Editor’s Note: My wife Nicole and I have used Monarch Money since November 2022. I updated this review in 2026 to include Monarch Money Plus, its retirement forecasting tools, expanded investment analysis, and my experience using the platform for nearly four years.
If you have financial goals, you probably already understand the importance of knowing what you spend, what you save, and whether your long-term plan is actually working.
The difficult part is bringing all of that information together.
My wife Nicole and I have used Monarch Money since November 2022. Over nearly four years, we have used it to manage our household budget, review transactions, track our net worth, plan future goals, and stay aligned during our twice-monthly money dates.
I still open Monarch almost every day.
What started as a budgeting app has gradually become the main financial dashboard for our family. Monarch now helps us manage our spending, investments, credit score, financial goals, and, with the launch of Monarch Money Plus, retirement forecasting.
In this Monarch Money review, I’ll share how we actually use the platform, the features that continue to make it valuable, where Monarch Money Plus fits into our financial plan, and where competing tools like Boldin and ProjectionLab are still stronger.
I’ll also explain who should use the standard version of Monarch, who may benefit from Monarch Plus, and whether I still think it is worth the price in 2026.
If you decide to sign up through my link, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I also received a complimentary year of Monarch Money Plus to test its new features. As always, all opinions are my own based on nearly four years of daily use.
Quick Verdict
After nearly four years of daily use, Monarch Money remains my favorite personal finance app. It's the software my wife Nicole and I use to budget, track our net worth, monitor investments, and stay aligned during our biweekly money dates. While it's not the cheapest option available, I believe it's the best all-around personal finance app for couples and families.
| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Budgeting | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Couples | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Investment Tracking | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ |
| Retirement Planning | ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ |
| Mobile App | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Value | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Overall | 9.6/10 |
Best for: Couples, families, and anyone who wants one app to manage their complete financial life.
Not ideal for: People looking for a free budgeting app or advanced retirement planning.
🎥 Prefer to watch instead? Here's my complete Monarch Money review after nearly four years of daily use.
What Is Monarch Money?
Monarch Money is an all-in-one personal finance platform that combines budgeting, net worth tracking, investment monitoring, financial goals, and household collaboration into one app.
Instead of jumping between multiple tools, Monarch gives you a single dashboard to manage your entire financial life.
With Monarch, you can:
- Build a customizable monthly budget
- Track spending across all of your accounts
- Monitor your net worth and investments
- Set and track financial goals
- Collaborate with your spouse or partner
- Use AI-powered insights to better understand your finances
- Forecast retirement with Monarch Money Plus
It works on the web, iPhone, and Android, making it easy to stay connected to your finances wherever you are.
My take: After nearly four years of daily use, the biggest advantage isn't any one feature. It's having almost everything our family needs in one place. Over time, Monarch has gradually replaced several other financial apps I used to rely on.
Monarch Money Pricing
Monarch offers two subscription options:
Monarch Money
- $99.99/year (or $14.99/month)
- Includes budgeting, net worth tracking, goals, investments, AI Assistant, collaboration, and all of Monarch's core features.
Monarch Money Plus
- $199.99/year (billed annually)
- Includes everything in Monarch, plus retirement forecasting, advanced investment analysis, estate planning tools, financial coaching access, and additional planning features.
Both plans include a 7-day free trial.
Marriage Kids and Money readers can also get 50% off their first year of Monarch Core with my affiliate link.
If you're not sure which plan to choose, don't worry. Later in this review I'll explain exactly who should stick with the standard version and who should consider upgrading to Monarch Money Plus.
How My Family Uses Monarch After 4 Years
One of the reasons I feel confident recommending Monarch Money is that my wife Nicole and I don't just test it for reviews. We actually use it to manage our family's finances.
We've been using Monarch since November 2022, and over nearly four years it has become the financial hub for our household.
Today, Monarch tracks more than $2.4 million in family assets across 23 connected accounts. While Monarch didn't build our wealth, it has helped us stay organized, communicate better, and make more intentional financial decisions.
Here's what using Monarch actually looks like in our home.
My Daily Check-In (5 Minutes)
I open Monarch almost every day.
