Monday, May 18, 2015

How to Turn a Smartphone Into a Financial Management Tool




Smartphones now have been the best way to stay organized with every aspect of your life. There are many apps that you can download to have your plans, right in the palm of your hand. Some people want to stay the old fashioned way and have folders and folders organized at home. That’s still a great way to organize, but with the smartphone, you can save space AND have it with you everywhere you go! I think that it’s a better option and it’s very easy to get started.

If you don’t exactly want to download a bunch of apps on your phone because you don’t have enough space or you just don’t want to in general, sometimes your phone comes with great organizing apps. I have an IPhone, so when I go to my home screen there are a ton of default apps that are there that came with the phone and I didn’t have to download them. Trust me, I don’t use all of them because I don’t find that I need them but they are always there if I do. But, there are some that I use almost every day. There’s an app that’s called Notes on the home screen that I love. Whenever I need to write something down really quick and I don’t have a paper and pen, this is perfect! If you need to write down somebody’s number, easy! Just type it in your Notes app and you’ll have it. It’s probably one of my favorite apps on my home screen. There’s also another one called Calendar. You can probably guess what that one does. I think having a calendar on your phone is a lifesaver because you can have it everywhere you go and you don’t have to wait to go home and look at a paper calendar. My Mom, whenever we are out and she has to make some type of appointment. This app on our phones works amazingly! She can just bring up her schedule on her phone and see when she is free. Another app on my home screen is called Reminders. I don’t personally use this one but I think if you need to give yourself a reminder, this is perfect because it’s right there for you. I’m pretty sure that this app gives you a notification on your phone for your reminder that you put into that app. Personally, if I need a reminder I just use my alarm app and put it to a specific time that I need to remember to do something. Here is the picture of my IPhone home screen so you can see where those apps are automatically located on your phone:
 

Of course if you have an android it will look completely different and the apps will also be different but I’m sure there’s something on those phones as well.

Now if you are willing to download apps then you have a lot of options. Did you know that you can handle your finances on your phone? I’m not talking about the bank apps that you can send checks through and what not. I’m talking about apps that give you a spreadsheet template for you to use to lay out what your consistent income is and what expenses you have to subtract from that original amount. If you just add up what amount of money you are getting and not take into account the expenses, that’s not the reality of what leftover money you’ll have after you pay the expenses. This type of app helps you see everything laid out for you to see clearly. It’s great that these apps don’t plug any specific expenses into the spreadsheet because it varies from person to person. Like for example, your parents might have utility expenses but you wouldn’t because they take care of that for you. You might be a little older than me and have a car payment expense. For myself, I don’t really have that much expenses yet. Right now I guess you could say that I have the expense for holiday gifts for people, also if there is anything extra that I want I use my money to purchase as well. But I know that will definitely change when I get older so I want to be financial prepared for that and learn how to manage my money successfully.

So whether you want to download apps on your phone to help you organize yourself or not, there’s always something for you to help you be organized with even the apps that come on your phone already!

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