The Best Financial Apps

I’ve been on the lookout for the financial app that will help me solve my problems. I can’t always get to a computer, so need it to be for my iPhone. I don’t need huge complexity, just an app were I can track my spending, put together some budgets and set some financial goals. Here’s what my search has uncovered.

The Nuts And Bolts App: Pennies

Pennies is beautifully designed. If you think that’s not important, spend some time trying to navigate a poorly designed app and you’ll realise how crucial a straightforward concept is. This is the nuts and bolts of financial apps, an expense tracker. Enter your monthly budget, and then start adding your expenses. It will save the expenses that occur most frequently, so after a while, the entering process is a breeze. The fuel gauge on the opening page will show you whether you’re doing well or about to run on empty for the month.

 

A Reminder Course In Budgeting 101

If you’re anything like me, your budget was beautiful in about 2007. Very accurate, thorough, exquisitely calculated. Here’s a reminder course for anyone who needs a budget (or a first up for any new readers) that tells them something about their lives in 2011, and will help set them up for the rest of the century.

Creating A Budget

We should all know how to do this, but somehow I still have months in the red so it never hurts to refresh. Even if you have a budget, sit down and write down your income. Have a spouse? Write down their income as well. In the next column, write down all your fixed monthly expenses. Rent/ mortgage, insurance, debt repayments, gym membership, electricity bill. It’s easy to forget them, so make sure you have a comprehensive list. Next, pull out your bank statement and receipts and find out where the rest of your money goes. Groceries, entertainment, subscriptions. It will probably be shocking. Potentially you should buy some chocolate before you start this. Now do the sums- you’ll see if you’re in the black or in the red, and probably some areas you can improve upon.

 

The 50-30-20 Budget

There are occasions where I like answers. There’s so much doubt in life, it’s nice to come across something that has ground rules. Generally you stick to said rules and things will work out okay. The 50-30-20 budget is such a thing. Sure, no one solution will work for everyone when it comes to budgeting. Then again, you can’t go too far wrong should you institute this strategy in your life. Here are some of the ins and outs of the budget.

Start With After Tax

It’s all very interesting to look at your paycheck and see how much money you are ‘losing’ to tax, but in the end of the day, it’s not going to make any difference to your budget. Work out how much income you have after-tax, and write it at the top of the page, probably with a big black pen to keep you on-task.

 

5 Reasons You Bailed On Your Budget

The fresh resolve of a new budget has faded into a apocalyptic mix of receipts for unnecessary purchases and wine to make to you forget. So you busted out of your budget. It happens. Yahoo Finance have inspired this article on reasons why your budget didn’t work and how to make it better for next time.

La-La-Land

I swore I was going to exercise every day. I was going to get up at six, go for a run, skive off to yoga a couple of times a week. Welcome to La-La-Land, a place I often reside when making plans. It’s impossible to keep up those kinds of schedules, and attempting to will only make your bust-out all the more intense. Be realistic when you write the budget. Don’t lie to the paper, if you spend $200 a week on grog, write it down. Know what you spend the money on, and make small alterations throughout a period of a couple of months to achieve a more balanced budget. Over-enthusiasm can be a killer; gradual change is still the best way to incorporate new things into your life.

 

Keeping Track Of Your Money Via A Budget

In the battle against spending the biggest enemy is temptation and your only ally is your willpower which, let’s face it, has a tendency to wimp out at the last minute. Sometimes, to win a losing fight, you need to get creative so when a friend said she tracked every cent she spent, I figured I’d give it a go too. And I did… for 6 long months.

I set up a spreadsheet in Excel

..and set about recording every single thing I spent money on, from the monthly rent to the banana I bought on the way to work. I was vigilant; no cent would escape my notice! But did it work? Well, yeah, actually it did!