Empower is a free personal finance and analysis platform designed to give you a clear, comprehensive view of your money. From tracking your net worth to monitoring investment performance and mapping out debt payoff strategies, it brings your entire financial picture into one place. Whether you’re focused on everyday budgeting or working toward bigger goals — like early retirement, a dream vacation, or saving for college — Empower helps you understand where your money is going and how to make it work harder for you.
Empower at a Glance
- Best for: Big-picture retirement planning and expense tracking
- Free version: Yes
- Paid version: No
- Key feature: A comprehensive budgeting and retirement dashboard that shows all of your financial accounts in one place
What Is Empower?
Empower is a personal finance and retirement-planning app that allows users to track their spending, create a budget, set savings and debt payoff goals and plan for retirement. It connects to your bank accounts and shows all your balances in real time, so you have a bird’s-eye view of your financial situation and whether you’re on track with your savings and retirement goals.
One of its biggest benefits and most notable differences from other budgeting apps is that it’s completely free, though its features are less detailed than those of some competitors.
Key Features of Empower
Budgeting and Net Worth Dashboard
When you log in, you’ll immediately see the app’s net worth tracker, which shows your assets — including cash balances and real estate — minus your liabilities, such as debt.
The dashboard also breaks down all your connected accounts, giving you a clear snapshot of where your finances stand at a glance.
The budgeting and cash‑flow center offers a quick overview of your monthly spending, how much of your budget you’ve used and a category‑by‑category breakdown of where your money is going. You can adjust your budget at any time and view reports that show how your income and expenses compare from month to month.
Goal Setting and Category Tracking
After creating a budget in Empower, the app automatically tracks your progress each month to help you stay on target. All transactions are sorted into categories — like mortgage, healthcare costs and groceries — so it’s easy to see where your money is going.
Empower provides personalized updates on how you’re progressing toward your goals, whether that’s retirement savings or paying down debt for the year. The debt‑paydown tool shows your current balances by account or loan and highlights insights such as how much you’ve paid off that month.
Empower also breaks down savings goals by account tax status — showing what’s taxable, tax‑free and tax‑deferred — a feature not found in many other budgeting apps.
Account Syncing and Manual Entry
Once you create your account, you can quickly sync accounts from most financial institutions to your device. Empower links bank accounts, IRAs, retirement plans, loans, credit cards and mortgages. Simply search for your financial institution by name, then select the account category — cash, loan, investment or credit card. Once you enter your credentials, Empower verifies them with the financial institution before syncing.
Pro tip: You can manually enter transactions for cash and credit card accounts by opening the account’s detail page. There’s no bulk‑entry option, so each transaction must be added individually.
Reporting and Insights
Empower’s financial tools become more insightful the longer you use them. The app notes that the more accounts you connect, the more personalized and accurate its recommendations become.
The retirement planner lets you explore different scenarios based on your savings, income, age, and major life events — like buying a home or paying for college. You can experiment with paths such as retiring early, working part‑time or taking on big projects like a home remodel in your 50s.
The planner gives you a clear picture of what retirement could look like under different assumptions, savings rates and lifestyle choices, and helps you stay on track by showing whether you’re aligned with your goals and what adjustments you might need to make.
Educational Resources
Empower’s blog, The Currency, provides personal finance information, industry insights and an investment checkup tool that helps you assess your current portfolio allocation. It largely focuses on retirement advice but also covers American spending patterns and resources for parents raising financially savvy children.
Empower Pricing
The Empower app is completely free to use, and all budgeting features are included at no cost. You can opt into Empower’s investment management services once you reach a $100,000 investment minimum; the standard annual fee for that service is 0.89%.
Empower Pros and Cons
Pros
- Free budgeting app with a comprehensive dashboard
- Allows you to connect with a professional to discuss your next financial moves
- Provides automatic insights, including spending categorization and investment risk assessment
Cons
- Poor customer ratings on the Google Play store, averaging a 2.8-star rating
- Chatbot is underwhelming, often prompting users to leave a message for a human representative
- Customer reviews note issues with bugs and having to reconnect accounts to the app repeatedly
Who Is Empower Best For?
Empower is a great fit if you want to organize all your financial accounts in one place and keep a close eye on your investments. The investment checkup feature is especially helpful for comparing your portfolio’s allocation against target recommendations.
The retirement planning tool gives you a realistic view of your financial future and helps you map out major milestones — like buying a home, paying for college, or starting a family — in a way that feels both practical and motivating.
Overall, Empower is worth considering if you want a free budgeting tool that tracks your spending and assets in one place while offering a robust set of retirement‑planning features.
Who Should Skip It
Empower isn’t the best choice if you’re looking for highly detailed or hands‑on budgeting tools. Unlike some competitors, it doesn’t offer subscription cancellation services, budgeting templates, or structured methods like zero‑based budgeting. It also lacks easy shared‑budgeting features for couples or partners — something apps like YNAB and Rocket Money handle more seamlessly.
Bottom Line: Is Empower Worth It?
Empower is a solid choice if you want a free app that gives you a big‑picture view of your finances, debt and investments. It’s especially useful if you’re focused on paying down debt, since the debt‑paydown tool tracks your progress and highlights potential problem areas through daily monitoring and expense tracking.
That said, some users report frustrations with occasional bugs, particularly on Android, and note that Empower’s budgeting tools are fairly basic compared with more customizable apps. Empower is best suited for people who want a clear overview of their financial life and access to detailed retirement‑planning tools — less so for those who need advanced budgeting features, subscription management, or easy partner‑sharing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Empower free?
Yes, all app features are available for free. The only added cost comes if you choose to work with a human financial advisor through the platform’s investment management service.
Is Empower better than other budgeting apps?
Empower excels at long‑term planning and investment visibility rather than detailed budgeting. Its retirement planner and investment‑tracking tools are more comprehensive than most budgeting apps offer. If you prefer a more hands‑on experience with subscription management, bill tracking, or customizable budgeting, options like Rocket Money and Quicken Simplifi may be a better fit.
Is Empower hard to use?
Empower’s dashboard is generally user‑friendly and most people find it easy to get started. Some users report frustrations around locating certain features, occasional bugs, or getting stuck in a login‑verification loop.
Can Empower help you get out of debt?
Yes. Empower automatically tracks and categorizes your spending so you can see where your money is going. It also helps you track unused subscriptions, monitor for fraudulent charges and build a savings plan for debt payoff.
Does Empower connect to bank accounts?
Empower connects to a wide range of accounts, including bank accounts, IRAs, retirement plans, loans, credit cards and mortgages across most major financial institutions.
Was Empower previously Personal Capital?
Yes. Empower was formerly known as Personal Capital and rebranded after being acquired by Empower Retirement. Popular tools like net‑worth tracking, investment analysis and the retirement planner carried over from the original platform.
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