Keeping track of your full financial picture is no small task. There are a lot of moving parts. You set up a budget, track your expenses, and then review. Plus, you make investment decisions and monitor your net worth. In this Empower review, we explore one platform that can help you do it all–or at least get really close!

Empower is the new name for a personal finance favorite, Personal Capital. It's been a long-time favorite in the personal finance community. It's time to find out why!

In this Empower review, we take a deep dive into everything Empower offers, especially now that it got a fresh facelift. Explore how Empower works and then discover the various tools within it that can help you build wealth for free by focusing on your finances today and your future goals.

What is Empower?

Empower–formerly known as Personal Capital–is a beloved finance tool, especially among people in the financial independence community. Empower is often compared to other budgeting tools, however, Empower is so much more than a budgeting app. This free tool is actually a comprehensive piece of financial software that is accessible through both desktop and mobile devices. 

Empower allows users to keep an eye on their financial health and investments with a few easy clicks. Empower promises to allow you to “get a 360-degree view of your money”. Whether you already do regular money check-ins or are looking for an easy way to start, Empower might be just the tool that you and your family need!

Empower Review: How does it work?

Like other fintech apps, Empower does a lot of the heavy lifting for users. By authorizing access to your other money accounts, Empower pieces together a total money picture for you.

Here’s how you can get started with your Empower Dashboard in four easy steps:

1. Create an Empower account. 
2. Link your financial accounts. Search by the name of each financial institution or type in the web address. 
3. Update your login credentials for each account. Empower then verifies each account with the financial institutions.
4. Verify that all of your accounts are added. You can now see them all in one place! 

Users can link their checking and savings accounts, as well as credit cards and investment accounts. Unlike some apps that focus solely on budgeting, Empower encourages you to link as many accounts as possible. The more information you share with Empower, the more detailed your financial picture becomes. 

To streamline the process even more, make sure that you identify all of the accounts you would like to add and find your login credentials ahead of time. If you leave off an account or need to remove one later, it is very easy to edit your Empower Dashboard. 

What free tools does Empower provide?

No Empower review would be complete without sharing these amazing tools. In fact, one of the biggest reasons why Empower has so many devoted fans is because of the free financial tracking tools it offers. After you set up your Empower account and link your accounts to it, you can take advantage of these free tools to help you build wealth. 

If you’re like us, you know what it’s like to have “app overload” on your phone. One of the best parts about Empower is that all of these different tools are housed within the app in order to help you streamline your financial checkups.

Here are all of the tools that you can access with Empower. 

Budgeting

The Empower budgeting tool has two distinct features.

One part of the tool allows you to analyze your spending and savings. Users can sort by date, category, or merchant. This feature is helpful for people who want to keep a closer eye on where their money is going. After all, it’s important that your spending (and saving!) align with your goals. 

The other aspect of the budgeting tool will feel familiar if you’ve tried out other budgeting apps in the past. The Empower budgeting tool allows you to set a spending target for the money. Then, you can track your spending over time.

If you find yourself struggling with setting an accurate spending target, Empower can help. The app sorts your transactions by type, so you can see where the majority of your money is going.

Additionally, if you want to customize your transactions, you can use their general categories or get as specific as you’d like. Perhaps you want to categorize each kiddo's extracurricular activities or label different household expenses. Get as detailed as you need to be!

You can even separate out work-related expenses if that’s something you get reimbursed for and don’t want it to come out of your personal budget. The flexibility of this tool is something that we love.

If you are new to budgeting, Empower can do a lot of the work for you. However, as you are ready to really drill down into the numbers, you have the option of getting as specific as you want. 

Net Worth

If you’ve ever seen someone discuss their net worth in detail, there’s a good chance they’re using a tool from Empower to review it. The net worth tracking feature is one of the most beloved aspects of Empower and for good reason!

The formula behind calculating net worth isn’t complicated. You simply total up all of your assets and subject your liabilities.

