Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 137

3 Quick Tips for Your Android 4.2 JellyBean Device

The following post is from Michelle of Mommy Misadventures :

When it comes to smartphones, I am a real fan of the Android platform, particularly the latest version which is JellyBean 4.2.  JellyBean 4.2 is slick, easy to use with lots of great features.

Here are my top 3 tips for anyone running an Android 4.2 JellyBean device:

1. Customize your home screen.

One of my favorite features of Android smart devices is the ability to customize the look of my home screens. Long press icons on your home screen to move them to other places on your current home screen or move them to other screens. I love to keep my phone looking as clean as possible so I often move icons to screens to the right or the left.

Don’t want an app icon on your home screen? Long press and flick it up towards the top of the screen to remove it. Don’t worry, this doesn’t uninstall the app; you can long press the icon on the app screen to put it back on your home screen.

2. Show owner info.

Let everyone know at a glance that this is your smartphone by showing your owner information on the lock screen. Navigate to the Settings screen, go to Security and under Screen Security, touch “Owner info”.

On this screen, you can enter in your information which will show whenever your phone is locked. I like to put my name and email address on this screen to hopefully get my phone back to me in case I lose it.

3. Access app info.

When you’re experiencing problems with an app, the app info screen can give you lots of helpful information to troubleshoot. App info allows you to force stop or uninstall an application as well as toggle the notifications. Toggling notifications on and off can be especially helpful if you have a free app that likes to spam advertisement notifications.

To access app info, go to Apps and long press the icon of the app you want to access. The long press will activate a “Remove” or “App Info” icon at the top of the screen. Swipe up to the “App Info”.

Do you run an Android 4.2 smartphone or tablet? What are your favorite tips and tricks?

Michelle Mista is an IT professional, writer and blogger with a love for all kinds of technology. She writes about tech tips and trends for work at home professionals on her portfolio blog and muses about motherhood at Mommy Misadventures. She is on the constant quest to balance life, work and geekery.

3 Quick Tips for Your Android 4.2 JellyBean Device is a post from Life Your Way

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Weekly Reads {2/25/13}

This week didn’t go quite as planned. With the start of my Whole30 challenge, I spent a lot of time on the computer researching, in the kitchen cooking or in my bed sleeping (I am exhausted and looking forward to that burst of energy that everybody promises!). Because of all of that, I made my way very slowly through two books, barely finishing those over the weekend, a sad reading week compared to the rest of the year!

Hopefully as this way of eating becomes more routine, I’ll be able to set aside more time for reading once again.

Head here to see Katie’s post for this week. We also want to know what you’re reading! Add your blog post to the linky below or leave a comment with your favorite reads from this week.

(See the full 2013 list here.)

This Week’s Reads

Closed Hearts and Free Souls by Susan Kaye Quinn

After reading the first book in this series (which is still FREE for the Kindle, by the way!) last week, I really enjoyed the plot of these two as well despite the (sorry!) amateurish covers. They were easy, light reads, and I thought Quinn did a great job of continuing the story line. I will say that one thing that really bugged me is that the mind readers of society were called “readers” in the first book, and for some reason they became known as “mindreaders” in the 2nd and 3rd book instead. The term is used a lot in the story, and that small change really irritated me because it was such a distraction!

These are definitely YA lit, and while I think Quinn has potential as an author, I don’t think they’re quite the stuff classics or bestsellers are made of yet. However, they definitely fed my dystopian/fantasy book love, especially during a week when I needed a light read.

On My Reading List for This Week

People Before Profit by Ken Koopman
You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream by Holley Gerth
Moonlight Masquerade by Ruth Axtell

Audiobooks

Addy , Julie and Rebecca: American Girl Stories

From Peyton (8): “The American Girl Doll stories are about girls from different places and their friends. I like that the stories tell you facts about the world a long time ago, even though the American Girls are not real people. We’ve listened to Addy, Julie and Rebecca. My favorite is pretty much Julie because she loves to pay basketball, and she made her own petition to play on the boys’ basketball team because they didn’t have a girls’ basketball team, and she was very determined to do it.”

