Smartphones and tablets are so much more than a mobile computing option: mobile applications can make these devices comprehensive organizational tools that enhance all aspects of your life. There are more than 900,000 apps currently available for download. Meanwhile, the mobile apps market is booming, with current valuations around $25 billion. And some of those apps can even spread the wealth by making you, if not richer, at least more efficient and informed of your finances. Whether it’s controlling your spending, managing investments, tracking your banking or researching mortgages, here are four financial apps that will change your life.
1. Mint
For everyday spending, including setting savings goals and even tracking your current debts and assets, Mint is a very effective financial mobile app. Users can fully customize this app to track spending across all of their accounts. This spending can be segmented into a wide range of categories, from groceries to utilities and custom-made categories such as coffee and concerts. Mint users will also need a Mint.com account to use the app, but once this account is created you can link up your various accounts and set a plan for your personal finances.
2. Wikinvest Portfolio Manager
Various investment portfolios can all be managed through the Wikinvest Portfolio Manager app. You can import your holdings into the app with ease and use market news trackers through the app to keep up on how your investments are performing. It’s a great option even if you have all of your investments managed through a company with a poor mobile interface. Wikinvest is cleanly built and easy to navigate.
3. ReceiptMatch
Produced by American Express, ReceiptMatch is a paperless solution to the age-old problem of wrangling masses of crinkled receipts. With ReceiptMatch, users can receive digital receipts or scan in paper receipts to store everything conveniently through this mobile app. The app can also automatically match various receipts to the purchase entries on an account statement, meaning you can quickly pull up each receipt as you go through your recent transactions.
Even emailed receipts can be entered into the ReceiptMatch app just by forwarding the email to the app’s email address. ReceiptMatch currently works with a variety of different business cards, including the American Express Plum Card, and it can cut down the time spent getting financial records in order.
4. Mortgage Calculator Pro
This app is a great tool for evaluating home costs and how a mortgage might fit into your financial situation. With this calculator, you can play out a variety of loan scenarios while adjusting many variables that affect the mortgage loan and your ultimate costs.
This tool is invaluable for prospective homebuyers trying to decide how much money they want to spend as a down payment, and it also provides estimates of annual insurance, taxes and other fees that will be tacked on to the cost of the mortgage itself. For consumers just starting out on the road to home ownership, Mortgage Calculator Pro can provide plenty of insight into what they can afford and what they can expect in return.
About the Author: Fred Chauncy teaches eighth grade technology education and blogs on the weekend.