However, that’s easier said than done many times. The more accounts you have, the more complicated it can be. Unless you have Empower. Then, it’s as simple as clicking over to the net worth tool to see where you stand. 

The Empower app is designed to give you a full picture of your financial health, and the net worth tool is an easy way to review it. This tool captures all of your account balances–from savings to retirement–and your cash flow, creating a single chart to help you see your net worth.

You also have the option of adding real estate to your net worth. Empower and Zillow can be linked to provide a ballpark figure on your property values to see how that shapes your net worth as well. 

(Side note: This tool helped us on our journey to becoming a millionaire couple in our 30s!)

Savings Planner

Does it ever feel a bit like sorcery when people correlate your spending today to how it impacts your retirement years or even decades from now?

One of the biggest struggles with finances is that it is so difficult to make the future feel real. Yet that’s exactly what the Empower savings planner tool is designed to do. 

This tool creates an annual savings range for users. Then, it helps project the prospect of you reaching your retirement goals based on that savings.

While it still isn’t a crystal ball and therefore can’t promise to be 100% accurate, it can help you see if you’re in the ballpark. Sometimes, it seems like the sacrifices we make now will never pay off. This tool can give you some of that instant gratification that you need to boost your motivation and buckle down to ramp up your savings rate. 

How can Empower tools help me plan my retirement?

The Empower tools like the budgeting tool and savings planner are focused on what your money looks like today. However, the people behind Empower know that what we do with our money today drives our future. That’s why Empower also offers free tools to help you plan the retirement of your dreams.  

Understanding the Empower investment philosophy

Empower's investment philosophy is at the core of its retirement planning tools. They aim to help users do three things:

1. Better understand your asset allocation.
2. Use diversification to your advantage. 
3. Optimize your taxes.

What's the purpose of focusing on those three things?

By understanding your asset allocation, you can ensure that your portfolio is working hard enough to meet your retirement goals. Diversification helps your investments weather storms, and optimizing your taxes means that you keep more of your money working for you.

These components of investment and retirement planning sound complicated (and they can be), but thankfully, Empower offers tools to simplify all of that. 

Investment Checkup

Empower pulls information from your investment accounts to give you a snapshot glance at your portfolio with their investment checkup tool.

Within that tool, you can analyze your portfolio using the “Allocation” option. Empower will categorize and color-code your investments. 

By breaking your portfolio down into cash, US stocks, international stocks, US bonds, international bonds, and alternatives, you can see if your asset allocation matches your risk tolerance and your investing goals. If Empower determines that your portfolio is too risky given your projected retirement date, it also suggests ways to achieve similar performance with less risk to your retirement goals.

You can also take a deeper dive, exploring everything from market cap, to industry, and more. If you’re someone who really loves to dive into the numbers, the investment checkup tool also gives you the option to explore how your portfolio would have performed in the past.

While past performance can’t predict the future, it can help to educate you more about market history and your own investment strategy.  That's in line with Empower's overall goal–to help you get a better understanding of finances.

Education Planner

Whether you intend to go back to school yourself or you are looking to help your children or grandchildren afford school, the Empower education tool can help. This powerful tool will help you estimate how much money you need to save today to afford the cost of education in the future. 

When you use the education tool, you can create an education goal based on the age of the prospective student and the type of school they hope to attend. Afterward, you can either manually enter your current savings or link any accounts. Then, the average cost calculator will ballpark the expenses for you, including tuition, housing, and supplies.

The planner even accounts for inflation, giving you a more accurate number to use to guide your savings strategy. Once you have a goal set up, you can then review how this education goal fits within your larger financial picture using the Empower retirement planner tool.

Retirement Planner

What does retirement mean to you? If you are like some people, you are aiming to retire at the traditional retirement age, like 65 or 70. For others, though, their retirement age might be much lower. This is especially true for people who are pursuing FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early).

No matter when you intend to retire, the Empower retirement planner can help you see if you are on track.