Share Your Reading List

Green Living: Protecting Your Family vs. Protecting the Environment

The following post is from Emily of Live Renewed:

source: joesive47/freedigitalphotos.net

Why do you think it’s important to live a natural and eco-friendly lifestyle? Is it to protect the health of your family and avoid your exposure to chemicals and toxins as much as possible? Or is it because you feel a responsibility to protect the health of the planet and the people living on it, and to preserve the earth’s natural resources for future generations?

It’s probably a little bit of both, right? And many green changes you make to your lifestyle do both things, they protect your family, and they are better for the earth.

But, what if there was a product that was safe for your family, but harmful to the environment? Would you still use it because it was considered safe? Or would you give it up for the “greater good” of protecting the planet?

This is a question I had to ask myself recently while doing research for a post about a product that many of us use in our homes on a regular basis.

The product is Teflon, and it is mainly made up of a toxic chemical that has been labeled “a likely human carcinogen”, however the company that makes the product claims that none of the chemical actually ends up in the final product, so it’s “safe” for consumers to use in their homes. However, manufacturing that toxic chemical does pose great risk to the environment, wildlife, and the people who work in contact with the chemical.

source: iStockphoto

Personal vs. Environmental Health

As I worked through the research, and wrote the post, I focused on the health issues for our families of using Teflon and encouraged people to remove these products from their home because I don’t believe they really are “safe”, and I’m not willing to take the risk when there are fairly easy alternatives.

My thoughts then traveled to the broader issue here. What if it was true that Teflon is safe and posed no harm for us to use in our homes? The fact still remains that it includes a toxic chemical that is polluting our environment and definitely has an effect on the people that work in the plant where this product is made.

So, even if it is “safe” to use in our homes, does that really make it okay for us to continue using it, even though it’s extremely harmful in other ways? And what responsibility does the company have in continuing to produce this product that is so damaging to the environment, even if it is “safe” and helpful to consumers?

These questions don’t just apply to whether or not we should use Teflon pans in our homes. These issues relate to things like flame-retardants in kids pajamas, and chemicals in personal care products, and plastics in just about everything around us.

Some people claim these things are safe for us to use and pose no threat to our health. We don’t always believe them, of course, so we try to avoid them as much as we can to protect the health of our families.

But even if the claims are true, and they are safe for us to use, the production and manufacturing of these products creates long lists of harmful effects to our environment, which then in turn affects the people that live in that environment, which means that ultimately, it does affect us.

So instead of just avoiding things because we believe they are bad for our health, shouldn’t we also avoid things that are bad for our planet, even if they claim to be safe for us to use?

These are big questions, and I’m not claiming I have the answers to them. I’m trying to work through them myself and hopefully start a conversation and encourage us to think about the broader issues involved in caring for creation and protecting the environment in addition to whether something is “safe” for our family to use or not.

What do you base your green living decisions on, personal health or the health of the planet? Should we choose not to use products that are harmful to the environment, even if they’re not harmful to us?

Emily McClements is passionate about caring for God’s creation while saving money at the same time. She is a blessed wife and mama to two young children, and blogs about her family’s journey toward natural and simple living at Live Renewed.

Green Living: Protecting Your Family vs. Protecting the Environment is a post from Life Your Way

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Get 5 Real Food eBooks for Just $7.40 {BundleoftheWeek.com}

Serving your family “real food” is important, but how do you do it without breaking the budget or sacrificing taste? This week’s bundle includes the resources you need to eat delicious, whole foods on a budget. Packed full of recipes and tips, it’s sure to be a go-to resource in your kitchen. And this week only, get all 5 ebooks for just $7.40 (a savings of almost 90%)!

With your purchase, you’ll get all five of the following ebooks:

Real Food on a Real Budget by Stephanie Langford
Real Food…Real Easy by various authors
Real {Fast} Food by Trina Holden
Sourdough A to Z from GNOWFGLINS
Treat Yourself by Kate Tietje

Get yours today!

