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July 13, 2010

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I never expected to see 'iPhone' and 'save money' used in the same sentence, much less in a PF blog.

When does FMF have an app?!

Hehe, that's a good point lurker.

I currently use a combination of Tracfone and an iPod Touch. I admit the Touch was also expensive, but what can I say, we all have our weak spots.

Nevertheless, the Touch allows me to run almost any iPhone apps, including all the financial stuff. My personal favorite is SplashMoney, which has all the flexibility I am looking for, and by setting up dummy accounts, you can budget your money out.

Spend is very good, but lacks the level of flexibility and features that I am looking for, but again, I can vouch that it's good. Even Spend Lite may be good enough if your budget is basic, and that app is free.

I also use Bloomberg, but I don't know the rest and will check them out, so thank you for this article.

That said, I am also in the process of researching a more suitable method for me that would not require a PDA-like device of any kind. Because as much as I like these things, they're still expensive, and I would hate to have to replace this thing some day.

I agree with Lurker! No iphone, no apps, no financial problems. Beauty!

I'm not sure what the point of having some of these apps is when I already track this stuff somewhere else. As far as I am concerned the only personal finance app I would really want is my budget, and thankfully YNAB delivered that not too long ago!

In regards to the iPhone and cost I can attest. Not only does the iPhone itself cost money, you then get lured into buying apps! And I have certainly purchased my fair share, although most were $2.00 or less.

Dang...all the iPhone haters made it here too...haha.

Well, personally, I really like mine and it's been the single most used product in my everyday life. You can think of it as wasting money but there are ways to reduce the cost and actually save money by maximizing its usage and helpfulness.

That's my 2cents.

My wife and I both use iReconcile on our respective phones. It allows you to track any number of accounts. With a single 20 dollar yearly subscription, we can both keep our phones in sync. No more calling to find out from the other if there are sufficient funds or if a particular bill has been paid or when it is due.

As part of our debt payoff tracking, I keep all our debt accounts current in the app. It has been a great incentive for both of us to see the grand total go down each pay period.

As for the wisdom of owning an iPhone (or any smartphone) when you are in debt, we have saved more in bank fees and late fees by having a more consistent and more difficult to lose method of keeping track of our money (i.e. paper checkbook register) than what our monthly cell phone bill comes out to.

Surprised to not see Mint on here. It seems pretty nice bit with my credit union, if I log onto Mint via the iphone app it locks me out of logging in to the CU's website normally.

Other than that major hiccup............

@Chris - thats what I came in to say - I love Mint and use it all the time. I do not have an iphone, but am currently drooling over the android phones and my get one when my contract expires. (chalk it up to personal weakness - but at the same time my work does expect us to have a smartphone, and gives us $50/month towards our phone bill). Mint is one of the first aps I plan on installing.

I'm a long-time FMF'r, and love doing budget/financial things online. Plus, I just bought an Iphone. But I'm also an IT Security professional, and want to put a strong caution out there to folks.

Anything that you are accessing online accounts with money in them, should not be done from a phone, at least not without understanding the risks.
* Almost all phones don't have antivirus or security software on them. They almost never are behind a firewall, and only some are encrypted.
* Most phones aren't locked. If you lose them, and they have the passwords to your bank/brokerage/credit card online accounts, anyone could log in and possibly transfer money or other bad things. It is worse if you have them set to auto-login.
* Some now have capability to "auto-wipe" a phone if it is lost. Check this our for yours if you run these type of apps.

I understand it is also risky to not budget or track expenses. But I would recommend and plan on myself sticking with tracking and comparing on the phone, but not actually logging into accounts with money in them from the phone.

BTW - Kiplinger's this month recommended an Iphone app that takes a picture with your phone of the RFID number on an item in a store, compares prices of near stores and online, and tells you if it is a good deal. I haven't used it, and it might be similar to the one mentioned above(Benjis), but I'm going to check it out.

If we ever get smart phones, the first app I'm getting is the one I saw on tv that sounds like Save Benjis - you scan the barcode of the item you want or type in the name and it finds the cheapest place to buy it. Woot. That said, I don't see us getting smart phones anytime soon...the monthly cost is just too high imho.

Another great iPhone app for personal finance is the Wikinvest Portfolio Manager app. I like it because it lets me keep track of my investments and the markets in real time.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikinvest-portfolio-manager/id384583497?mt=8

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