This tool evaluates your savings to see if you are on track to retire based on your target retirement date. It also projects your estimated monthly income. This can help you ensure not just that you get to retire, but that you get to retire on your own terms, living the life you want. 

One of the biggest concerns people have about retirement is that they aren’t always sure how their portfolio will weather big storms. The recession simulator portion of the retirement planner tool allows you to see how you would have fared during the Great Recession or the Dotcom Crash. While this doesn’t mean your retirement plan is infallible, it does offer an important perspective.

Other Features

Other key features of the retirement planner tool include the ability to run different scenarios. These scenarios can be especially helpful as you learn more about financial independence or navigate big life events. This tool allows you to see how your retirement is impacted if you save more (or less) or retire a few years earlier. 

You can also anticipate big expenses, such as purchasing a second home or sending your kids to college. To make your planning more precise, you also have the option of adding different income events. This feature allows users to account for Social Security, pensions, and even rental income. 

You can also generate a spending plan with the retirement planner tool. That way, you can get an in-depth look at what your spending might look like in retirement. All of the various features help you see what your future looks like now. They can also help you anticipate the changes you might make to improve your financial picture. 

What advisory services does Empower offer?

In addition to the free tools to help you build wealth, Empower also offers wealth management advisory services. In order to access these services, you pay based on the size of your investment portfolio. If you have less than $1 million in assets under their management, you will pay 0.89% each year to use their advisory services. The more assets you have under their management, the lower the fee becomes. 

While these services certainly aren't free, they are in line with other fee-only advisory services. Since they are fee-only advisors, you don't have to worry about hidden fees or pressure to purchase products that don't align with your plans.

What is Empower Cash?

In addition to their free tools to help you build wealth, Empower also now offers access to an account called Empower Cash.

This account is FDIC-insured, and there is no minimum daily balance. While the interest rate is not as high as online high-yield savings accounts, Empower Cash could be a nice option for people who want to streamline their finances, managing everything within one app. 

Empower Review FAQ

Empower has nearly 2 million registered users. With so much interest in the tool, there are bound to be more questions about how Empower works. Here are our answers to some of the most common questions about this financial platform. 

Is Empower free?

The Empower app is free to use, including all of its tools that can help you build wealth.

However, once your net worth crosses the $100,000 mark, you can expect a phone call inviting you to learn more about their wealth management services. If this sounds like a catch, don’t worry. Empower users happily report that if they do pass on the wealth management services, the calls stop. 

Empower also pledges to never share your information with other companies, which means one call from Empower is all you get. No telemarketers, no nonsense.

How long does it take to set up an Empower account?

The amount of time it takes to set up an account varies by user.

Overall, the process is straightforward. However, the more accounts you add (and the more login details you need to recall or reset), the longer it takes.

Most people estimate that they have everything set up within 20-30 minutes. It’s certainly something that would make a nice complement to your next money check-in session. 

How does Empower keep my information safe?

Empower is committed to keeping your account safe. Account safety is an important part of your financial health, and that’s why Empower will never sell your data. In addition to safeguarding your data, Empower has a security team that will continually review its security best practices to stay ahead of cybercriminals. 

One of the most important ways your account stays safe is by encrypting your data. Additionally, no one at Empower can access your login credentials. That means that the only person who is accessing your account is you!

Additional Safety Measures

Another safety measure that Empower put in place requires you to authenticate each device that accesses your account. Since Empower is so mobile-friendly, it’s also a nice touch that it features Touch ID authentication on iPhones and mobile-only PINs for both iOS and Android devices. 

When you use the financial software, you can be confident that their encryption is rated higher than most banks. Empower also prides itself on being at the forefront of cybersecurity and has a team dedicated to researching improvements on an ongoing basis. 

Review more about Empower and its commitment to your safety here.

Do I have to link my accounts to use Empower?

Yes. Unlike some apps that give you the option to manually input data, Empower requires users to link the Empower accounts with other financial accounts. Rest assured that keeping your data and information safe is their top priority.

How is Empower different from other budgeting tools?