Even if you’re not interested in this week’s bundle, be sure to sign up for the BundleoftheWeek.com weekly newsletter so you can be the first to know about the latest bundle:

Get 5 Real Food eBooks for Just $7.40 {BundleoftheWeek.com} is a post from Life Your Way

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Weekend Reading: February 23, 2013

source: mandiehman on Instagram

This week I’ve spent a lot of time and energy focused on my Whole30 challenge — trying new recipes, preparing a ton more veggies than I normally do and just thinking about my food choices more in general, and I didn’t take nearly as many pictures of the girls as I normally do.

However, one of the side benefits of the challenge is that I’m now sitting at the kitchen table for most of my meals, instead of working at my computer through breakfast and lunch. It was during one of my early lunches, while the girls were still waiting for Daddy to finish theirs, that I captured this shot of them watching TV. Truthfully, it makes my heart all kinds of happy — from the bright family room that is my favorite part of our home to the simplicity of this daily routine to the way their positions capture their various personalities.

Life is good!

Have you subscribed to our weekly newsletter? Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any future issues!

Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. As always, check out what I’m reading to see the other posts that make me stop and think. You’ll find new posts all week long!

Food {It Isn’t Always As It Seems}

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food | NYTimes.com


The Top 3 Reasons Why YOU Should Be Eating Lard | Weed ‘em and Reap



Misleading Food Product Roundup II: Don’t Be Fooled | 100 Days of Real Food


Tech {Apps & Tips for Families}

Some of My Favorite Apps | Simple Mom


FLYing With Evernote | Get Me Geeky

Family {Education, Gender & Personality}

The Boys at the Back | NYTimes.com


Why Can Some Kids Handle Pressure While Others Fall Apart? | NYTimes.com


Homeschooling As an Introvert: The Blessings & Challenges | Simple Homeschool

Have a great weekend!

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Weekend Reading: February 23, 2013 is a post from Life Your Way

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5 Smart Things to Do with Your Tax Refund

The following post is from Christina of Northern Cheapskate :

source: StockMonkeys.com

I remember seeing those digits at the bottom of my tax return.  The dollar signs danced in my eyes as I dreamed of all of the fun things we could do with our income tax refund.

I felt a little twinge of guilt as a I recalled how many financial experts (and even my own mother) say you shouldn’t let Uncle Sam use so much of your money interest-free.  If I would have adjusted my tax withholding, I would have had more money in every paycheck, but I probably would have just spent it on things like clothes or eating out.

But what was done was done. The fact that we were getting a large tax refund couldn’t be changed just then.  And as much as I wanted to spend it on a bunch of fun things for our family, I realized that this windfall was a blessing.  We needed to do something smart with our tax refund.  We ended up using that refund to take care of some home improvements and to bolster our emergency fund.  But we could have done any number of things.

If you’re expecting a big check from Uncle Sam this year, check out these smart things to do with your tax refund before you blow it:

5 Smart Things to Do with Your Tax Refund

1. Pay down debt. There is no better investment in your future than getting rid of debt.  Put your tax refund towards your credit card debt, car loans or student loans. Pay some extra money on your mortgage.  By using that extra money to pay down your debt, you’ll save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in interest.  You’ll also save your sanity as you start to break free from debt.

2. Give your emergency fund a boost.  You should have enough savings to cover 3 to 6 months living expenses.  Unfortunately, most people don’t.  When you don’t have an adequate emergency fund, you get stuck in a cycle of credit card debt and living paycheck to paycheck.  This cycle can end when you put that refund into savings.

3. Contribute to your retirement fund. Consider putting the money into a Roth IRA or other retirement fund. The money you put in now will continue to make money for you long into the future.

4. Invest in yourself.  If you’ve been meaning to go back to school to increase your earning potential, consider using your refund to help pay for that additional training.  Invest in continuing education classes for you or extracurricular activities for the kids.  Take music lessons or art classes.  Take cooking classes.  Buy a family membership to your favorite museum or zoo and visit often.  Buy that piece of exercise equipment you’ve wanted or join a gym and get in shape.  Investing in yourself and your loved ones is a good use or your financial resources.

