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While technology is said to make us lazier, money management apps and tablet features like these can surely make your life a lot more efficient to manage.
That dream house, the urge to travel and experience the world because all we have is just one life time and those prestigious schools we want to see our children get educated in – we want it all, we need it all and most importantly we deserve it all.
But to achieve all of that and more, if there is one thing that occupies most of our minds especially towards the end of the month, it is the financial status of our family. Once the salary comes in, the cheques start getting written and the ECS payments get triggered off. And then we spend a few hours tracking all our investments, payments and our savings ensuring that we have a stable foundation to provide the needs and comforts that we and our family need.
I start the month on a similar note, using excel to track our monthly budgets, investments and payments. Whenever we are on the move, I make a mental note of any update that needs to be made or jot a quick note on my phone, all to be added later to my precious excel sheet.
I followed this routine religiously until better sense prevailed and I explored the Dell Venue Tab store for apps that might come handy in my financial management endeavours. And I wasn’t disappointed. There were quite a few apps that helped take care of my online banking needs as well as track investments, budgets and do my tax returns.
While online sites also exist for all of these, tablets simplify the process by facilitating the availability of information and data on the go and as and when we would need it. Right from providing apps to track your various bank accounts to securely storing your bank information such that it is handy at all times, Tablets today act as a much necessary financial assistant.
In addition to helping out in your banking needs, the ability of accessing on the go market data helps you make real time investment decisions on your stock portfolios. If there is any area where timing becomes extremely important, it is financial planning and having a portable device that is a platform to gain real time information, makes life becomes much easier and more convenient.
Most banks provide excellent banking facilities on their websites – however, accessing these on the go can become cumbersome. Every bank has an app on the Dell tablet that provides all features that the websites do, but in a more simplified manner. Now you can check your statements, do transfers, create fixed deposits or order a cheque book, wherever you might be.
Tracking investment portfolios that include your shares, mutual funds, ULIPS or any other insurance plans can be done in a centralized manner while real time market information can be accessed to take a decision and strengthen your investments. What’s more, many of these sites are available in languages such as Hindi and Gujarati making it easier for our elder generation to earn and be self-reliant if they want to. The app also allows you to build your own customized portfolios.
In addition Apps powered by sites such as Money Control can provide reliable data to take your decision. Employer based investments such as provident funds can also be tracked online, this comes extremely useful when you have provident funds that are established from previous companies and their balances have been transferred to your current organization. To top it off these applications also allow you to make your annual investments for rebate on tax returns.
Calculating your month on month EMI or comparing different loan options to check the lowest interest rates, use the universal loan calculator which validates your numbers for different banks that you are considering. Do loan comparisons across banks, calculate currency transfers, calculate interest rates and the amount you spend on interest vis a vis your principle amount. It cannot get any more convenient than this.
This is probably the most useful app that I came across. With the investment and loan expenditure, tracking monthly living expenditure becomes a necessity so that there are no ugly surprises when we check our savings or the balance required to pay of the subsequent EMIs and payments. These expense manager apps allow you to track your expenses by week, month or year, schedule payments, recurring payments and compare against the existing balance. Some of them also allow inclusion of payment alerts, segregation of expenses by the overheads and let you to a month on month analysis. There are a few paid apps within the range of Rs 200-300 that allow you more intensive tracking and analysis as well.
An interesting app that the Dell Venue tablet provides is for mobile and DTH recharges across different service providers. This app also gives the option to bargain for a product and purchase at a reasonable price. Thus giving you an experience similar to shopping over the counter. The bargain feature also contains an option to chat directly with the vendor.
Along with these apps what also can help centralize financial management are the Office apps that are available on the Dell (Windows) tablet. Softwares such as MS Excel can help synch your expense data for you to go through when offline and on the go. Similarly the option to download market related information for any offline analysis is also attractive.
Post supported by Dell
Pic credit: lendingmemo.com (Used under a CC license)
Seeta Bodke is a Business Consultant and Senior Manager from the IT sector. After spending over a decade in managerial roles, she decided to follow her heart and take up freelance writing and blogging. When read more...
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