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Best Financial Apps for 2017

Many people resolve to keep better track of their finances at the beginning of the year, and  using a budgeting app is one of the easiest ways it can be done.

Here are three of the best.

Level Money connects your bank accounts and credit cards so that you always know how much money you’ve spent. It also tracks incoming money. Users then enter how much money they want to save every month. Level Money then shows how much you can spend a month to stay on track. The app is free for iOS and Android.

Mint is one of the the best personal budgeting apps around. It displays a wide range of details about your financial picture, from net worth to line-by-line transactions for bank and credit accounts. Mint does more than that, though. It checks credit scores, and helps budget money – and it even will recommend financial accounts with better interest rates. The app is free for iOS and Android.

PocketGuard is the app that helps answer the question “can I afford it?” Enter details about financial status, from bank accounts and credit cards to regularly occurring bills. Money spent is organized by category, allowing you to see where their money is going and how much they have to spend in their pocket, hence the name. The app is free for iOS only.

Mike is a veteran journalist whose video "PC Mike" reports have been distributed weekly to all 215 NBC-TV stations since 1994, making him one of the most experienced tech reporters in the country. His tech stories and videos have appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, the Today Show, The New York Times, USA Today and in numerous national newspapers and magazines. In addition to the PC Mike tech blog, he also publishes the Roadtreking.com RV Travel Blog in which he travels North America in an RV reporting about interesting people and places.