5. Take care of your home. Use your tax refund to take care of home maintenance projects such as fixing rain gutters, repairing or replacing a roof, or painting your house.  Buy more energy efficient appliances or to replace old windows and doors. Use that extra money from your tax refund to make maintenance a priority in your budget.

Remember that your approach to how to spend your tax refund doesn’t have to be all or nothing.  You can do some smart things with your tax refund and still have a little fun with your money, too. Moderation is the key.  A new gadget, a mini-staycation, or even just a nice dinner out with the family can be great ways to celebrate your tax refund while still making smart money moves for the next year.

Then after you’re done celebrating, you can figure out how to tackle next year’s taxes.

What will you do with your tax refund?

Christina Brown is the creator of Northern Cheapskate, a blog dedicated to frugal living through coupons, freebies, and money-saving ideas. She lives in the rural north woods of Minnesota where she clips coupons, pinches pennies, and chases her three boys (a 7-year-old and twin 5-year olds) as a stay-at-home mom.

5 Smart Things to Do with Your Tax Refund is a post from Life Your Way

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10 Steps to a Styrofoam Free World

The following post is from Katie of Kitchen Stewardship:

source: waferboard via Flickr

Coffee and doughnuts after church, anyone?

Unfortunately, since most churches probably use Styrofoam cups for their weekly fellowship, they help contribute to the 25 billion Styrofoam cups trashed every year in America alone.

Styrofoam is technically plastic number 6, polystyrene. It can be accepted for recycling, but most municipalities specifically state on their recycling lists that they do not accept Styrofoam (and many don’t recycle any sort of no. 6 anyway). Currently only about 10-12% of polystyrene created is being recycled. Abysmal, if you ask me.

Although no. 6 plastic is never on the “safe plastics” lists that I’ve seen, polystyrene does NOT contain BPA. Some sources say it’s perfectly safe for food, but it does leach styrene, which the CDC rates as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” Heat is one of the factors that exacerbates chemicals leaching out of the material and into the food, so the fact the Styrofoam is the disposable of choice for hot beverages and soups is a huge factor.

Polystyrene is manufactured from petroleum, an obvious non-renewable resource, and a carcinogen called benzene is used in production.

With all these strikes against it, I almost don’t care whether plastic recycling for number 6 is available or sustainable – it stands to reason that toxins are released in its creation, likely in the recycling process, and definitely in the usage and disposal of Styrofoam containers.

The best strategy against Styrofoam is a good defense: Don’t let it in.

Like a good hockey goalie, we want to be prepared and ready when Styrofoam comes knocking – don’t let it get past you by employing the following stewardship strategies:

1. Bring your own takeout containers.

Nothing irks me more than being handed a massive Styrofoam takeout container for half a hamburger that my child couldn’t finish. I don’t let it happen and always keep large yogurt tubs in the vehicle. I get strange looks from servers when I say, “I brought my own,” but I’m setting a bold example for my kids that I’m proud of.

source: Tony Crider via Flickr

2. Refuse Styrofoam cups whenever possible.

Try to plan ahead when you know you’ll be offered Styrofoam – bring your own water bottle or coffee mug to meetings, church groups, or coffee and donuts after church; ask for real cups for kids in restaurants, especially if you know they’ll serve Styrofoam; and if you are offered a hot beverage in Styrofoam and haven’t brought your own, see if you can opt for a cold beverage instead.

3. Choose paper plates or bowls instead of Styrofoam.

Always serve party guests with paper (or plastic if you must) disposables when you can’t use the real thing. If you’re at a party and it’s not your choice, try to use fewer if possible – double up with your kids or use your dinner plate for dessert too.

4. Avoid Styrofoam egg cartons.

Choose cardboard or plastic egg cartons when purchasing from a store, and try to reuse at a farm whenever possible no matter what kind of carton you get.

5. Convince your grocery store to cut out the Styrofoam trays for produce and meat.

I have written letters to produce department managers in the past about the reduced produce racks in particular. The meat counter (where I don’t shop anymore since I buy straight from the farmer) is another place famous for Styrofoam trays; see if you can shop in bulk or direct from the farm to avoid them, or just order from a real person at the meat counter and ask for your meat to be wrapped in freezer paper. Whole Foods details its search for non-Styrofoam trays, which cost twice as much as their polystyrene counterparts.

source: Bright Hub

6. Work with your school system to find alternatives for Styrofoam lunch trays.

There aren’t any studies evaluating the effects of styrene on children, and although it isn’t likely that styrene causes a toxic buildup, it’s still a potential carcinogen on which many kids’ eat lunch on a daily basis.

