No, I didn’t get an iPhone. But I did get an iPod Touch over Thanksgiving weekend. (Hurray for Amazon matching Apple Store Black Friday prices!) I know, I know, as a financial blogger I’m supposed to shun such trendy toys, but it was a gift! My parents got one for my sister as well as themselves, and I am assigned to teach them how to use it when I visit in December.
(I’m excited because my HTC TouchPro2 with my $30 Sprint SERO can be hacked to share it’s 3G connection as a WiFi Router, so I can get my iTouch online anywhere I have cell coverage. Nearly an iPhone!)
Another perk is that now I can review all those personal finance apps out there. I know there are a lot of budgeting apps, the Mint.com app, and various ones for banks and brokerage companies.
What are your favorite apps? Which ones were worth the money, and which ones weren’t? Which free and non-free apps would you like me to review? Share in the comments below.
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Mint is by far the greatest financial app out there.
(USAA also has an app where you can take a photo of your check to deposit it. Pretty Cool)
This is a shameless plug – I wrote an iPhone/Touch app that lets you easily figure out how long you’ll need to work in order to buy something.
It offers a slightly different take on managing your money by thinking about what things mean in terms of your time.
It’s called MiValue – you can see screenshots on our web stite:
http://sites.google.com/site/mivalueapp/
and/or buy it from the iTunes app store here:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=323502843&mt=8
This is decidedly low tech but I use an Excel spreadsheet via Documents to Go for recording cash transactions then manually enter them into Yodlee later.
I love my ipod touch!
Okay, I have a Mac also, so I highly recommend Ibank to manage finances on the mac and the app syncs with your desktop version.
The USAA app is really only for iphones because Touches don’t have cameras. You can access your USAA info through the app, but no depositing of checks.
I also use 1Password to sync passwords with the mac and Ipod.
Convertbot is a cool conversion app that does currency, weight, volume, etc.
Grocery IQ is an app that helps you keep track of grocery lists by aisle and store.
Paypal and ING direct have apps to access your accounts and send $$.
For travel: Tripit and Kayak both have apps, Point Inside is an app that has maps of malls across North America. Open Table and Yelp have apps for restaurant reservations and reviews of all sorts.
USAA app hands down is one of the best apps out there for overall financial management:
– Deposit @ Mobile (take a picture of a check)
– View account balances, pay bills, transfer funds, etc
– View insurance information, including viewing your auto insurance id card
– Accident checklist
Mint is good too. I’ve tried a whole bunch of budgeting apps but I haven’t really liked any of them.
Frugal is a great app for calculating the comparative cost and best value of items with different quantities and/or different stores.
Craigsphone is a new one I discovered. It makes posting to Craigslist super quick. And it’s free too.
I really like Yodlee as it has a real estate component that the others don’t. Good for calculating net worth. Also really good at linking to all your accounts.
My financial apps include:
Bank of America
Mint
Paypal
Craigsphone
CReports
AAA Discounts
Half Off Deals
Valpak
Granted, these are not all “personal finance” apps, but these are all apps I use to save money.
Also, I haven’t wanted to purchase it, but my friend really LOVES RedLaser. It scans barcodes and tells you where the cheapest place to buy it is. Pretty neat concept
I love the Mint.com app. Now I can actually check my net worth and such on the go while I’m in the store. It’s a good deterrent to keep me from buying things I don’t need.
What are the best blackberry financial apps?
Personally, I just checkbook to keep track of all my account balances. It exports as csv or qif for importation into quicken and keep track of my cash account, as well as the balances of my other accounts on the go.
The next version will have major new features the developer will not disclose until release.
check it out: http://www.checkbookiphoneapp.com/
yodlee.com is way better than mint … mint won’t track your net worth over time like yodlee
mint is just day by day view of whats going on .. if u want to know if ur making any real progress and why, yodlee is where its at
Note that Jonathon bought an iPod Touch (as I did), which doesn’t have a camera or a GPS like the iPhone. So apps like RedLaser, Deposit@Mobile, etc. would be of limited use on the Touch.
I have tried a few apps however none impressed me enough to stick with. Mint USAA probably had the longest run, but in the end I abandoned that as well.
Also, I have been reading your blog for awhile now and would really appreciate your input on a website I am helping to launch. StackMeUp.com allows users to privately compare personal information across hundreds of categories by age, gender, race, or geographic location. Please check out the Income tabs or any other area of interest and let me know what you think.
Thanks.
for me, the most useful financial app is Mint.com
If you have brokerage accounts, these apps might be useful:
E*Trade for Etrade
iStockManager for Ameritrade
Tip is quite good for calculating tips and to divide the bills
1Password Pro is good for storing all your online login/password
Actually, the WiFi triangulation or whatever of iPod Touch does a really good job of locating my geographical position wherever I am… almost too good!
I love Pocket Money to track budgets, expenses and keep my checkbook. It handles lots of types of transactions and, like any good app, scales to your needs.
