Dollarwise Review: A Simple Budgeting App

Dollarwise is a budgeting app that makes managing your finances simple. It uses the popular 50/30/20 budgeting rule and was created by financial influencer Caleb Hammer. 

It was once a mobile-only platform, but it now has a web version. It's built for beginners who want an easy way to track spending without getting overwhelmed by custom budget categories or layers upon layers of features. While the Dollarwise concept is simple, whether it's worth paying for is a bit more complicated. 

Dollarwise prices itself on par with many of the top budgeting apps on the market, but its feature set is more limited. It also has an extremely limited 3-day free trial and requires a credit card upfront to sign up (which is a huge pet peeve of ours). 

What Is Dollarwise?

Dollarwise is a relatively new budgeting app created by Caleb Hammer, a personal finance content creator best known for his YouTube series that's focused on budget breakdowns and financial accountability, and a confrontational, intentionally abrasive style. Think reality-show version of Dave Ramsey.

The app has evolved from an earlier version, Simpler Budget, and reflects the founder's broader philosophy, which is that most people don't need complex financial tools; they just need a clear system that helps them build consistent habits. 

What Does It Offer?

Dollarwise focuses on a few core features designed to make budgeting as simple and automated as possible. Here's a closer look at what it offers:  

50/30/20 Budgeting

Dollarwise is centered around the 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which divides your income into three categories: 

• 50% for needs (housing, groceries, utilities) 
• 30% for wants (entertainment, dining out, travel) 
• 20% for savings and debt repayment 

The app automatically applies this framework and tracks your spending against it. This provides you with a quick snapshot of whether you're staying on track. This differs from other budgeting apps like You Need A Budget (YNAB), which follow a zero-based budget and require you to assign every dollar manually.

Dollarwise removes that complexity, but it's less flexible as a result. That said, you can adjust the splits to fit your personal budget. For example, if you're focused on paying down debt, you might adjust the split to 40/20/40. If you live in an expensive city, you might need 60% or more for needs. 

Transaction Management

New! DollarWise now gives you more control over how you manage your transactions: 

1. Split a Transaction: Let's say you have a receipt that was 80% groceries but 20% household. You can now tap "Split transaction" and break it into multiple pieces, with the ability to assign each piece to its own category and purpose.
2. Notes and Tags: You can now add a note to every transaction (up to 2,000 characters). You can also add four built-in tags (Taxable, Business, Reimburse, and Recurring) or create your own. You can also rename, recolor, or delete them.
3. Account Visibility: Two new switches let you customize how you view your budget: Include Transactions, and Include Deposits as Income. If you have accounts where you just want to watch the balance, turn off "Include Transactions", and the transactions will stay out of Activity, Budgets, and Spending. And by turning off "Include Deposits As Income", the money landing in that account will stop boosting your income totals. 

Many budgeting apps let you create unlimited budget categories, but with Dollarwise, your spending is allocated to 13 preset categories. The app will then notify you of any unusual spending patterns.

For example, you might get a prompt like: "Transportation is down $28 this week". 

By alerting you to various spending trends, Dollarwise can help you spot problem areas very quickly, so you can make changes. That said, the lack of category customization may frustrate users who want more control over how their spending is tracked. 

New! Debt Goals

Dollarwise recently added a new debt goals feature that lets you see all of your debt balances in one place, including credit cards, auto loans, student loans, personal loans, mortgages, and more. If the accounts are linked, they will prefill automatically. You can also add debts manually.

The tool provides a debt-free date, the number of months remaining, total interest left to pay, and what your debt will cost you in interest this month. You'll also get insights like "You're 3 months ahead of your original payoff date" or "Your auto loan is 90% paid off." 

Are There Any Fees?

Dollarwise is a paid app that offers a 3-day free trial. Here's how the plans work: 

• Monthly plan: $9.99 for 3 months, then $14.99 every month.
• Annual: $99.99 per year ($8.33/month), PLUS a signed copy of Caleb's Meal Plan & a digital copy of his Budget Friendly Cookbook)

Dollarwise's pricing places it in the same general range as more established budgeting tools like YNAB and Monarch, but it doesn't offer nearly the same depth or flexibility. You'll need to decide if a cookbook and meal plan add enough value to bridge the feature gap.

The 3-day free trial is frustrating. You have to sign up with your full payment information to even access it. So if you forget to cancel in three days (which is VERY short), you can be billed. We HATE free trials that require a credit card. 

How Does Dollarwise Compare?

Dollarwise clearly takes a much simpler (and less flexible) approach compared to apps like YNAB and Monarch. YNAB is built around zero-based budgeting and puts you in control over every dollar, but there is a learning curve. Monarch offers a modern interface along with strong customization, account aggregation, and long-term planning tools.

And you can't forget free! Empower offers completely free budgeting and spending tracking, along with a solid net worth dashboard. 

If you find these traditional budgeting apps intimidating, then Dollarwise will likely feel more approachable. But if you're already comfortable managing your money, you may quickly outgrow it.  

How Do I Open An Account?

You can open a Dollarwise account in a few minutes by downloading the app from the iOS App Store or Google Play Store. As soon as you open the app, you'll be asked to provide your email address and follow a brief onboarding process. Once your account is verified, you can begin connecting your external bank accounts. Once everything is synced, you can start tracking your spending. The setup process sticks to Dollarwise's philosophy of simplicity. 

Is It Safe And Secure?

Dollarwise uses a third-party service called Mastercard Data Connect to link your bank accounts and import transactions. This is a common approach used by many financial apps, and allows Dollarwise to securely access your financial data without storing your banking credentials directly on its app. Your data is fully-encrypted and access through secure APIs.

Just be aware that because Dollarwise is a very new platform, it lacks the long-track record of more established budgeting apps. 

How Do I Contact Dollarwise?

Dollarwise's customer support options are limited. If you have questions, you can email [email protected]. There is no telephone or online chat support available. 

What Are People Saying About Dollarwise?

To get a better sense of people's impressions of Dollarwise, I perused a recent discussion in the r/povertyfinance community. Some users appreciated that the app didn't make them feel overwhelmed, but many were critical of its bugs, lack of customization, and high price.

According to one user, "the app mostly works, but it has some issues like double-counting transactions. Almost every time I check, it shows my car payments twice for a month." 

Another lamented purchasing an annual subscription, reporting that "it doubles or triples some transactions. It also has set categories, and you can't create your own. I have reached out to their help email but they aren't very helpful. I wanted it to really work this time. I think it may be even worse than the 1st launch." 

Overall, feedback for the app was more negative than positive, though many people said that they enjoy Caleb's YouTube content. 

Is It Worth It?

Dollarwise is clearly built for someone new to budgeting, overwhelmed by complex financial tools, and looking for a simple system they can follow. And if you follow Caleb Hammer, it can be nice to use the tool he built.

And while I love supporting content creators and would love to recommend this app, it's a bit pricey for what you get. Dollarwise also offers a shorter free trial period than the top apps on the market.

In a way, Dollarwise feels more like an extension of Caleb Hammer's content than a well-developed budgeting platform. And given a lot of Caleb Hammer's audience is trying to get out of debt, I would have expected a much lower price point (like a free tier, followed by something like Simplifi at $5.99/mo when its not on sale).

For beginners willing to pay, that might be enough. But if you want a free app with more features, check out Empower.

If you want a robust budgeting system with customization or more advanced financial tracking, apps like YNAB and Monarch are available at an equal or lower price. 

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