Best budget apps

While we’ll all be watching the May Budget announcement to see how the government intends to balance the books, how’s your personal budget looking? Try out the following budget apps to see where your money is going.

PocketSmith

Designed to help you project cash flow. It helps you manage and organise expenses so you can understand your complete financial picture.

Fudget

A simple monthly budgeting app with manual input of transactions only, where you can create and track multiple budgets and reports.

Spendee

Allows manual and synced transactions, and adding a new item is really simple. So good to capture those cash purchases, and has graphs and overview features.

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Bitcoin roller coaster

Just how volatile is bitcoin? As the first-ever cryptocurrency turns 15, here’s a snapshot of its annual returns. Read more about how the new US bitcoin exchange traded funds may impact cryptocurrencies here.

Year	Percentage annual return
2009	n/a
2010	30,203
2011	1467
2012	187
2013	5870
2014	-61
2015	35
2016	124
2017	1338
2018	-73
2019	94
2020	302
2021	60
2022	-64
2023	156

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CFOs target change in 2024

Gartner’s Top 5 Priorities for CFOs in 2024 survey asked 185 CFOs to rank their top priorities for the year, following on from its survey of 157 CFOs for the 2023 survey. While last year’s priorities focused more on the fundamentals of the finance function, perhaps following on from the disruption from COVID-19, in 2024 CFOs appear to be ready for a year of transformation and optimisation.

Top five CFO priorities, 2024

1. Leading transformation efforts

2. Evaluating or improving the finance function’s strategy and design

3. Improving finance metrics, insights and storytelling

4. Leading change management efforts

5. Optimising costs.

 

Top five CFO priorities, 2023

1. Evaluating functional scope and design

2. Planning and sequencing finance transformation activities

3. Communicating and engaging with the board

4. Setting finance’s technology strategy and roadmap

5. Developing a planning, budgeting and forecasting strategy.

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Who wants to be a billionaire?

Forbes now tracks the fortunes of the world’s billionaires in real time. In 2024, there are 2640 billionaires globally, with a combined worth of US$12.2 trillion.

Frenchman Bernard Arnault, owner of luxury goods business LVMH, is currently top of the list with a fortune of US$221.2 billion, followed by Elon Musk (US$180 billion) and Jeff Bezos (US$114 billion).

The US, China and India are the three countries with the most billionaires; Australia has 46 and New Zealand has three.

Pictured: Gina Rinehart. Image credit: Paul Morigi

Australia’s top five billionaires

1. Gina Rinehart – US$30.3 billion (mining)

2. Andrew Forrest – US$20.2 billion (mining)

3. Harry Triguboff – US$16.3 billion (real estate)

4. Mike Cannon-Brookes – US$13.2 billion (software)

5. Scott Farquhar – US$13 billion (software).

 

New Zealand’s billionaires

1. Graeme Hart – US$9.7 billion (investments)

2. Richard Chandler – US$2.9 billion (investments)

3. Peter Jackson – US$1.5 billion (movies, digital effects).

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The #GirlMaths phenomenon

In late 2023, #GirlMaths went viral on TikTok: a way of justifying expenses that would usually make you think twice.

Here are some examples:

• A dress is essentially 50% off because it replaces a top-and-bottom combo
• An expensive item’s price should be divided by the number of times you’ll use it – then it’s a bargain!
• If a store has a sale, you’re losing money if you don’t shop
• If you spend enough to qualify for free shipping, you’re actually saving money.

While #GirlMaths rarely makes good financial sense, it highlights some of the behavioural biases around money that influence individuals and businesses. For example, it’s harder to spend $500 in one hit than it is to spend $100 five times (this is known as denomination), and confirmation bias – only looking for evidence that confirms your decision.

So, if a purchase or project forecast sounds like #GirlMaths, it probably requires a closer look.

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