How To Manage Your Finances With Your Smartphone

February 27, 2013 Blogging Guide

Is there anything a smartphone can’t do? With all the apps out there, it might seem as though your smartphone can take on the world. Yes, there are some things it can’t do yet, but for the most part it can help you take care of routine tasks. One area where your smartphone excels is managing your personal finance situation. From budgeting to expense tracking to money management, you can do pretty much everything with the device you take with you everywhere. Want to use your smartphone to get your financial life in order? Here are a few ways you can go about it.

Record Expenses

In old times, you felt it when you spent money. You either had to hand over cash, or you had to write down your transaction in your checkbook. There were no alternatives. Credit cards changed that a bit. With them we could swipe and forget, at least until the bill arrived. ATM debit cards have worsened the problem. We can swipe now and check our balances later, usually online. Modern digital finance has disconnected us from our money. Reconnecting with your money is the most effective way to regain control of your finances. All you need is a little notebook. Every time you spend money, write it down. In fact, you don’t even need a notebook. You always have your smartphone, right? You can download a number of expense tracking applications, such as ExpenseTracker for iPhone, that let you make a record of all your expenditures. By performing this simple act, you will become more conscious of how much money you spend.

Watch Your Accounts

If you’re like most consumers, you have many different accounts. You might have accounts for checking and savings, plus multiple credit cards. In order to get a view of your finances, you’d have to log into all of those accounts and write down all the data. Understandably, most people won’t do that. It’s too much effort. Thankfully, there’s an app for your smartphone that tracks all of your accounts. Personal finance tools from Mint make it easy to keep track of all your accounts. It doesn’t matter what type: you can enter it into Mint. It then checks your accounts every time you log in, so you have an instant view of your financial picture. While it does offer budgeting and other money management tools, the overview is the best feature. Simply open the app once a day and you’ll never have to question where you stand financially. You’ll always know.

Budget

Even if you reconnect with your money and have a good overview of your finances, budgets are still recommended. Why? Because they instill discipline. The combination of the three will make you a financial titan for the rest of your life. Of course, budgeting isn’t easy. There are a lot of variables that we don’t account for. But there is software that can make that task easier. Mint, in fact, has its own budgeting tool. The site Lifehacker has a great article on how to create a budget with Mint. I personally use a simple spreadsheet, stored on my smartphone, which divvies my money into different “accounts”. When I spend from those accounts, I deduct it on the spreadsheet. When I earn income, I add it on the spreadsheet. It’s a simple budgeting method, but it’s wildly effective.

Price Checking

Looking for a way to cut down on expenses? Of course you are. If you’re sticking to a budget you want to find the best possible deal on anything you buy. If you really want to save, you can check out RetailMeNot’s mobile app. Want to make sure you’re getting the best deal when shopping in a retail store like Walmart or Target? The Amazon price checking app can go a long way. No matter what your financial situation, you can always turn it around. It takes plenty of discipline, though. How can you build that discipline? By making the task as easy, and fun, as possible. By bringing your smartphone into the picture you can reconnect with your money, keep track of your accounts, create a budget, and then find the best deals on everything you buy. Stick with that, and you’ll always be comfortable with money. Joe Pawlikowski writes and edits several blogs across the web. He keeps his personal thoughts on business and other topics at his blog A New Level.