Empower is a free personal finance and analytics platform designed to give you a clear and comprehensive view of your money. From tracking your net worth to monitoring investment performance to planning a debt repayment strategy, keep your entire financial picture in one place. Whether you’re focused on daily budgeting or working toward big goals like early retirement, a dream vacation, or saving for college, Empower helps you understand where your money is going and how you can use it more effectively.
Check out our guide to the Empower budgeting app to see if this tool fits your financial needs and long-term goals.
Power at a glance
- Perfect for: Overall retirement planning and expense tracking
- Free version?: yes
- Paid version: no
- Main features: Comprehensive budgeting and retirement dashboard that shows all your financial accounts in one place
What is empowerment?
Empower is a personal finance and retirement planning app that allows users to track their spending, create a budget, set savings and debt repayment goals, and plan for retirement. It connects to your bank account and shows all your balances in real-time, giving you a bird’s-eye view of your finances and whether you’re meeting your savings and retirement goals.
Its biggest advantage and one of the most notable differences from other household budgeting apps is that it’s completely free, but its features felt less detailed than some of its competitors’ apps.
Main features of Empower
Budget and net worth dashboard
Once you log in, you’ll immediately see the app’s net worth tracker, which shows your assets, including your cash balance and real estate, minus your debts and other liabilities.
The dashboard also categorizes all your connected accounts, giving you a clear snapshot of your financial health at a glance.
I found the Budgeting and Cash Flow Center to be particularly helpful. You’ll see a quick overview of your monthly expenses, how much of your budget you’ve spent, and where your money is going, broken down by category. You can adjust your budget at any time and view reports showing how your income and expenses compare month-to-month. Displays how you spend your money categorized. You can adjust your budget at any time and view reports showing how your income and expenses compare month-to-month.
Goal setting and category tracking
Once I created a budget in Empower, the app automatically tracked my progress each month to help me stay on track with my goals. All transactions are categorized into categories like mortgage, medical bills, groceries, etc., so it’s easy to see where your money is going.
From there, Empower provided personalized updates on how I was progressing toward my goals, like saving for retirement or paying down debt for the year. The debt repayment tool helped me stay motivated by showing me my current balance by account or loan and highlighting insights like how much I paid off that month.
We also appreciated how Empower breaks down savings goals by the account’s tax status. By seeing what’s taxable, what’s tax-free, and what’s deferred, you can now get a clearer picture of how your savings are structured. This is a feature I haven’t seen in many other household accounting apps.
Account sync and manual entry
Once you create an account, you can instantly sync your accounts from most financial institutions to your device.
Empower links your bank accounts, IRAs, retirement plans, loans, credit cards, and mortgages to the app. Simply search for your financial institution by name and select an account category such as cash, loans, investments, or credit cards. After you enter your credentials, Empower validates them with your financial institution to protect your data before syncing your account to the app.
As a hint: You can manually enter cash and credit card account transactions by opening the account details page. Please note that there is currently no bulk entry option, so each transaction must be added individually.
Reports and insights
Empower’s financial tools become more insightful the longer you use them. The app notes that the more accounts you connect, the more personalized and accurate the recommendations will be.
I found the retirement planner particularly useful. You can consider different retirement scenarios based on savings, income, age, and major life events such as buying a home or paying for college. You can also try different avenues, such as retiring early, working part-time, or taking on big projects like home renovations in your 50s.
What I appreciate most about this planner is that it is very detailed. This gives you a clear picture of what your retirement will look like under various assumptions, savings rates, and lifestyle choices. It can also help you stay on track by showing you whether you’re on track with your retirement goals and what adjustments you might need to make along the way.
educational resources
Empower’s blog, currencyprovides readers with personal financial information, industry insights, and valuable investment examination tools to help evaluate current portfolio allocations.
Although Empower’s blog primarily focuses on retirement advice, it also provides insight into American spending patterns and educational resources for parents looking to raise financially smart children, which we love.