My most-used and favorite app is Instapaper. It is perfect for the Touch to read articles offline. I always have something to read anywhere I am. But best of all, I can read in bed at night and not bother my spouse by using the black background option. Autoscrolling is awesome also. There is a free version, but he paid version makes it much more useful.
Also check out Evernote. The more I use it, the more I need it. On the Touch you can tag notes as Favorites and have access to them anywhere offline. Notes can be almost anything you can see on your computer, take a photo of, draw or type.
Another fan of the USAA App here. Also pic2shop – although you need the iPhone for that one I’m sure – you use the camera to “scan” an item in a store and it pulls up all the best prices online! pretty snazzy stuff.
Also Woot, but that’s more about spending money than saving 😉
Very much agree about Evernote — it’s one of the few apps that I’ve kept using once the novelty period runs out.
I keep track of car mileage (for tax purposes and maintenance/economy purposes) in notes tagged with “gas.” I keep recipes tagged by ingredient so I can lookup all recipes that involve certain ingredients. For business purposes I take pictures of business cards — on the computer software, the text of the business card is OCRed, so you can search for “Smith” to find John Smith’s business card. Etc.
And last but definitely not least–take a picture of your car in huge parking lots. Evernote records the GPS location of your car, and on your way back you can just follow the map!
Not directly financial but allows for telephone communication Skype on the iPod Touch. I call the iPod Touch + Verizon MiFi (or tethering) + Skype = iPhony
Without a doubt, Mint is my favorite finance app. I use it all the time! That’s a pretty good hack to get the Ipod online through your cel phone! I’m impressed. I broke down and went the Iphone route about 6 months ago and haven’t regretted it one bit. My frugal side fought me all the way when I was considering it, but now that I’ve used it, I can’t imagine not having the functionality. The only way I’ll drop it is if Google does release their own phone. I’m sure it will be WAY cheaper!
Hazzard
What about the tMobile MyTouch?
Carol
Big fan of the Mint app. I’ve also become fond of the Bloomberg and Yahoo Finance apps to track my stocks.
Hey Jonathan does using the phone as a router incur any extra charges to your sprint bill. I have the TP2 also but have never used the phone as a modem or a router yet?
It’s not an app but I enjoy getting a text message saving reminder everyday from a site called http://www.saveeveryway.com
They claim their daily reminders will help you save 6% more.
They work with all phones and also twitter.
I seriously love my iPhone so I hope you enjoy your Touch!
As for PF apps….err….how about game recommendations instead? lol 😀
I use mint and its quite useful for me. Since the day i used mint never have i regretted it.
The Android OS is the best-available smartphone technology by a large margin and is poised to kill the iPhone into obscurity in very little time (every carrier is on board), so don’t forget to include Android in articles like this!
I am using PersonalAssistant on the myTouch 3G.
Don’t forget to put a passcode on the Touch if you’ve got financial apps on there.
For me, I have a few shopping apps like eBay, etc on there to price compare. “Units” is also helpful for comparing sizes of things. Lastly, if you launch the native calc app and turn it sideways, it becomes a scientific calculator. Just in case you’re crunching some numbers or want to figure out the bill.
Jonathan,
How can you enable HTC Touch Pro 2 to share internet connection with ipod touch?
Also can you please specify your favorite windows mobile apps you using for Touch Pro 2?
—
Achiever
@Kevin: Mint does indeed track net worth: Click on the Trends tab, select Net Worth on the right, and then check All Time in the upper right.
Still loving mint since joining in July!
Jonathan – Can you share with me any links on the hack to share it’s 3G connection as a WiFi Router on your HTC phone. I have an HTC phone and also on SERO AND just recently got an ipod as a gift. I have been thinking of getting internet connection via my cellphone (I already use the cellphone to tether to my laptop). Thanks in advance.
To make your WiFi-enabled phone become a WiFi router, the best option I’ve found is WMWifiRouter but it costs $30. There is a free 21-day trial to see if it works first. If you use this feature a lot, I think it’s worth the money as it’s cheaper than two nights of paid hotel internet. SERO technically does not support tethering, so using a ton of data through this software could affect your plan. Light usage should be fine.
http://www.wmwifirouter.com/
Alternatives that are free but may take some tweaking:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=538874
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showpost.php?p=1261064&postcount=43
Cashbook lite is a simple way to keep track of earnings and expences. Its not hard to use and you can create your own sub catergories. It wil also tell you your balance from your income and expedentures.
For those of you who enjoy using Mint, will you still enjoy it as much (or at all) once it has begun to take on the look and feel of Intuit’s money management software? Intuit bought out Mint. All I can say is that I closed my Mint account. Good + Free = Short Term.
We just launched a new iPhone app called Wikinvest Portfolio Manager. It syncs directly with multiple brokerage accounts and lets you see stock quotes and market news in real time. Check it out!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikinvest-portfolio-manager/id384583497?mt=8