Let’s be real: most employees are navigating money challenges with little more than guesswork.
They’re juggling student loans, budgeting questions, and long-term goals, all while wondering if they are doing it right. An as HR leader, you want to help. But where do you start?
You’ve likely come across free financial tools like YNAB or PocketGuard. These can be helpful for employees that are beginning to handle their financial journey. But these tools can often come with a steep learning curve, limited features and zero personalization. They scratch the surface but they don’t go deep.
That’s where Your Money Line comes in.
YML is a comprehensive financial wellness benefit that helps your employees tackle their biggest money questions with clarity, confidence, and care. Our platform combines AI-powered software with unlimited 1:1 coaching from real, empathetic experts. It’s free to your employees and easy for you to implement.
But hey, we get it. Even though we think YML is the gold standard, we still believe in meeting people where they are. So if your team is looking for free resources to dip their toes into financial wellness, here are some solid tools to explore:
12 Free Financial Wellness Tools to Help Your Employees Get Started
These tools are best for employees facing debt or planning big purchases. From mortgages to credit cars, these interactive calculators help employees understand what they owe and how to pay it off smarter.
Pros: Simple UI design focuses on debt education, good for financial “wake-up calls”, free for your employees
Cons: Doesn't track progress over time, no guidance on what to do next.
Everyone has a “money personality” but most of us don’t know what it is. The Money Vibes Quiz helps employees uncover their unique relationship with money, from how they spend to how they save and what drives those choices. Developed by financial experts at Your Money Line, this quiz gives you personalized, practical advice based on your vibe.
Pros: Fun, quick, and non-intimidating, delivers instant personalized insights, great conversation starter for coaching or team engagement
Cons: Designed as a starting point and not a full financial plan, works best when followed up with coaching or additional support (like YML provides)
These printable guides cover everything from basic banking to setting up a grocery budget and are surprisingly well-designed and accessible. Print-outs like these are helpful for employees who may be intimidated by tech-based tools.
Pros: inclusive, accessible and low-tech
Cons: No progress tracking, not personalized or interactive
This tool is great for spreadsheet-savvy employees who want full control. Google’s free budget template is a go-to for those who want to manually track income, expenses, and savings goals.
Pros: free and flexible, fully customizable to fit personal needs
Cons: No automation, easy to abandon if not part of a habit or routine, learning barrier if not familiar with spreadsheets
Hosted by personal finance expert, and YML’s CEO, Peter Dunn, The Pete the Planner® Show delivers smart financial advice with a sense of humor. Each week, Pete and his co-hosts tackle real-life money questions from budgeting to investing to feeling behind on retirement, to help your employees make smarter money moves.
Pros: makes money conversations approachable, covers real questions from real people, entertaining enough to binge, but educational enough to shift mindsets
Cons: great for awareness, but not designed for action, no personalization or follow-up tools built in
This 10-question quiz from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gives users a snapshot of their financial health and actionable steps to improve it. This quiz has a focus on financial confidence and control, rather than spreadsheets and numbers. It's backed by research and gives users a score that benchmarks them against the national average. We’ve seen employers use this as a starting point for conversations at wellness workshops or benefit fairs.
Pros: research-backed, nonjudgmental language, focuses on emotions and behavior, not just dollars, employees receive a clear score with guidance on how to improve
Cons: Doesn’t provide tools for implementation, only awareness, no long-term tracking (unless you manually repeat the quiz)
This downloadable spreadsheet is based on Ramit Sethi’s well-known method that encourages guilt-free spending, as long as key goals are funded first. This is ideal for high-stress employees who think budgeting means cutting everything out. This tool reframes it to “Spend on what you love. Cut mercilessly on what you don’t.”
Pros: balanced between budgeting and lifestyle, focused on long-term habits, not long-term punishment
Cons: doesn't track or alert automatically, requires discipline to update automatically
Best for employees that are serious about day-to-day budgeting. YNAB is a longtime favorite for envelope-style budgeting and loved by detail-oriented users. We’ve heard from employees who say this tool “completely changed” their spending habits. But it takes time to learn and is better suited for those already motivated to track everything. Helps users assign every dollar a job, but it does comes with a steeper learning curve.
Pros: Excellent for debt payoff and intentional saving, syncs with bank accounts
Cons: Free for first month then $109 per year, steeper learning curve, not ideal for irregular income (e.g., tipped employees)
This tool is great for tech-forward employees who want budgeting + net worth tracking. Lunch Money is an up and coming app that lets users manage budgets, track net worth and view all of their account in one sleek dashboard.
Pros: Clean UX and flexible features, supports goal-setting and investment tracking
Cons: Not beginner-focused, $100 a year
This is perfect for employees focused on building wealth and tracking assets. This spreadsheet tracks everything from mortgages, savings, and investments all in one place.
Pros: Visualize total net worth clearly, great starting point for goal setting, completely free
Cons: manual entry, less useful for day-to-day money management
This hub includes worksheets, audio recordings, and lesson plans built by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ideal for building a learning library or sending home with employees. Think of this like a free curriculum. It's not flashy, but it's credible and evidence-based.
Pros: Trusted government source, covers all levels of financial literacy
Cons: Static PDFs and audio files are not interactive, may feel overly formal to some
Retirement planning can feel vague or out of reach but this tool makes it visual, interactive, and approachable. Employees can test different life changes like retiring early, switching jobs or starting a family and see how their finances react.
Pros: Powerful visualization of financial future, lets you run “what-if” simulations (ex: “What if I pay my mortgage off early”)
Cons: Steeper learning curve, not beginner-friendly, free version is available but have to pay for higher tiers
The bottom line
These tools are a great way to help your employees take their first step toward financial wellness. But when it comes to real, lasting change, budget templates and calculators only go so far.
YML fills the gaps where these tools fall short.
We provide personalized help to every one of your employees. With a combination of AI-powered technology and real human coaching, we provide meaningful and measurable outcomes for employees and their financial lives.
Try Your Money Line today for meaningful financial guidance.