Most days, I'm simply reviewing new transactions, confirming categories, and making sure everything looks accurate. Thanks to the rules I've built over the years, most transactions are categorized automatically, so my daily check-in usually takes less than five minutes.
It's a small habit that helps me stay connected to our finances without feeling like budgeting has become another part-time job.
Our Bi-Weekly Budget Parties
Every two weeks, Nicole and I sit down for what we jokingly call our Budget Party.
The majority of our time is spent in two places:
- Transactions
- Budget
We review everything that happened since our last money date, paying special attention to purchases from places like Amazon, Costco, and Target where the category isn't always obvious.
Over the years, we've added more automation rules, so these conversations have become much shorter. Instead of manually categorizing every purchase, we're mostly reviewing exceptions and discussing upcoming expenses.
Once our transactions are up to date, we review our budget together. We talk about upcoming expenses, celebrate wins, and make adjustments if we've overspent in a category.
What surprised me over the years is that our money dates have become less about budgeting and more about staying connected. Having a regular time to talk through our finances keeps us on the same page and makes bigger financial decisions much easier.
The Feature I'd Miss the Most
If Monarch disappeared tomorrow, the feature I'd miss most wouldn't be the budget or the net worth tracker.
It would be the collaboration.
Having one shared place where Nicole and I can review transactions, organize our budget, and work toward common goals has been the biggest benefit of using Monarch.
I've also noticed something interesting over the years.
When we skip our money dates for too long, I start feeling more financial anxiety because I don't have a clear picture of where we stand.
When we sit down together, review our transactions, and talk through our budget, that uncertainty disappears.
Nicole summed it up better than I ever could:
“Monarch helps Andy's financial anxiety, and that helps me. It helps us collaborate on money so we can get back to enjoying life.”
I don't think any budgeting app can improve a marriage on its own.
But having one shared place to organize your finances can make money conversations a whole lot easier.
Who Monarch Money Is Best For
After using Monarch Money for nearly four years, I don't think it's the right budgeting app for everyone. But for the right person, I think it's one of the best personal finance tools available today.
Monarch is a great fit if you…
✅ Manage money with a spouse or partner
This is where Monarch shines. My wife Nicole and I each have our own login, but we share one household budget, making our money conversations much easier and more productive.
✅ Want one place to manage your financial life
Instead of jumping between budgeting apps, spreadsheets, investment trackers, and net worth calculators, Monarch brings almost everything together in one dashboard.
✅ Prefer flexibility over strict budgeting rules
I've tried YNAB twice, and while I respect its philosophy, I prefer Monarch's flexibility. It helps us stay intentional with our spending without feeling like we're breaking the rules every time life happens.
✅ Want to build wealth, not just track spending
Budgeting is important, but it's only one piece of your financial life. Monarch also helps us monitor our net worth, investments, financial goals, and retirement progress.
Monarch may not be the best fit if you…
❌ You're looking for a completely free budgeting app
Monarch is a premium product. If you're unwilling to pay for budgeting software, there are free alternatives, although they often come with ads, fewer features, or slower development.
❌ You want the deepest retirement planning tools available
Monarch Plus has made impressive progress with retirement forecasting, but if advanced tax planning, Monte Carlo simulations, and highly customizable retirement scenarios are your top priorities, I still think Boldin and ProjectionLab offer more robust planning tools today.
❌ You love a rigid zero-based budgeting system
If you enjoy assigning every dollar a specific job and following a strict budgeting methodology, YNAB may still be a better fit.
My Recommendation
If you're single, Monarch is an excellent budgeting app.
If you're married or managing money with a partner, I think it's even better.
After nearly four years of daily use, the feature I value most isn't the budget, the AI Assistant, or even the retirement forecasting.
It's the collaboration.
Having one shared place to organize our finances has helped Nicole and me spend less time worrying about money and more time enjoying life together.
Best Features
Complete Financial Overview
One of the biggest challenges in personal finance isn't budgeting.
It's seeing your entire financial life in one place.
Checking accounts are at one bank. Credit cards are somewhere else. Investments live in another app. Retirement planning might be in a spreadsheet. Before long, you're logging into five different places just to answer one simple question:
“How are we doing financially?”
That's the problem Monarch solves better than any tool I've used.
