PocketSmith review 2023: A Comprehensive Personal Finance Tool
Updated: May 19
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PocketSmith is one of the few personal finance tools I believe everyone should try out. I personally started with the free version, but quickly found myself upgrading to the Premium package because it was such an easy-to-use tool that had a solid impact on our finances. Read on to understand how PocketSmith can help you get your finances under control and build a plan for long-term wealth.
PocketSmith is a powerful personal finance management tool that helps users take control of their finances by providing detailed financial insights, budgeting tools, and forecasting capabilities.
With PocketSmith, users can easily track their income and expenses, set financial goals, and plan for the future. The platform also offers a wide range of integrations with popular banks, credit cards, and other financial institutions, making it easy to import and organize financial data.
PocketSmith also provides a secure and user-friendly interface that is accessible from any device (for those of you on the go). Whether you're looking to budget for a big purchase, save for retirement, or just get a better handle on your finances, PocketSmith is perfect for anyone looking to take control of their money.
How does PocketSmith Score:
Cost and Fees: 7 out of 10
Security: 8 out of 10
Ease of Use: 7 out of 10
Features and Tools: 10 out of 10
Overall: 8 out of 10
Cliffnotes Version:
If you're looking for a comprehensive personal finance tool to help you take control of your finances, PocketSmith is worth considering. In this review, we'll take a closer look at the features and benefits of PocketSmith to help you decide if it's the right fit for you.
First, let's start with an overview of PocketSmith. PocketSmith is a personal finance platform that offers a range of features including budgeting, bill tracking, and financial forecasting. The goal of PocketSmith is to help users make informed financial decisions and achieve their financial goals by providing them with the tools and resources they need.
One of the standout features of PocketSmith is its financial forecasting. This feature allows users to see how their financial decisions will impact them in the future by creating a forecast of their finances up to 30 years in advance. This can be a helpful tool for long-term financial planning, such as saving for retirement or buying a home.
In addition to financial forecasting, PocketSmith also offers a range of budgeting features. Users can create detailed budgets with multiple categories and subcategories, as well as customize their budget based on their pay frequency. PocketSmith also offers a bill tracking feature that allows users to see all of their bills in one place and set up reminders to help ensure they don't miss any payments.
Another useful feature of PocketSmith is its calendar integration. This feature allows users to see their financial events and commitments alongside their personal schedules, helping them to better manage their time and money.
In terms of support resources, PocketSmith provides a knowledge base, email support, and a community forum for users to get help and ask questions. The company also offers a range of tutorials and guides to help users get the most out of the platform.
What is PocketSmith?
PocketSmith is a robust budgeting tool that anyone can use. It predicts where your money will go based on past spending habits, helping you potentially save more and/or change habits you want to get rid of.
If you have ever struggled to get your finances organized, or if you have made money mistakes in the past because you weren't paying close enough attention, then PocketSmith may be the solution for you.
PocketSmith has built a wide variety of tools to make organizing your finances quick and easy. They have built data connections with most banks, automated reports, and a fully functional app so you can check on your finances on the go.
Another key benefit of using a tool like PocketSmith is the behavior change you can experience. Frequent use of budgeting tools will help you be more mindful of how you are spending your money, and, in turn, show you better ways to spend and save!
PocketSmith will cost you money, so if you are looking for a free alternative look to Mint or Personal Capital. Mint and Personal Capital are supported by advertisers so they can offer you many of their services for free. I personally prefer as many ad-free experiences as I can get so if I were to choose between these three options I'd go with PocketSmith all day long.
Another consideration with PocketSmith is the amount of money you could potentially save by investing in the paid versions. For me, PocketSmith saved me from overdraft and check cashing fees. After using PocketSmith for a few months I was actually saving money!
PocketSmith offers one of the most robust budgeting and money management toolsets in the space, the cost is low, it is super easy to use, and offers a companion app that is fully featured. All in all, this is one of the best budgeting apps out there.
How can PocketSmith help you?
