Money Momma: Getting to Grips With Financial Apps

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When you’re balancing kids, chores, work and (hopefully) time off, it can be difficult to keep track of finances, but monitoring your incomings, outgoings and savings is often key for the ongoing security of you and your family. If you want to do this more efficiently, it might be time to download an app – here’s what you need to know.

Benefits

Apps are an indispensable tool when it comes to managing finances due to their convenience, simplicity and speed of use. Their impact has been so significant that they have completely disrupted archaic banking practices and are in no small part responsible for the rise of huge brands such as Monzo or Revolut. Your phone now represents an excellent means to make, save and organize money – understanding these benefits will give you greater control over your wealth.

There are now many different types of financial apps – these include (but are not limited to) full service banking apps, budgeting apps, peer-to-peer-payment apps and investing apps. The advantages these provide are extensive and varied, but ultimately they all provide a greater level of convenience to the user. A good budgeting app, for example, will allow you to track spending across multiple accounts. This is hugely useful for a business owner, as when you form a Limited Liability Company (LLC), personal and business accounts are kept separate, thereby reducing your personal liability and protecting you from company debts and lawsuits. An app can help you to track both in one space, without commingling funds.

App Types

There are so many options on the market, you’re likely to find a finance app to suit your every need. A program like ‘Money Patrol’, for example, helps you to monitor all of your bank accounts, keeping you from missing any bill due dates. Alternatively, an app like ‘Charlie’ will allow you to set financial goals, giving you timelines and texting you as you approach markers. Then you have investment apps, which have grown in popularity for their inventive strategies towards stocks and cryptocurrencies – some will add a percentage onto every purchase you make and divert this towards a savings account or a pre-chosen share.

In a family context, things get really interesting with new downloadables such as ‘HomeBudget (with sync)’, ‘Spendless’ or ‘Money Monitor Pro’ – these allow you to track regular expenditure including groceries, restaurant bills, medical expenses, and more, syncing up with the other devices in your family. You can even pay for utilities, set calendar reminders, or assign kids’ allowance, all from the comfort of your phone screen.

Before You Download

It’s important, before you download an app, that you’ve done plenty of research into its function and safety. You should always read reviews and be wary of 4 stars or less. It’s often worth watching videos of the app in use to decide whether the interface suits you or if it looks too convoluted. Try to gather as much information as possible beforehand – signing up can be time-consuming and it’s important to protect your data.

Additional Apps

Not all apps that benefit finances are financial by nature. There are a host of virtual assistants, time management, or organization apps that will help you make more sense of busier days. These can, in turn, help you to save money. Zirtual uses artificial intelligence to automatically reply to emails on your behalf, design schedules and organize meetings. Toggl tells you how much time you’ve spent on certain tasks, helping you to make the most of every hour.

Apps are now an important part of modern life, inextricably linked with financial success. Using them could save or make you money in the long-term, as well as helping you and your family to avoid unnecessary expenses.

Here, at Candid Mama, I try out new products, work alongside companies to promote their brands, build relationships with brands, and meet with other bloggers and followers to help my readers come to the right decisions. Learn more, at: www.candidmama.com