To paraphrase a commonly-used phrase from J.R.R. Tolkien, not all those who invest are accountants. Often, calculating investment returns and managing a portfolio can swiftly become complicated and maddening endeavors. However, thanks to the dedicated work of investment-minded programmers, there are several phone applications which can help simplify this process.
Personal Capital
This app was personally recommended by Rob Berger in an article for Forbes, who uses the app daily. Personal Capital, he wrote, allows investors to link investment accounts, including retirement and taxable accounts, after which it tracks investment performance, the various asset allocations and fees. It also offers a 401k Fee Analyzer, which extrapolates the fees in a 401k and their growth over the entire time horizon.
Acorns
Iif you are not comfortable with or feel too busy to choose investments one by one, Acorns offers an app that invests for you in a manner that U.S. News called “set-it-and-forget-it.” Acorns links to your credit and debit cards, and when you make a purchase, it rounds the purchase up to the next dollar, using that extra bit of change to invest in six different funds based on your chosen risk tolerance. For accounts under $5,000, Acorns charges users a dollar a month, and 0.25 percent of annual assets for accounts above that number.
Mint
At first glance, Mint is a little surprising on this list, because first and foremost, it is a budgeting tool from the makers of Quicken and TurboTax. However, Berger pointed out, Mint lets you link bank accounts, credit cards and investment accounts in one location, while keeping track of your investment performance and fees. It also has the advantage of being free to use; however, it simply doesn’t offer the variety of tools in apps like Personal Capital.
Shares 2
Only available on iOS so far, Shares 2 is an app that is especially helpful if you have international stock. It can show your total investment in your choice of currency, updating automatically for exchange rates, and can also display the value, original amount spent and profit-loss numbers for a given company or stock symbol.
Google Finance
Perhaps one of the largest information-sharing names in the world, Google Finance also offers a free portfolio tracker, which Berger recommended for its simplicity. Portfolios can be entered or uploaded in a number of ways, after which Google tracks its daily and overall performance, offering fundamental information on the investments. It is also linked to Google News, so displays news items related to the companies in the portfolio. Performance is displayed in a chart which can be used to review the last few months or the last decade.
Thanks to modern technology, it is now easier than ever to buy, sell and track investments, regardless of skill level, using these or any of a number of applications.