Today, Monarch tracks more than $2.4 million of our family's assets across 23 connected accounts. I can see our checking, savings, investments, credit cards and overall net worth in one dashboard.
More importantly, so can Nicole.
Instead of spending our money dates hunting down account balances, we spend our time making decisions. That's a much better use of an hour together.
Another thing I've noticed over the years is that Monarch keeps replacing other financial apps in my life.
It started as a budgeting app.
Today, it's where I check our net worth, review investments, monitor our credit score, analyze spending, and organize our financial goals. With Monarch Money Plus, it's also becoming part of my retirement planning process.
The fewer financial apps I have to manage, the simpler my financial life becomes.
That's one of the biggest reasons I've continued using Monarch every day for nearly four years.
Budgeting That Actually Works for Couples
Budgeting is still the feature my wife Nicole and I use more than anything else in Monarch.
Every two weeks during our Money Date, we spend most of our time in two places: Transactions and Budget.
We start by reviewing every transaction since our last money date, making sure everything is categorized correctly. Most purchases are handled automatically thanks to the rules we've built over the years, but stores like Amazon, Costco, and Target still require a little teamwork to categorize correctly.
Once that's done, we switch over to the Budget screen.
We review how we're doing for the month, talk about upcoming expenses, and make adjustments if needed. Those conversations help us spend with confidence because we know exactly where we stand.
One thing I appreciate about Monarch is how flexible the budgeting system is.
Nicole and I share one household budget, but we also have our own fun money categories. That gives us the accountability of a shared financial plan while still allowing each of us some personal freedom.
I've also become a much bigger fan of Monarch's rollover budgeting than I expected.
When we don't spend everything we've budgeted in a category, the remaining money rolls into the following month. It's a simple feature, but it makes our budget feel much more realistic because real life doesn't reset on the first day of every month.
Ironically, this was one of my favorite features in YNAB, and it's one of the reasons I don't feel the need to use YNAB anymore. Monarch gives me the flexibility I prefer while still offering one of YNAB's best budgeting features.
The biggest lesson I've learned after nearly four years isn't that you need to budget forever.
It's that you need to build a budgeting system that becomes easier over time.
As we've added more automation rules inside Monarch, our money dates have become shorter and more enjoyable. Instead of spending an hour categorizing transactions, we're spending more time talking about upcoming vacations, home projects, retirement, and other goals that actually move our family forward.
That's exactly what I want from a budgeting app.
It should help you spend less time managing your money and more time living your life.
Check out our Monarch Money Tutorial for Couples and Families to get a deeper dive into how to set up your Monarch budget.
Saving for Future Goals
One of the biggest changes in how I use Monarch over the past four years has been the Goals feature.
When I first started using the app, I primarily thought of Monarch as a budgeting tool.
Today, I think of it as a planning tool.
Nicole and I use Goals to connect our everyday spending decisions with the things that matter most to our family. Instead of simply asking, “Can we afford this?” we're asking, “Does this move us closer to the life we want?”
Here are a few of the goals we're currently tracking:
- Family travel
- Retirement
- College savings for our kids
- Our next vehicle purchase
- Home improvement projects
What I appreciate most is seeing those goals alongside our budget.
When we're deciding whether to spend more in one category or cut back in another, we can immediately see how those decisions affect the bigger picture.
Recently, Monarch introduced Monarch Money Plus, which expands this long-term planning even further with retirement forecasting.
I've been testing it over the past several weeks, and while I'll cover it in more detail later in this review, I appreciate that retirement planning is now built into the same app I already use every day.
It doesn't replace my retirement planning software yet, but it moves Monarch one step closer to becoming the only personal finance app many families will need.
For me, that's been the story of Monarch over the past four years.
It keeps expanding into areas that previously required separate apps, making it easier to manage more of my financial life in one place.
No Ads and No Upsells
One of the reasons I was willing to move from free budgeting apps to a paid subscription is simple:
When you're the customer, you're not the product.
Monarch doesn't sell your data to advertisers or constantly push financial products inside the app. There are no credit card offers, loan promotions, or investment ads competing for your attention.
You pay for the software, and in return, you get a clean experience that's focused on helping you manage your money.
