Budgeting apps can do more harm than good, a financial therapist says. There’s a smarter way to save money.

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• Some budgeting apps work by auto-transferring money to your savings account.
• Financial therapist and podcast host Amanda Clayman said these apps make you disengaged from your money.
• You need a different strategy if you have bigger savings goals.

Toggling between bank apps, credit card statements, Venmo payments, and retirement accounts can feel like a part-time job — especially if you’re trying to keep track of your spending. As a result, mobile apps have grown in popularity among millennials and Gen Zers. Budgeting apps make it easier for you to transfer money into savings accounts without having to think about it.

While some people credit budgeting apps as useful tools, they’re far from the best way to save money in the long term, according to Amanda Clayman, a financial therapist and host of the Audible series “Emotional Investment.”

According to Clayman, apps that automatically move money to your savings account can be great for short-term goals like planning for an upcoming vacation.

“Automation can be super, super helpful — until you run into trouble,” Clayman told Business Insider. When it comes to achieving bigger savings goals like growing an emergency fund, Clayman said automatic transfers are likely not enough — and can even backfire if that’s the only budgeting strategy you’re using.

It’s pointless if you keep dipping into your savings

While an app or online bank account can transfer $50 from your checking to your savings account, it doesn’t have the power to keep it there. As a result, Clayman said you can get into the habit of regularly dipping into your savings, ultimately not saving much at all.

By using apps without understanding your self-sabotaging habits, Clayman said you’re “also taking away the opportunity to work through those behaviors that might be in the way of your goal.”

Instead, you might feel like you’re saving on paper, but still have trouble with impulse spending.

You may forego more pressing payments

Whenever possible, Clayman said you should “make a deliberate, contextualized choice” about how much money you’re comfortable allotting to your savings.

Removing a fixed sum of money every month “can solve the issue of savings, but can create other issues in terms of missing other payments or going into debt,” she said.

If you have looming credit card bills or loans, you should prioritize paying those off — even if it means your savings aren’t exactly where you want them to be right now.

For bigger savings, budget more consciously

Clayman said apps can contribute to people feeling “really emotionally disengaged from their money.”

She recalled her mother balancing a physical checkbook and how “it had her focused attention,” even if didn’t have all the advanced features of modern FinTech apps.

In her work as a financial therapist, she’s learned that “money surfaces a lot of important personal meaning and gives us the opportunity to work with that meaning.” Setting an auto-transfer and forgetting about it can be convenient and feel responsible enough, but it doesn’t dig deeper into the specific habits you can change.

For example, some Gen Zers and millennials have started “loud budgeting,” making frugal activities trendier to stave off the temptation to spend. Other people find it helpful to quickly update their budget daily or review all their subscription plans every month.

“In our modern, complex, fragmented, ever-changing financial lives, we need to look at making choices with money from much more of a perspective of experimentation and creativity instead of this is a problem to be solved,” Clayman said.

Examining where you overspend is less comfortable than simply auto-saving, but it can lead to much more personal — and more importantly, financial — growth down the line.