Free Financial Fitness iPhone Apps

If you are one of the many Americans who own an iPhone, you can take advantage of the free financial fitness apps available for download. There are apps for budgeting, investing, mobile banking and managing credit cards.

Track your spending and savings and stick to your budget with Mint.com's personal finance app. There are also free apps from CNN Money, Bloomberg and Yahoo! Finance for general financial information, as well as up-to-date stock quotes from Charles Schwab and E*Trade.

If you have an iPhone, be sure to check out these free financial fitness apps available at the App Store.

4 Tips for Personal Finance Success

Most people don't think of themselves as a business, but truth is, when it comes to personal finance, you have been in business with yourself since birth. The same principals that come from business budgeting can be applied to managing your personal finance.

Here are 4 tips for successful personal finance:
1. Remove emotion from financial obligations - This will help you come up with practical solutions to problems and remove stress and other emotions from mounting bills and income worries.
2. Stay on top of things - Don't wait for bills to pile up and situations to become unmanageable. Be proactive and take care of bills as they arrive.
3. Budget - Learn new budgeting and financial planning skills and put them to use.
4. Be organized - Use software or keep a spreadsheet of your spending so you can see where your expenses can be better spent.

How to Set Your Children Up for Financial Success

All parents want the best for their children, but often the financial responsibility we learn from our parents is anything but responsible. One of the most important lessons a parent can teach a young adult is how to spend and save responsibly. Here are a few key ideas to discuss with your child to set him or her up for financial independence in the future:

• Explain the need for budgeting and how to create a working budget.
  
• Explain income taxes and how 401ks and IRAs can help you save on taxes, while saving for the future.
  
• Teach your child how to manage credit cards and avoid debt.
• Stress the importance of filing important documents in an organized manner.

Building Models for Budgeting and Financial Planning in a Recession

Chances are you or someone you know has been hit hard during our current economic recession. Knowing when and how much to spend or save can seem daunting when faced with the present economic crisis. There are ways of building your own financial models for budgeting and financial planning so that you can deal with the ever present financial obstacles of life while weathering the storm of a recession. Budgeting, strategic financial planning and simple common sense are several ways to start.

• Working Budget - Begin by creating revising a realistic and working budget which outlines your income, dividends and expenses. A budget allows you to examine how much money you make and where it goes and gives you an opportunity to make changes where needed.

• Strategic Financial Planning - Decide where to make adjustments in your budget. Budget variable expenses by cutting back on eating out, buying non-label or generic items and, making local plans rather than vacationing out of town.

• Common Sense - Preparing for the worst may be the best attitude to adopt in our current economic situation. Increasing the amount of money that's put into your savings and building a three to six month emergency savings fund model into your financial budget can help you prepare for unforseen circumstances.

Be ready to make good financial choices for you and your family during this recession with sound judgment, strategic financial planning and realistic obtainable budget. Tough economic times call for tough financial planning and budgeting decisions to be made; let common sense be your compass when building financial models for you and your loved ones.

Money and marriage: 10 financial tips for couples

Here's a great article on banking and finance for married couples...

Practical Tips to help keep couples content

1. Communication

Communication is one of the key ingredients to a successful relationship and it applies to your finances as well. Be open and honest with your partner and be realistic about what you can and can't afford - to avoid conflict and issues later down the track.

2. Joint responsibility

Agree that your financial future is a joint responsibility - gone are the days where the male in the family is the sole breadwinner, many women are now jointly sharing this role. Discuss early on what you both want to achieve in terms of future financial goals, determine what these are and an achievable period of time that you want to reach these goals.

3. Managing Money

Women and men tend to have very different outlooks on the "best" way to spend money so it may help to set aside a percentage of money each month that is yours to spend how you choose. This way you are able to splurge on things you feel are important.

4. Monthly Budget

Prepare a monthly budget - this will help you to be realistic about costs and necessary bills/payments that need paying within a certain time frame. You could also look at keeping a spending diary.

5. Compromise

Like so many issues in a relationship, financial issues are best handled by compromise. Don't assume that the way you have been raised to think about and approach finances is ultimately the right one - compromise the way you manage your money so that you are both comfortable with the process.

6. Prioritise

Prioritising what is important to both you and your partner to help to avoid unnecessary stress or conflict in the future. Start by compiling lists of what you really need and what you want. Align your financial goals and objectives; prioritise what's important to you and plan ahead to secure a healthy financial future for you and your relationship.

7. Define Yours, Mine, and Ours

There are several options for couples to help them manage their finances more efficiently - joint or separate bank accounts or even a combination of both. It's important to determine what's the best option for you and your partner - consider the total amount of bills that need to be paid and when they need to be paid by, take into account additional living and social expenses, calculate additional costs including car and health insurance, child care and school fees and so on to determine which option suits you and your partner.

8. Bill Paying Habits

Paying bills is not everyone's idea of fun and games so make it easier on yourself and devise a system/s to save you time. Book in a "date night" with your partner each month, where you sit down and go through your bills and finances. To make it more relaxing order take-out so you don't have to worry about cooking and cleaning.

9. Emergency Funds

You never know what the future holds so it is always best to plan ahead and be prepared for emergencies where you may need some extra funds on hand. Set-up a joint or separate online high interest account, and transfer a set amount each time you get paid. That way you both won't be as tempted to spend it and you'll have some additional funds for those unexpected emergencies!

10. Team Work

Don't let money discussions rule your relationship, make sure you share the burden of your financial responsibilities equally, whether that means sitting down with your partner at the end of every month to go through bills and necessary payments, or splitting up the responsibilities - it takes two to tango!