Money Apps for Your Phone

Your Money is Swiping Away

It is so easy to spend money today.  Put your phone over an EFT machine and ding! you’ve bought your movie tickets. Hold your thumb on your phone and you can easily buy a new t-shirt on Amazon. (I have that problem). Link supported debit and credit cards to your iPhone and you can pay for anything on your phone with your thumb! Save payments settings on all those store apps then simply swipe your finger across the screen to pay at checkout and never again deal with typing in every number from your credit cards. With so many ways to burn your money without a second thought, it is just as easy to suddenly find yourself with a declining card or a balance that is too low.

Luckily in this Information Age, with all the directions you can go to get rid of all your money, there are also a bunch of actions you can take to help steady yourself in the process. These five(ish) apps are some of the kinds I have on my phone and check daily- and you should too!

1. Personal Account Apps
   Checking/Savings Account(s)
   It’s more than likely that your local bank has an app of its own that you can keep on your phone. That way you can keep track of your expenses every single day. Check up on whether or not certain transactions have officially been withdrawn from your bank account, and transfer money easily and from anywhere you are. Most importantly, it allows you the opportunity to check your balances prior to making a purchase or going out.
   Credit Card(s)
   Having your credit card(s) app(s) on your phone is just as important as having your checking account balance available to you right in your back pocket. Perhaps even more important. Credit line amount aside, everyone is capable of caring less about their credit card transactions than if we were paying for items with the debit card. With credit card’s mobile app, we can check in on their accounts anytime they wanted to and see our balance.
2. Mint
   Sign up for free, and add your credit cards and checking account information so you can always see your balance on all accounts in one place! Without having to add every expense or income deposit, Mint automatically updates your account information with every swipe on your credit card and online orders. It also rounds up to the nearest dollar amount so that you always think you have less money but really all those extra pennies are sitting there in your account as a safety net or a nice cushion in your savings account.
   Mint also offers budget plans and goals, and spreadsheets showing you how much you’ve spent in a certain category. Mint determines the category of an expense based on a place or description that appears in the Descriptions column when viewing your Transactions.
   
   
   Mint is one of the best finance apps and websites because it can help you reach more goals than a simple view at a yearly budget. It informs users of their credit scores, and debts such as student and personal loans, and credit card balances. Mint also notifies you via email, in-app notifications and with online alerts to warn you when you are about to exceed your monthly budget for eating out, or buying clothes, or grocery shopping, and tells you by how much! It’s a finance app and a website! Yayyy.
   
3. Spending
   A simpler idea than Mint, but just as effective! There are countless settings that you can set on “Spending” that can better equip you for controlling your spending habits. “Spending” requires that you add expenses and incomes (whether carry over amounts or salaries) to bring your spending habits to life in a pie chart. On “Spending”, you can search for transactions- by day, month or year- and you can add as many details to a transaction as you need/want.
   If you upgrade the finance app “Spending” to the ‘Pro’ mode, then you can even include that a certain expense is a repeating expense. Set the duration and the dates, and you got yourself some extra time on your hands to see to other things in life and in your wallet! Even without the ‘Pro’ version, you can use this finance app
4. Living Costs
   For those nomads out there, this app is pretty cool! Pick your country or city and find out how much it costs to live there! This app has popular places in the world and provides estimated costs to live in those areas. Living Costs shows info for food, transportation, the cost of a luxury hotel or an average hotel, and even real estate! Living Costs shows that an average sized family would have to pay about 3,000 USD! And that includes entertainment and healthcare!
   
   
   
   
   
5. Amazon & Other Store Apps
   This one is a real big one! I have a bunch of store apps that I keep on my phone. Not only is it super easy to order things off Amazon, Target and other stores, but you can check out deals  like with Old Navy or Ulta before you make your way out to run errands. You can also change some of the app’s settings and make these apps a widget on you main menu on the iPhone. Then you don’t always have to open up the app, just scroll down and check up on your stuff. The excitement for your package’s delivery can grow inside you and you can always keep track with how much you’re spending on your credit cards and stuff. I am also super lazy, so I don't like looking for an item that I might not find when I am at the store, when I can just go looking online first. And then with Target, I could just buy it on my phone and then pick it up from their store later....these apps are seriously encouraging spending habits....
   
   
   This post is making me realize how big of a shopping problem I might have- not that I will admit this anywhere or to anyone.
   Happy Savings Happy Shopping & Good Luck!!