Applications: Managing Our Lives Since ... Wait, When Was the Smartphone Invented?

Applications are not solely for fun; they are also necessary for making our lives easier. Or, at least, more organized, if you will.

You may be able to think back to a much simpler time when life didn’t revolve around consistent texting and incoming alerts and think to yourself, "I wish I could relish in the simplicity of the 1980s, with all of those brick phones and whatnot." Unfortunately, you can’t. What you can do, however, is leverage the applications on your phones to try to make your life more organized with data storage.

This week’s application breakdown is related to financials, because let’s face it, what REAL organization can be done if you haven’t mastered financial organization first? Let’s dive in.

Mint.com

The application that I personally use to track my finances is  Mint.com.  It allows you to connect to your bank account, track your investments, and establish budgets for each area of your life. After you sign up for Mint.com, take some time to really dig deep into your budget restrictions. Once you are finished managing your budget, Mint.com takes care of the rest for you by notifying you if you have exceeded your budget.

It is easy to use (with bar graphs showing you how much money you have left in a particular budget) and easy to navigate. It is, however, "read-only," meaning you cannot transfer money or pay bills through the application. This negative can turn into a positive if you think of the application in terms of its simplistic style.

Business advantage (4/5) 

• It's simple enough to track your company's financial budgets without the hassle of too many outside factors. Simple and easy to use, which is what you want if you're going to manage set company budgets.

Leisure advantage (3/5) 

• This rating may be higher to you based on the way you prefer your finances. For those of you who are into "in depth" financial management, Mint.com only gives you partial advantage.

Manilla

Mint.com too simple for you? Manilla may be the financial management application for you, because not only is it a money manager- it is a full account management tool. Partnering with over 3500 providers, Manilla is able to manage the smaller aspects of your life, like subscriptions, rewards programs, and other miscellaneous bills (that may or may not include your infrequent dog walker). With the same security protections as your online banking accounts, Manilla protects your online identity while making it easy for you to save all your information in one easy interface.

Business advantage (3/5) 

• If your company has a ton of money to keep track of, or if you are constantly needing to change budgets around, this is the application for you. If your financial formulas are already set in stone, you may not need the extra features of Manilla.

Leisure advantage (5/5)  

• Manilla is super secure and allows you to do everything you want to do with your financial management. What more could you want?