In my childhood we had reusable melamine trays, and there are actually biodegradable and compostable alternatives, which unfortunately do not compost if put in a landfill and cost more than twice as much as Styrofoam. Some districts are taking action with small steps like Trayless Tuesdays and No Foam Fridays, which range from offering cold lunches in brown bags to using paperboard trays once a week to using various packaged foods with no tray at all. There’s a big urban school effort to get Styrofoam out of Schools that is picking up speed, too.

Of course, you can make a personal effort simply by packing your own “no-waste lunch.”

7. Resist and reuse Styrofoam packing peanuts.

Some eco-conscious companies will list their packaging materials on their website so you know you are avoiding Styrofoam from the outset, which is great. Write to businesses you order from regularly and ask them to use paper or other eco-friendly packaging if you feel strongly about it.

If you do get some Styrofoam peanuts arriving in your home, try to find somewhere in your area that will reuse the peanuts if you don’t ship as many packages as you receive. Some post offices have receptacles for them, and potentially UPS stores, eBay storefronts and even small businesses that ship to non-local customers are other options. Check HERE for more info.

8. Reuse: Make your own bean bag refills.

Ever bought a bag of Styrofoam balls to refill a bean bag that’s lost its “cush”? I have, many times, and I can’t believe I never thought to just use packing peanuts or crush Styrofoam block packing material into homemade fillers.

9. Recycle: Some forms of polystyrene can actually be recycled.

You can find about 40 drop-off centers HERE for personal use or search Earth911 for other possible locations near you, or if you’re in Oregon learn more here. If you happen to be associated with a big company that uses a lot of foam packaging, you might be able to start a recycling program following the tips HERE. EnStyro seems to have some good ideas on how to recycle (reuse, really) Styrofoam into concrete, insulation, and more. Sustainable? Maybe. Interesting? Definitely.

10. As a last resort, smash.

If you realize that you simply cannot find a place to recycle some Styrofoam that you couldn’t avoid, at the very least, reduce its size for the landfill: smash it down and you may save up to 80% of the space your junk would have taken.

For schools and other places that might use a lot of Styrofoam on food that just can’t be recycled, here’s a super compactor that makes 1200 trays into a 4”x7”x30” plastic block for disposal.

How often do you run into Styrofoam? How do you avoid it?

Sources: 1, 2, Natural Awakenings magazine, August 2012, West Michigan Edition

Katie Kimball is a mom of three who spends a ton of time in the kitchen making real food with whole ingredients and then blogs about her successes and failures at Kitchen Stewardship. She believes everything in life is a gift from God and should be taken care of wisely.

10 Steps to a Styrofoam Free World is a post from Life Your Way

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Planning a Homeschool Calendar with Six Week Terms

The following post is from Angie of Many Little Blessings:

source: Angie

When I began homeschooling, I felt stuck in a traditional school calendar mentality. While I thought year-round schooling sounded like a good idea, I just couldn’t imagine giving up our long summers. However, having taught for two years at a school with a “balanced calendar,” I could definitely see the possible benefits for our family.

During this school year, our fifth one homeschooling, I decided to go with an option that would combine the traditional school calendar with a little bit of a year-round calendar feel. We decided to break up our school calendar this year into six terms, each of which is approximately six weeks long.

Change is difficult to make, but my whole family can now agree that the six term approach to homeschooling has been a very positive change for us. If you’ve been having trouble using a traditional school calendar, but are also not sure that you want to use a year-round approach, you might find that a six term calendar will work for your family.

How We Planned a School Calendar Based on Six Week Terms

While we are, obviously, learning all year round, I set up a 180 day calendar for our schooling, based on our state’s requirements for attendance. When I set up our calendar, I first looked at any major holidays or other times during the year where I knew that we would want have some time off. I made sure that those times would coincide with our break times.

