To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu
-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from Anchordesk, located at http://review.zdnet.com/AnchorDesk/. --------------------------------------------------------------
| Let your PDA help manage your finances |
| By Jason Parker: Contributing Editor, Downloads |
| Wednesday, July 2, 2003 |
It's pretty easy to lose track of where your money goes. On any given day, I might write a couple of checks, withdraw some cash at an ATM, receive a direct deposit into my checking account, and charge some purchases to my credit card.
By the end of the day, without some system to track all of this activity, I wouldn't know how much money was in my account. Over the course of a month, I wouldn't know how much I'm spending on anything. That's why I find mobile financial software so useful. Whenever I make a banking transaction or write a check for groceries, I record it in my PDA. In this way, I can keep track of how much I'm spending on food, commuting, entertainment--whatever. Then at the end of the month, I can go back and see what happened to all my money. If you're looking to keep track of your finances, I recommend these three programs. MobileMoney 2002 lets you manage your money flow using several account types to categorize your expenses. It also syncs up with Microsoft Money or Quicken, so your desktop and your Palm can both have the latest expense information. (Shareware/Palm) PocketMoney keeps track of all your banking transactions, credit card expenses, and checks. I also like how it warns you when you might overdraw your checking account or exceed your credit limit. (Shareware/Palm) Pocket Finance is a great money manager for those with a Pocket PC handheld. Like MobileMoney, it organizes your finances and syncs with Microsoft Money and Quicken. (Shareware/Pocket PC) Staying on top of your finances can be tricky. But if you use one of these programs consistently, I bet you'll find the process gets a little simpler. What's your favorite personal-finance software? TalkBack to me!