PocketSmith's software intends to change your money management behavior by providing crisp clean visuals that clearly highlight your spending behavior. That is the main way PocketSmith can help you, by changing your spending and saving behavior with little nudges along the way.
The ability to categorize spending, add comments, pictures and tags put a level of detail and clarity around your personal finances that is hard to come by on your own or with other personal finance software options.
In addition to the nudges PocketSmith sends via their online tool, or their companion app, you can set up a Budget Calendar. I love this particular tool because it ensures I know what bills, and how much they are, so I can plan my finances. If I have $100 in my account and in 2 days my $50 gym membership will be coming out, I know that I only have a $50 buffer in my account.
PocketSmith Pricing
Basic - this is the only free version they offer. You get most of the main features and it is a great place to practice honing your budgeting skills. You won't get automatic bank feeds that make things manual for you, but that might be a good thing at first so you can really get the hang of the tools and budgeting.
Premium - $9.95 per month, but all the manual effort is taken out of your hands. You automatically get feeds from your bank and your transactions are categorized for you which is a huge undertaking if you have more than a few card swipes per month. This is definitely the plan for you if you have a little experience budgeting and are just looking for the right software to take it to the next level.
Super - $19.95 per month. This is for those of you that want to jump right in and/or already have a budgeting system in place and just want top-of-the-line software to help manage it. Either way, this isn't for the faint of heart. You need to have conviction in your desire to budget and be successful if you are going to pay $19.95/month and take advantage of all these features.
PocketSmith Features
Dashboard - PocketSmith's user-friendly dashboard provides a snapshot of your financial status at a glance. It's intuitive and easy to navigate, presenting all your financial information, including transactions, budgets, and forecasts, in a visually appealing and organized way.
Budgeting - PocketSmith offers flexible budgeting tools to help you manage your money better. You can set up budgets for different categories, track your spending in real-time, and even set up alerts for when you're close to exceeding your budget.
Income and Expense Statements - if you have ever wanted to run a business then this tool will help you understand a balance sheet.
Net Worth - we love net worth at The Saving Dude! Because they have all your banking information they can easily give you your net worth. What's more, is they can forecast your net worth based on previous spending habits and your transaction categorizations.
Transaction Search - I don't know about you, but my bank's software makes it really hard to find individual transactions or a group of transactions from a single source. PocketSmith automatically imports transactions from your linked bank accounts and categorizes them, making it easy for you to track where your money is going. It also allows you to manually add transactions, making it an effective tool for capturing all your expenses.
Security - second to none. Two-factor authentication is the first step to ensuring your financial data is safe. Next, they don't sync/directly connect with your bank. They use a bank feed to get your transaction data making the transfer of data significantly safer than other types of personal finance software.
Mobile App - PocketSmith offers mobile apps for both iOS and Android, allowing you to manage your finances on the go. The apps retain all the primary features of the web-based tool, providing a seamless experience across all devices.
Multi-currency Capability - PocketSmith supports multiple currencies, making it a suitable tool for those with international bank accounts or investments. This feature makes it a perfect fit for digital nomads and international businesses.
Customer Support - the company is based in New Zealand which can make support tough at times. If you are a late riser and night owl, then their 5pm-1am EST phone support hours work out just fine for you.
Forecasting - One standout feature of PocketSmith is its ability to forecast your financial future based on your current income and spending patterns. This helps you plan ahead and make informed financial decisions. I've talked extensively about the impact of little changes, here, here, and here. This is just a software tool to help you see it with your own eyes.
Investment Tracking - With PocketSmith, you can keep an eye on all your investments, including stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, right from your dashboard. It provides real-time updates, keeping you in the loop about the performance of your portfolio.
Demo Mode - the ability to test a tool out before committing to buying is super valuable. This can help give you a sense of whether you are interested in committing or not. There are two demo modes offered on PocketSmith, traditional demo mode with a set of dummy data, or hard mode where you dive right into the tool. After testing out hard mode, it really isn't that hard, but if you want to get a sense of how the tools disp