If there is one thing we can say for sure, one generalization we can make, it’s that we as humans are collectively very, very bad at dealing with money. The problem is of a psychological nature – money is more of a concept than something physical. Sure, you can hold a wad of bills in your hands, but their worth is defined by what you can buy for them, and if you have ever seen those old Eastern European billion dollar bills from the early nineties you know that the worth we assign to pieces of colored cloth can change drastically in the blink of an eye.
Since our brains aren’t wired to handle conceptual things like money and work much better with shiny pictures and charts, smart phone apps are a great way to stay on top of your finances and improve your lifestyle. It’s easy to change your life for the better and get out of debt when you know what lifestyle choices are holding you back and what makes your account bleed money. So let’s look at the best personal finance apps available today.
Mint
Mint provides you with a means of organizing your spending habits into different categories and helping you keep track of where your money is going. The app has a nice visual interface that allows you to see clearly what most of your money is being spent on – bills, groceries, gas, restaurants, clubs, clothes, etc. – and helps you create a budget.
Home Budget with Sync
HomeBudget with Sync is serious app, for the serious and budget-conscious individual. You can take your financial responsibility to the next level by using charts, categorized lists and graphs to track your spending trends over time. By getting first hand feedback about the impact of the changes you are making you can customize your budget on the go and you will have a good idea of how to allocate your funds to keep spending at a minimum while keeping comfort as high as possible.
Expense Manager
The Expense Manager is a great little, add free app that keeps things simple and gives you an easy overview of your current budget, chaotic as it may be, allowing you to easily see which low priority activities are being needlessly funded by money that can be better spent on more important things or go towards repaying debt or into a savings account. You can track your daily spending and get some concrete data about your spending habits, but you don’t have to delve into any complex features – you get a minimalistic and functional tool.
Lemon Wallet
Lemon Wallet is basically a virtual copy of your wallet that ensures that you have a backup of all the ID’s, credit cards and business cards in case you don’t have your wallet on you. We often forget our wallets, but we seldom even go to the bathroom without our phones (those selfies for your Instagram are obviously top priority) so it is a great idea to keep all your important stuff right on your phone. You may also get your wallet stolen and you will be happy that you still have the important stuff secure in your phone, accessed by entering a pin.
Debt Tracker Pro
Debt Tracker Pro is the perfect app for those of us still struggling to pay off tons of debt as we are slowly becoming overburdened by all the financial pressure – so basically a vast majority of people. It is a very simple interface that anyone can use to create a debt payoff plan using the snowball method. You can choose from the different payment strategies and get a pretty good idea of how much money you can save if you opt for higher payments – allowing you to find an adequate amount of money for your monthly payments that won’t require you to sacrifice too many luxuries but at the same time allow you to repay your debt in a timely fashion.
These apps can significantly ease your financial aspect of life, as long as you are willing to stay focused on your goals – to control and optimize your finances as much as possible.
This article was written with help of Easy Settle Finance financial experts.
Photo Credit: Flickr/401(K) 2012