Enhance pricing
The Empower app is completely free to use and includes all budgeting features for free.
additional cost
The app itself is free, but you can opt-in to Empower’s investment management service once you reach a minimum investment of $100,000. If you choose to use that service, the standard annual fee is 0.89%.
highlight strengths and weaknesses
Strong Points
- Free budgeting app with comprehensive dashboard
- Connect with experts to discuss your next financial move
- Provides automated insights such as spending classification and investment risk assessment
Cons
- Customer ratings on Google Play Store are low, with an average rating of 2.8 stars
- The Empower chatbot was overwhelming and essentially prompted our team to leave a message for a human representative.
- Customer reviews point to bugs and issues with having to repeatedly reconnect your account to the app.
Comparing Empower to other budgeting apps
Let’s take a quick look at how Empower compares to other budgeting apps in terms of price, features, security, and availability.
Recommendation: Who is Empower best for?
If you want to organize all your financial accounts in one place and keep an eye on your investments, Empower is for you. We found the investment check feature particularly useful for comparing portfolio allocations to target recommendations.
We also really appreciate Empower’s retirement planning tools. This will give you a realistic outlook on your financial future and help you plan for major milestones like buying a home, paying for college, or starting a family in a way that feels realistic and motivating.
Overall, if you want a free budgeting tool that tracks your spending and assets in one place and offers an incredibly robust set of retirement planning features, Empower is worth considering.
Who should skip?
If you are looking for a very detailed or practical budgeting tool, Empower is not the best choice. Unlike some of our competitors, we don’t offer structured budgeting methods such as subscription cancellation services, budgeting templates, or zero-based budgeting. If you prefer a particular style of budgeting, you may find Empower less customizable than you’d like.
It also lacks an easy shared budget feature for couples and partners, although apps like YNAB and Rocket Money can make the process more seamless.
Conclusion: Is Empower worth it?
If you want a free app that gives you a complete picture of your finances, debt, and investments, Empower is a solid choice. Debt payoff tools are especially useful if you’re focused on paying off debt, as they track your progress through daily monitoring and expense tracking, and highlight potential problem areas.
That said, some users have reported complaints about occasional bugs, especially on Android, and noted that Empower’s budgeting tools are fairly basic compared to more customizable apps.
Overall, Empower is perfect for anyone who wants a clear picture of their financial life and access to detailed retirement planning tools. Less ideal if you want advanced budgeting features, subscription management, or easy partner sharing options.
FAQ
Is Empower free?
Yes, Empower is completely free to use. All features of the app are available for free, but there are additional charges only if you choose to work with a human financial advisor.
Is Empower better than other budgeting apps?
Empower excels in one specific area: long-term planning and investment visibility, rather than detailed budgeting. Its retirement planner and investment tracking tools are more comprehensive than those found in many budgeting apps. If you’re a meticulous budgeter or need a tool to help you manage your subscriptions, track your bills, or customize your budgeting style, recommended tools like Rocket Money and Quicken Simplifi offer a more sophisticated and hands-on experience.
Is Empower difficult to use?
Empower’s dashboards are generally user-friendly, making it easy for most people to get started. That said, some users have reported complaints, especially regarding finding certain features, dealing with occasional bugs, or getting stuck in a login verification loop.
Can Empower help you get out of debt?
Yes, Empower can help you get out of debt by tracking and automatically categorizing your spending so you can instantly see where your money is going. The app also helps you track unused subscriptions, watch out for fraudulent charges, and create a savings plan for debt repayment.
Does Empower connect to my bank account?
Empower connects to a wide range of accounts including bank accounts, IRAs, retirement plans, loans, credit cards, mortgages, and more. Connects to most financial institutions so you can see and manage your finances in one place.
Was Empower previously a personal capital?
Yes, Empower was formerly known as Personal Capital. The company changed its brand name after being acquired by Empower Retirement, but the core experience remained largely the same. Popular tools like net worth tracking, investment analysis, and retirement planner are carried over.