That may not sound like a big deal at first, but after years of using ad-supported financial apps, it's something I've come to appreciate more and more.
Mint's shutdown in 2024 reinforced this lesson for me.
Free tools can be great, but they often depend on advertising or product referrals to survive. When those business models change, the product can change too … or disappear altogether.
I'd rather pay for a tool my family relies on than wonder if it will still exist a few years from now.
For something as important as managing our finances, that peace of mind is worth the subscription cost.
AI-Powered Financial Insights
One of the newer features I've started using is Monarch's AI assistant.
I'll be honest: I don't use it every week.
But when I have a financial question, it's surprisingly helpful.
For example, I recently asked whether upgrading my Costco membership to the Executive Membership made financial sense. Instead of manually digging through months of purchases, Monarch analyzed my spending and helped me determine that sticking with the standard membership was the better choice.
Another time, my son decided to quit band after a couple of years. I was curious how much we'd actually spent on instrument rentals, so I asked Monarch's AI to calculate it.
The answer? Around $550.
That simple insight helped Nicole and me decide to redirect that money toward increasing our kids' weekly allowances instead.
Those aren't life-changing financial decisions.
But they're exactly the kinds of everyday questions that are annoying to answer manually and easy to overlook entirely.
I see Monarch's AI as another time-saving tool. It helps surface answers that already exist in my financial data without requiring me to build reports or search through years of transactions.
It's still early, and I expect the feature to improve over time, but it's already proven useful enough that I find myself turning to it when I have a question about our family's spending.
For me, that's the best kind of AI feature.
It quietly saves time without getting in the way.
Excellent Mobile App
Most personal finance apps spend a lot of time talking about their mobile experience.
Monarch actually delivers.
I use the desktop version during our biweekly money dates because it's easier to review transactions, budgets, and investments on a larger screen. But throughout the week, I'm almost always using the mobile app.
Need to check whether a transaction cleared? Open the app.
Want to see if we're still on budget before making a purchase? Open the app.
Curious what our current net worth is after a stock market rally? Open the app.
Everything syncs seamlessly between my phone and computer, so I never feel like I'm using a watered-down mobile version.
That convenience matters because the best budgeting app is the one you'll actually use consistently.
Monarch makes it easy to stay connected to your finances without making them the center of your day.
I can spend 30 seconds checking in, confirm everything looks good, and get back to work or family life.
That's exactly how I want a personal finance app to fit into my routine.
Is Monarch Money Plus Worth It?
This is probably the biggest question readers have in 2026.
The short answer?
It depends.
If you're already a Monarch Money subscriber, I think Monarch Money Plus is absolutely worth trying with the free trial.
If you're deciding between Monarch Plus and dedicated retirement planning software like Boldin or ProjectionLab, my recommendation is a little different.
I've spent time using all three.
Today, I rank them like this:
- Boldin
- ProjectionLab
- Monarch Money Plus
That doesn't mean Monarch Plus isn't good.
It simply means it's trying to solve a different problem.
Boldin and ProjectionLab are built specifically for retirement planning. They offer advanced scenario modeling, detailed tax planning, Monte Carlo analysis, and far more customization than Monarch currently provides.
Monarch Plus takes a simpler approach.
Its Retirement Forecast lets you model different retirement ages, spending levels, income assumptions, and major life events inside the same app you're already using to manage your money.
I've personally created multiple retirement scenarios to compare retiring at different ages and adjusting our expected spending. Every time I run those projections, I gain more confidence in our family's long-term financial plan.
The interface is clean, easy to understand, and approachable for someone who doesn't want to spend hours learning complex planning software.
That's exactly where Monarch Plus shines.
For many families, “simple enough” is actually better than “every possible feature.”
One unexpected benefit is that Monarch Plus has replaced another app I used regularly: Empower.
I used to log into Empower primarily to review my investment allocation and portfolio analysis. Today, I can do most of that inside Monarch, which means one less financial app to maintain.
Would I cancel my Boldin subscription because of Monarch Plus?
Not yet.
Boldin remains my favorite retirement planning software because of its depth and flexibility.
But if you're already paying for Monarch, I think Monarch Plus is a logical upgrade to explore. Keeping your budgeting, investments, net worth, and retirement planning under one roof is incredibly convenient.
