Setting Financial Goals for 2016

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas last week. We have just a few days left in 2015 and it's time to really consider our goals for the year. Do you have financial goals set? Are you looking to decrease your credit card debt or eliminate it completely? Are you going to pay off a student or car loan this year? Or will you quit procrastinating opening that savings account? Maybe you'll open a brokerage account and start doing market research to build your portfolio. Whatever goals you have, make sure you're making decisions today to take you one step closer to achieving them.

That being said, there are so many apps on both iPhone and Android stores that help build a budget and monitor your spending. My favorite is Mint. Mint has both web and mobile application capabilities and can be used to consolidate your accounts into one secure location. You probably have separate log ins for your credit card, student loan, home loan, car loan and debit card accounts and it's so inconvenient to have to log in to each site to get your information. With Mint, you can consolidate all your accounts, monitor all of your transactions and see what you're spending your money on. The Mint tool allows you to set limits for your budgeted items like clothes, food, health and any other expense you could want to monitor. Mint is also great because it will send you a weekly activity update letting you know how your net worth has changed over the week.

Along those same lines the app Mvelopes is a great way to watch your budget. Similar to Mint, it actually uses secure connections to your bank accounts to monitor your transactions. Mvelopes provides a nine step program that will help you control your spending, live within your means and help you to target financial goals to improve your credit score and net worth over time. With so much financial information available about yourself Mvelopes will monitor your habits, and help you pin point those excesses and provide ways to save or spend your money more efficiently.

Those are just two of the top mobile and web app options available for free to help you get your budget in order in 2016. Other options include:

1) Good Budget
2) You Need A Budget
3) Toshl Finance

Research these five I picked or search for another. I chose these because they are free and offered on both iOS and Android phones. If you have an app you prefer to use, share it with me. I'd like to know what all is available and how you like what you use.

Until next post folks...