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    Money & Banking
    Beginner
    5 min read 5 stepsApril 20, 2026Verified April 2026

    How to Use Monarch Money to See All Your Finances in One Place

    Monarch Money connects your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and investments to give you a complete picture of your financial life in one app.

    At a Glance

    Category
    Money & Banking
    Difficulty
    Beginner
    Read Time
    5 min read
    Steps
    5
    Topics covered
    monarch money
    budgeting
    financial tracking
    net worth
    spending
    personal finance
    1

    Sign Up and Start Your Free Trial

    ~30s
    Go to monarchmoney.com or download the Monarch Money app from the App Store or Google Play. Tap "Try Free" and create an account with your email address. You will be walked through an initial setup that asks about your financial goals and what accounts you want to connect. This information helps Monarch personalize your dashboard from the start.

    Quick Tip

    Quick Tip: Monarch supports collaboration. You can invite a spouse or partner to share your financial dashboard. Both people can view and manage the budget from their own phones with the same account.

    2

    Connect Your Financial Accounts

    ~31s
    In the app, go to "Accounts" and tap "Add Account." Search for your bank by name and log in through Monarch's secure connection. Repeat this process for every account: checking, savings, credit cards, investment accounts, mortgage or loans, and retirement accounts. The more accounts you connect, the more complete your financial picture will be. Account connections usually sync within a few hours.

    Warning

    Monarch uses read-only access to your financial accounts. It cannot move money or make changes. If a connection fails or an account stops syncing, you may need to re-enter your banking credentials in the Accounts section.

    3

    Review and Categorize Your Transactions

    ~35s
    Go to the "Transactions" section to see all recent spending across all connected accounts in one list. Monarch automatically categorizes most transactions — a charge from a grocery store gets labeled "Groceries," a gas station charge gets labeled "Gas." Review the auto-categorized transactions and correct any that are wrong by tapping the category label and selecting the right one. The more corrections you make early on, the better the app gets at categorizing your spending accurately going forward.

    Quick Tip

    Quick Tip: Merchant rules let you tell Monarch that a specific store always belongs in a specific category. Set these up for your most frequent purchases to stop recategorizing them every month.

    4

    Set Up a Budget

    ~22s
    Go to "Budget" in the app's navigation. Monarch shows you how much you spent in each category last month and suggests budget amounts based on that history. Review the suggested amounts and adjust them to reflect what you actually want to spend in each category. Tap a category to set a monthly limit. Categories that are over budget turn red — categories under budget stay green.
    5

    Track Your Net Worth Over Time

    ~32s
    Tap "Net Worth" to see your total assets minus total debts. Add any accounts not yet connected — for example, a 401(k) held at your employer's plan — by entering the balance manually. Return to this screen monthly to see whether your net worth is growing. Over time, this chart becomes one of the most motivating views in the app.

    Quick Tip

    Quick Tip: You can add your home's estimated value manually under "Assets" to include home equity in your net worth calculation. Use a conservative estimate from a site like Zillow or Redfin rather than the highest possible value.

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    Monarch Money is a budgeting and financial tracking app that connects to virtually all of your financial accounts — bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages, investment accounts, student loans, and retirement accounts — and displays everything in a single organized dashboard. Instead of logging in to four or five different apps to understand your financial situation, you open Monarch and see it all at once.

    The app is especially strong for people who want a high-level view of their finances rather than a strict envelope-style budget. It tracks your spending automatically by importing transactions from connected accounts, sorts those transactions into categories, and shows you trends over time. You can see month-by-month breakdowns of how much you spent on dining, groceries, entertainment, and any other category without manually entering a single transaction.

    One of Monarch's standout features is its net worth tracker. It calculates your net worth in real time by subtracting your total debts (mortgage, car loan, credit card balances) from your total assets (checking, savings, investments, home value). Watching this number grow over time is a powerful motivator to spend thoughtfully and save consistently.

    Monarch also has a goal-tracking feature for specific financial targets — paying off a credit card, saving for a down payment, or building an emergency fund. You set the target amount and deadline, and Monarch shows your progress and tells you how much you need to save each month to stay on track.

    The app costs $14.99 per month or $99.99 per year. A free trial is available. Unlike Mint, which shut down in 2024, Monarch does not sell your data to third parties — its business model is entirely subscription-based.

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    monarch money
    budgeting
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    personal finance

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