The iPhone is such a great device for doing just about anything that the making of phone calls seems almost to be an afterthought.
Millions of people are being caught up in the smooth interface and stunning design of Apple’s innovative mobile product. And with over 350,000 apps, it is the indispensable digital assistant for just about every phase of life, from birth, with baby naming apps, all the way to finding a good cemetery (although I haven’t checked into that)!
The student years in particular are hectic ones, as well as ones in which every penny must be made to count. With all the expenses of tuition, lodging, meals, books and recreation for college students, it can sometimes be hard to find ways to make ends meet.
For those in college, high school and even grade school, learning about money management will serve one in good stead for one’s entire lifetime. Fortunately, the iPhone can help with these tasks with plenty of apps to make financial management and learning easy. Many are aimed specifically at students.
For example, Student_Loan ($1.99) is an ebook app for iPhone designed to guide students down the path of a debt-free life. My Loan Calculator ($1.99) can evaluate student loans (as well as mortgages, car and other fixed rate loans) and compute the interest you’ll be paying over various lengths of time, as well as what you can save by making extra payments.
Check – Bills & Money (formerly Pageonce) is a financial management app for all stages of life. Check – Bills & Money comes in two versions — a free version and a Pro version ($12.99) which is ad-free and has extra features. It can display your credit cards, banks, billing information and investment accounts all in one place. You can get alerts and reminders regarding bill due dates for your accounts. You can also track your mobile minutes, text and data usage and other expenses.
Pocket Expense Personal Finance – Account Tracker, Budget Planner & Bills by Blue Tags is a full-featured personal-finance app. This multipurpose app will categorize your transactions, track your bills and help you to set budgets and achieve your savings goals. It can help you manage your budgets by setting a limit and debit ceiling for all your expenses. It can help you track your bills with alerts to remind you of which are currently due abd which are in danger of being overdue.
Bill Minder ($0.99) has one single purpose: to track your bills. It offers various themes, a calendar, push notifications, pie charts, account status, recurring periods for bills that you can customize, e-mail backup, alerts, categories, account history and password protection.
Mint.com Personal Finance (free) works with the leading website of the same name. Sign up for a free mint.com account and you will not be required to enter in your transactions manually — the website automatically syncs with your online banking accounts.
With this app, you can view the balances of all your accounts, including student loans, credit cards and checking and savings. When students graduate, they will be able to track their investment accounts too. In addition, you can see exactly what you spend every month and where — on food, bills, recreation, textbooks, tuition and so on.
The app will also alert you to important activity across your accounts, such as when you are low on credit or cash, go over budget or over your credit limit, when your paycheck clears the bank, or when unusual spending activity is detected.
Finally, when you’re done saving and tracking your money, you can learn to do tricks with it. Magic-Tricks Tutorial ($0.99) teaches several tricks, including some with coins. With this app, students will learn to be the life of the party and make things appear, disappear and fly from hand to hand.
With these handy apps, students may find the iPhone to be their most valuable financial advisor.
Photo Credit: Flickr/Images Money
