Five apps to help you track your finances
It's January, which means you're probably thinking about your finances for the upcoming year. Tax season is right around the corner. There might be employment changes coming or large purchases on your mind. Here are five apps to help you keep track of your money as it goes in and out of your wallet.
iBank ($4.99)
iBank is an all-purpose financial organizer for the iPhone that keeps track of your checking, savings, credit card and cash accounts. It lets you enter purchases on the fly and has some nice features like split transactions and multi-currency support. It can be used as a stand alone app or as a companion app that syncs to iBank for the Mac. iBank lets you sync multiple devices so you and other members of your household can always have up-to-date financial information on your handset.
TaxCaster (Free)
TaxCaster is a tax calculator for the iPhone and the iPad from Intuit. The app lets you add in W2 income, business income, withholdings, deductions, tax credits and more. It's one of the most feature-filled tax estimators I've used and does an accurate job of estimating your taxes. The app uses sliders so you can easily adjust the values and see how it affects the amount you owe (or will be refunded).
Loan Calculator Pro ($0.99)
If you have a house, car or a personal loan, then you should have an app like Loan Calculator Pro on your iPhone. The app lets you enter in the terms of a loan and produce an amortization table to see how long it will take you to pay it off, how much interest you'll pay and so on. It includes a "what if" scenario so you can see how your loan will change when you make extra payments. You can also track your loans and add in payments as you make them.
Receipts Pro ($4.99)
Receipts Pro is a valuable tool for anyone who needs to keep track of receipts. It's a flexible app with advanced features like custom receipt fields and repeating receipts. It'll let you take a picture, save a voice memo and add other attachments like an email to a receipt. Receipts Pro helps you keep track of your money by letting you assign a receipt to an account and a category, too. This information then can be used to generate reports and graphs which show you where your money is being spent. All reports can be saved as a PDF, Excel or CSV file and uploaded to Box, Dropbox and other cloud services.
Wikinvest Portfolio HD (Free)
Wikinvest is a stock portfolio manager that lets you import and track your accounts from Etrade, Schwab, Ameritrade, Fidleity, and other brokers. It updates nightly, so you always have the latest information on your investments. Wikinvest includes tools to chart your portfolio's performance, both on its own and in comparison with major indices. Pair this with the Bloomberg app for stock news and you have the right tools to maximize the return on your investments.
Have any other finance favorites you'd like to tell us about? Leave us your comments below to let other TUAW readers know what is keeping your personal finances in the black.