And if Monarch continues expanding Plus over the next few years by adding features like Monte Carlo analysis and more advanced planning tools, I could easily see it becoming the all-in-one financial platform that many families are looking for.
Areas for Improvement
Bottom line: After nearly four years, Monarch has replaced several financial apps for our family. The improvements I'd like to see are real, but they haven't been enough to make me switch.
No budgeting app is perfect, and Monarch Money is no exception.
Even after nearly four years of daily use, there are still a few areas where I'd like to see the platform improve.
No Undo Button
This has been one of my biggest feature requests for Monarch for years.
If you accidentally make a large change, whether it's reallocating your budget, adjusting rollover amounts, or making other budget edits, there's no simple Undo button to reverse your mistake.
Instead, you're often left trying to remember what the previous values were and manually changing everything back.
It's not something you'll run into every week, but when it happens, it's frustrating.
Considering how polished the rest of the app is, I'm surprised Monarch still doesn't offer a basic undo feature or version history. Even something as simple as a one-click “Undo Last Change” would make budgeting much less stressful and give users confidence to experiment without worrying about making a mistake.
Retirement Planning Needs More Depth
Monarch Money Plus is off to a great start, but it's not yet a replacement for dedicated retirement planning software like Boldin or ProjectionLab.
I'd love to see Monarch add features like Monte Carlo analysis, more advanced tax planning, Roth conversion modeling, and additional scenario customization.
For many users, the current Retirement Forecast will be more than enough. But if you're planning an early retirement or want to optimize every variable, you'll probably still want a dedicated retirement planning tool.
Account Connections Occasionally Need Reconnecting
Like every financial aggregator I've used over the years, Monarch occasionally loses connection with one of my financial institutions.
It doesn't happen often, but every few months I'll need to reconnect an account or refresh my credentials.
Fortunately, Monarch has improved its connection reliability considerably since I started using the platform in 2022, and reconnecting an account usually only takes a minute or two.
The Subscription Isn't Cheap
Monarch costs more than many budgeting apps.
If you're looking for a completely free solution, Monarch probably isn't the right choice.
That said, I've found the subscription to be well worth the cost.
When I think about how often Nicole and I use it, how much time it saves us during our money dates, and how many other financial apps it has replaced over the years, the annual subscription has become an easy expense to justify.
I'd much rather pay for software that continues to improve than rely on a free product whose future is uncertain.
Overall, these are relatively minor criticisms. After nearly four years of daily use, Monarch remains the personal finance app I trust most to manage my family's financial life.
Monarch Money Alternatives
While Monarch Money is my favorite personal finance app, it's not the right fit for everyone.
Depending on your budgeting style and financial goals, one of these alternatives may be a better fit.
Monarch Money vs. YNAB
If you're committed to zero-based budgeting and want every dollar assigned a job, YNAB remains one of the best budgeting apps available.
Personally, I prefer Monarch because it gives me more flexibility while still offering rollover budgeting, investment tracking, net worth monitoring, and a cleaner overall experience.
My pick: Monarch for most people. YNAB if you love zero-based budgeting.
👉 Read my full comparison: Monarch Money vs. YNAB
Monarch Money vs. Rocket Money
Rocket Money is excellent if your primary goal is reducing monthly expenses, canceling subscriptions, and understanding where your money is going.
Monarch takes a much broader approach by helping you organize your entire financial life, not just your monthly spending.
My pick: Monarch for long-term wealth building. Rocket Money if your immediate goal is cutting expenses.
👉 Read my full comparison: Monarch Money vs. Rocket Money
Monarch Money vs. Simplifi
Quicken Simplifi is one of Monarch's strongest competitors and usually costs a little less.
After using both, I still prefer Monarch because of its cleaner interface, better collaboration features, and more complete financial dashboard.
Nicole and I use separate logins, which makes managing our finances together incredibly easy.
My pick: Monarch.
👉 Read my full comparison: Monarch Money vs. Simplifi
Monarch Money vs. Empower
Empower has long been one of my favorite free investment dashboards, and I used it for years.
