Your Friendly Pocket Size Money Manager

Notwithstanding your chosen field of endeavor, your geographical location, your demographic allocation, or your social stature, one cold fact remains - Money matters! While making money is generally not easy, managing it can become an even bigger challenge, especially if you do not understand the domain. Along with the lack of financial acumen, the second biggest issue that people face when it comes to managing their finances is that they are so caught up making money, that they do not have the time to pay due attention to its management. The good news is that your trusted smartphone once again comes to the rescue. Just like there is an app for everything else, there are apps that allow you to monitor, manage and invest your hard earned money effectively.

Today, you don’t have to be a financial wizard or need to hire a money manager to manage your money or track your spending. There are a number of easy, user - friendly ways in which you can use a smartphone to keep abreast of your finances.

1. Expense management Apps: There are some great expense tracking apps for Android and IOS devices such as Cash Book apps which help you keep a tracking of your daily expenditures. A great way for tracking both business and personal expenses, these applications have the ability to automatically fill some of the data and time. You can even take a picture of a receipt store in the records. Some better ones even scan the image for text, and fill in the fields on their own.

2. With the help of GPS, it can determine the distance travelled and amount of time taken which further helps in calculating the mileage. There are embedded tools for generating charts and diagrams, too, as well as an integrated calculator. Best part about this category of smartphone applications is that, you don’t have to carry a anything else, not even a notebook or a pen. You just have to carry a phone.

3. Spreadsheet Software:  There are different types of spreadsheet tools available on Android and IOS, such as Google docs, openoffice.org etc. These applications offer one of the most rudimentary, yet the most popular method of managing your personal finances. They have all the feature of a Microsoft office suit and are perfect for keeping record of your cash. The charting feature lets you visualize your finances as a graph or chart. However, the smaller form factor and screen sizes of the smart devices are best for viewing and not editing the cells. You probably need to use your laptop, or at least your tablet.

4. Calculators:  An evolution of the regular calculators, these are generally macro based solutions for specific purposes. These purpose build programs can accomplish a variety of financial tasks like Tax calculators for tax management and planning and Loan calculators for understanding how long it will take you to pay off your debt and how much interest you'll pay. You can also calculate your potential EMIs before you approach a financial institution. These simple, old fashioned tools are reliable and made for accounting. They really help you plan, budget and save your finances. However, some knowledge of the domain is preferred.

5. Banking Apps: Bank apps help to manage your money on the go. You can now connect you bank account, credit card, bills etc. into one system with a high level security.  These apps have an easy setting and are user friendly. This helps in pulling your financial data quickly. With the help of these tools, one can now easily manage his /her debts, bills and track investments.