How a Smartphone Can Help Your Wallet and Portfolio

Smartphones, now owned by more than 45 million Americans, are the Swiss Army knives of the 21st century. They serve as video cameras, stopwatches, navigation devices, flashlights—even TV remote controls.

Advances in mobile phones are also changing how the world manages money. You can pay bills, get up-to-the-minute stock prices and file expense reports without ever sitting in front of a computer.

“There’s been a real demand on financial institutions to get more active in the mobile space,” said Jeremy Sokolic, director of marketing for the mobile financial information firm CarryQuote. People can get so many things on their phones that help them in their day-to-day life, there’s an expectation that ‘Of course, my financial information should be on my phone.’”

With more than a half-million apps available for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and other platforms, the selection process can be daunting. The app store for your own phone is a good place to start, as these stores usually list the most popular free and paid apps by category, along with user reviews.

“When you see an app that has gotten hundreds of ratings, you can probably get at least an idea of what the popular consensus is on what’s good and what’s not good,” says Bryan Chaffin, editor of The Mac Observer.

To get you started, here are the most common types of finance apps, from stocks to financial news to managing your budget, along with popular free apps in each category. Unless mentioned otherwise, all are available on the three major platforms (iPhone, BlackBerry and Android):

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