenses).
You can get a quick and easy visual on how much you’re spending, including your monthly subscriptions. Then you see how much is left to put towards savings goals.
This is the beauty of budgeting — knowing exactly how much money is coming in and going out. Having a clear overview of your finances anytime during the month shows you when you’ve got room for fun spending or other surprises.
Data insights
Quicken Simplifi provides useful data that can break down all aspects of your finances for you.
It shows your progress toward savings goals, breaks down spending by categories, and offers insights into net worth, investments, and more.
Knowing what you’re doing is half the battle. If you have no idea that a third of your monthly budget is going toward eating out, you won’t be motivated to cut back to reach goals like saving for your Hawaii vacation.
Net worth tracking
While you may be mainly interested in the day-to-day budgeting assistance, Quicken Simplifi also offers net worth tracking.
Add any information, like your home’s estimated Zillow value and manual addition of any accounts that aren’t synced to your Quicken Simplifi account, and get a real-time net worth figure.
Seeing this big-picture metric can be eye-opening and motivational. As with a savings account balance, watching your net worth grow over time can give you a boost of energy to keep moving forward.
Investments
Other budgeting apps don’t touch the investment aspect of personal finance, but Quicken Simplifi lets you track your full investment portfolio.
In this way, although it’s not a complex tool, it does offer a more complete picture of your finances than an app that focuses solely on budgeting.
Learn information like the cost basis of your holdings, performance analysis, and real-time quotes. Useful graphics and records can help inform your investing decisions from month to month.
Savings goals
You can reach your goals faster by creating custom savings goals with Quicken Simplifi. I love making individual savings goals rather than one big blanket goal. It’s more fun, and you feel like you’re making faster progress.
Quicken Simplifi lets you create savings buckets where you specify different amounts and timelines for certain goals.
For example, you might be saving for a down payment or a new vehicle or a replacement appliance. Or there’s a destination wedding coming up in 18 months and you want to be sure you’ve got the funds to cover it without feeling stressed.
Commit the amount you want to save for each goal, monitor your progress, and reap the rewards. Then, start over with new savings goals!
Track credit score and more
You can keep an eye on your credit score, use the watchlist to monitor spending, and receive alerts in real-time to let you know if any part of your finances isn’t behaving as it should.
Onboarding and customization
Quicken Simplifi makes it easy to set up your account and get started so you can be more efficient with your money right away.
Get free support via phone, chat, and email when onboarding, so you know what you’re doing and can feel like a boss about budgeting.
You’re also able to customize the interface to fit your preferences. If you’re comfortable with the way information is presented, you’re more likely to be active on the app and make the most of its features.
Quicken Simplifi pricing
The app is among the least expensive budgeting apps on the market:
- Quicken Simplifi: $2.99/month or $35.88 annually (currenly discounted 50% from regular price)
- Quicken Business and Personal: $3.99/month, or $47.88/year (currenly discounted 50% from regular price)
For self-employed people and small business owners, the new Quicken Business and Personal may be a better option, since you get the same features as Quicken Simplifi, plus business finance planning.
It can help with tax preparation and invoicing, managing cash flow, and managing multiple businesses.
Who Should Get Quicken Simplifi?
It’s pretty tough to go wrong with Quicken Simplifi, honestly. It’s great for novice budgeters, but also offers a broad range of features, without a hefty price tag.
Plus, you get the flexibility to select any type of budgeting method, such as the 50/30/20 method, instead of defaulting to a zero-sum budget.
If you want an easy-to-use budgeting app that also makes it easier to monitor your investments, Quicken Simplifi is an excellent choice.
However, if you prefer to keep your investments separate from your everyday budgeting, you might try a different app. (Keep in mind that you can’t make trades in Quicken Simplifi — you’ll need a robo-advisor or investing app like Webull or M1.*)
Or, if you’d rather not pay for budgeting help at all, you could start with a free app instead, like GoodBudget Basic.
If you’re struggling with debt and want a stricter approach to how you handle credit cards, you may prefer YNAB for its emphasis on debt payoff and embracing your true expenses.
Alternatives to Quicken Simplifi
Quicken Simplifi vs. YNAB (You Need A Budget)
YNAB is an excellent personal finance app focused on zero-sum budgeting.
If you’re willing to pay quite a bit more and put in the effort to learn the YNAB system, this could be the way to go.
There’s a learning curve to YNAB, but loyalists like its focus on paying off debt and giving every dollar a job. It’s also good for those who want to spend only the money they actually have, versus putting a bunch of expenses on credit without a plan to pay them back.
In terms of cost, YNAB is pricier than Quicken Simplifi at $14.99 per month (or $109 when you choose annual billing), but you get 34 days to test it out for free.
It’s definitely going to require more of an effort on your part, so if you want a more hands-on budgeting experience, YNAB is a good option.
Quicken Simplifi vs. PocketGuard
For a comparable budgeting app at a comparable price, you might consider PocketGuard. This app, available on mobile and web, offers a ton of value for your budgeting needs and plenty of other features, too.
Your budget is fully customizable with PocketGuard, and you can track monthly or annual spending, set up your own categories, and adjust spending accordingly. There are tools to help you picture your retirement
Maybe you’re overwhelmed by the idea of budgeting and suspect you might be paying a lot in monthly subscriptions. PocketGuard can assist with identifying all your recurring subscriptions and with the cancellation of any unused ones.
The cost is $6.25 a month or $74.99 annually, making it quite close to Quicken Simplifi.
FAQs
Is Quicken Simplifi safe to use?
Quicken Simplifi is a reputable company that uses 256-bit encryption, which protects your sensitive personal data at the same level as your local bank. They also vow not to sell or share that data.
Does Quicken Simplifi have a free trial?
Instead of a completely free trial period, you need to pay to sign up initially at the regular rate of $5.99/month (or $2.99/month if billed annually). However, you can get your money back with their 30-day guarantee, so theoretically you could end up paying nothing if you’re not satisfied within that period.
How is Quicken Simplifi different from Quicken Classic?
Quicken Classic is desktop-based, so it isn’t quite as convenient for managing personal finances on the go, though it does have mobile services. Classic is also a bit stronger in terms of bill management and tax preparation than Quicken Simplifi.
There are two tiers of Quicken Classic: Premier, which costs a little more and focuses more on investments, and Deluxe, which is closer to Quicken Simplifi in terms of features, but again is not on the streamlined app.
TL;DR: Is Quicken Simplifi Worth It?
For just about anyone, even a novice budgeter, Quicken Simplifi can be worth it. It’s reasonably priced and offers a wide range of features to help you manage and monitor your finances.
If you want a detailed budget breakdown each month, a platform where you can set savings goals, and tools to monitor your investments, Quicken Simplifi is a great all-in-one solution.