Today, I rarely log into Empower because Monarch Money Plus now provides the investment allocation analysis I relied on Empower for most.
If you're looking for a free investment tracker, Empower is still a great choice. If you're already using Monarch, I don't think you need both.
My pick: Monarch if you're already a subscriber. Empower if you're looking for a free investment dashboard.
👉 Read my full comparison: Monarch Money vs. Empower
My Recommendation
After nearly four years of daily use, Monarch Money remains the personal finance app I recommend most often.
It's the app Nicole and I use to budget, track our net worth, review investments, monitor our goals, and stay aligned during our biweekly money dates.
I've tested nearly every major budgeting app on the market, and Monarch continues to offer the best balance of ease of use, powerful features, and long-term value.
If you're looking for one app to organize your entire financial life, Monarch Money is still my top recommendation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Monarch Money worth paying for?
Yes. After nearly four years of daily use, I believe Monarch Money is worth the subscription cost if you're serious about organizing your finances.
Nicole and I rely on it every two weeks during our money dates, and it's become the financial hub for our household. Between budgeting, net worth tracking, investment monitoring, goal planning, and collaboration, it has replaced several other financial apps I used to pay for or maintain.
Is Monarch Money safe?
Yes. Monarch uses bank-level encryption and connects to financial institutions through trusted data providers. Your bank credentials aren't stored by Monarch, and you can also enable multi-factor authentication for additional security.
I personally trust Monarch enough to connect every major financial account my family owns.
Can couples share a Monarch Money account?
Absolutely, and this is one of Monarch's biggest strengths.
Nicole and I each have our own login, but we see the same financial picture. We can both review transactions, update the budget, and plan for future goals together.
If you're managing money as a couple, I think Monarch offers one of the best shared experiences available today.
Is Monarch Money Plus worth it?
If you're already using Monarch Money, I think it's worth taking advantage of the free trial.
I especially like the Retirement Forecast and investment allocation tools.
That said, if you're deciding between Monarch Plus and dedicated retirement planning software like Boldin or ProjectionLab, I'd still recommend those platforms for people who want more advanced planning features.
Is Monarch Money better than YNAB?
For my family, yes.
I appreciate YNAB's zero-based budgeting philosophy, but I prefer Monarch because it combines budgeting, investments, net worth tracking, goal planning, and collaboration in one app.
If you're trying to decide between the two, check out our full Monarch Money vs. YNAB comparison.
Is Monarch Money better than Rocket Money?
It depends on what you're trying to accomplish.
Rocket Money is excellent for reducing expenses and managing subscriptions.
Monarch is designed to help you manage your entire financial life and build long-term wealth.
I compare both apps in detail in our Monarch Money vs. Rocket Money review.
Is Monarch Money better than Simplifi?
I think so.
Simplifi is a strong budgeting app, but I prefer Monarch's cleaner interface, better collaboration features, and more complete financial dashboard.
For a detailed breakdown, read my Monarch Money vs. Simplifi comparison.
Does Monarch Money replace Empower?
For me, it has.
I used Empower for years to monitor my investments and asset allocation. Since upgrading to Monarch Money Plus, I rarely log into Empower because Monarch now handles most of what I used Empower for.
I cover the differences in my Monarch Money vs. Empower comparison.
Final Verdict
After nearly four years of daily use, Monarch Money remains my favorite personal finance app.
It's the app Nicole and I use to budget, track our net worth, monitor investments, plan for retirement, and stay aligned during our biweekly money dates.
No software is perfect. I'd still love to see an Undo button for budget changes, deeper retirement planning features, and continued improvements to account syncing.
But those are relatively small complaints compared to everything Monarch does well.
What keeps me coming back isn't just the feature list.
It's the confidence Monarch gives our family.
Instead of wondering where our money is going or whether we're making progress, we know. Everything is organized in one place, and that makes our financial conversations easier, less stressful, and more productive.
If you're looking for one app to organize your entire financial life, I still think Monarch Money is the best option available today.
Ready to Try Monarch Money?
If you're looking for one app to organize your entire financial life, I highly recommend giving Monarch Money a try.
Disclosure: If you use my affiliate link, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Nicole and I have used Monarch Money since 2022, and I only recommend products we genuinely use and trust.
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