What sets Empower apart is the vast array of tools it offers via a single financial software solution.

Other budgeting apps like YNAB might be more detailed in terms of goal setting with your budget.

However, where Empower truly shines is its ability to help users review their budgeting and saving today. Then you can see how those habits are shaping your financial future with all the other tools that are available within a single app. 

See how Empower stacks up against YNAB here!

What do I do if I need help with Empower?

Empower really is focused on helping people put their money to work for them. If you need help with Empower, there are several different ways you can get your questions answered.

The Empower blog offers a closer look at financial topics. From investing and retirement to taxes and insurance, there are myriad articles that will help you get a better handle on topics that impact your finances. They're reader-focused, which means they're written for you. No MBA required!

Additionally, on their Help page, you can find a variety of ways to get in touch (with a real person!) to get your questions answered.

Can I export data from Empower?

We know there are some true spreadsheet lovers among us. No piece of fintech is going to replace your commitment to Excel, and that’s OK. Empower understands, too. That’s why they make it easy to review and export your data from Empower to Excel. 

Once you log into your account, navigate to the Transaction page. From there, you have the option to export your data as a CSV file. That allows you to open it with Excel or convert it to Google Sheets.

What if I’m unhappy with Empower?

With 1.7 million users, it’s hard to imagine that you will be unhappy with their free financial software. However, Empower has robust user support and help options if you need to troubleshoot or ask a specific question. 

If you really want to close your account, Empower makes that process easy as well.

Log into your account and locate your name at the top of the Dashboard. Navigate over to the Settings option, and then scroll to the bottom. Once you are there, you will see an option to “Delete User Account” to remove your information. It's that simple!

How does Empower make money?

While many financial tools make money through recommending products or advertising, Empower does neither. It offers robust free tools to all of its users.

It does offer people the option of using their wealth management advisory services, which do come with a fee. That's how they make their money.

Empower Competitors

While Empower's platform will certainly meet most people's needs, there are several Empower competitors you might want to take note of!

Monarch Money

Monarch Money may rank as more of a newcomer on the money management scene. Still, it's earning a lot of accolades. Monarch lets you track your spending, keep an eye on your budget, and even analyze your investments. The best part, though, is the fact that Monarch is designed for people who want to manage their money together.

Learn more about Monarch Money here!

YNAB

You Need a Budget (or YNAB for short!) is a fan favorite. There is a definite learning curve, but once you master it, you may never want to go back. It isn't just a financial platform. YNAB is also a money management system and philosophy. One of the four tenants of YNAB has users evaluate the age of their money. Many people hail this fresh perspective as a life-changing way to look at your money.

Check out the other YNAB principles here!

Tiller

Do you love to roll up your sleeves and really dig into your finances? Tiller is an Empower competitor that might fit your needs. Tiller bills itself as the most customizable financial service. Fans love having total control over the various templates. Plus, it also scores top marks for maintaining your privacy and having solid customer support.

Learn more about Tiller here!

Key Takeaways From Our Empower Review

When it comes to money management, some people assume that the process requires expert input. Even if you don’t feel like a financial pro, Empower offers the tools and support necessary for anyone to get a complete understanding of their current financial health.

Maybe you want to focus on creating a budget that works for your family and gets your spending under control. Maybe you’re on the path to FIRE and want to see how your investment and savings stack up. Perhaps you're somewhere in between. Regardless of where you are on your financial journey, Empower can help. 

The budgeting and cash flow tools will allow you to ditch your debt. They can also help you design a lifestyle that is aligned with your goals and priorities. To encourage you to be future-focused, Empower also offers tools like the investment checkup and fee analyzer to help take the guesswork out of reaching your retirement goals.

While no one piece of financial software can do it all, Empower comes close. And the best part is that these robust tools that are designed to help you grow your wealth are completely free. Click here to get started with Empower today to review your current financial snapshot.

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What do you think of this Empower review? Which of their free tools is your favorite?

Please let us know in the comments below.

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