After deciding when we wanted to have time off, I sat down with a calendar that was set up from June through May. I played around with different configurations of how to make six-week terms fit into the calendar.

My final planning calendar that had us doing our official schooldays approximately as follows:

A couple of sporadic weeks during the summer, particularly while we were hard at work on our 4-H projects
First term: the first full week of August through the middle of September
Second term: the end of September to the first couple of days of November
Third term: the middle of November through just before Christmas
Fourth term: the first full week of January through the middle of February
Fifth term: the end of February through the first week of April
Sixth term: the last full week of April through somewhere in the middle to end of May (leaving some flexibility for when we would actually get to 180th official day)
Breaks: throughout the summer, one week in September, one week in November, a two-week winter break, a one-week break in February, and a two-week Spring Break in April

Other Alternate School Calendars

If you are in a state or country that requires attendance records for your homeschooler, but you would like to move away from a traditional school calendar, you might benefit from our six week/six terms approach.  However, here are some other alternate school calendar ideas based on public schools that practice year round schooling:

Cycles of 45 days of school/15 days off
Cycles of 45 days of school/10 days off (with a longer summer break available)
Cycles of 60 days of school/20 days off

Of course, even if your state requires attendance records, it doesn’t mean that you have to follow any set calendar.  One of the biggest benefits of homeschooling is that you can do what works best for your family.  Your family might do best when you have a more flexible calendar, or you might thrive on a rigid calendar. Either way, homeschooling can afford you those options.

If you are a homeschooler, what does your school calendar look like?  Does your state or country require attendance records to be kept?

Angie, a domestically-challenged writer and artist, is a homeschooling mom to three children. She writes about everything that happens in their lives between all the loads of laundry at Many Little Blessings. She is also the founder of The Homeschool Classroom, Catholic Mothers Online, and Just a Tiny Owl.

Planning a Homeschool Calendar with Six Week Terms is a post from Life Your Way

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Fun Birthday Traditions & A Printable Birthday Chain

source: Mandi Ehman

I love birthdays — actually, forget birthdays; here we celebrate birthweeks or birthmonths! — but the one challenge we face in creating fun yearly traditions is that three of our daughters have birthdays within three weeks of each other. That’s a lot of celebrating!

We’re slowly creating yearly traditions that are doable on that timetable, and the girls all enjoy choosing their special birthday breakfast (often waffles with whipped cream and a candle on top!) and cake flavor (everything from banana cake with cream cheese icing to chocolate cupcakes).

We also do friend birthday parties on specific years (our plan is when they turn 5, 9, 13, 16 and then high school graduation), but on the off years they’re able to invite one friend over or out to eat or play with us somewhere, and I think they almost look forward to those years more than the full-blown parties!

Birthday Tradition Ideas

I recently asked some friends for their family birthday traditions as well and loved the list they shared:

“Streamers zig-zagged across their bedroom door when they wake up that they have to “run” through.” ~ Tsh from Simple Mom


“Write happy birthday and year on car windows with window markers. Use special birthday plates to serve cake.” ~Lori


“Going through their baby book with them the night of their birthday. My mom did this for us while we were growing up and STILL does it for us, if she happens to be around for any of our birthdays (even though we’re 46, 43, and 38!) It’s still super fun to see the pix and hear all the stories.” ~Joanie


“Putting streamers up in their room after they fall asleep the night before their birthday. Homemade birthday banners on Costco butcher paper with block letters decorated by siblings. Siblings all signing up for the preparation process (cooking, cleaning, decorating) so everyone is invoked in the ‘loving on’!” ~ Denise


“My husband loves to read Dr. Seuss’ Happy Birthday to You.” ~Heather


“Letting the kids pick out gifts for the birthday sibling.” ~Jenny

source: Mandi Ehman

Another one oof our favorite activities for any birthday or holiday is a paper countdown chain or a dry erase countdown calendar on a window. Definitely a fun way to draw out the anticipation and celebration!

With that in mind, I made this fun countdown chain for our second daughter’s 7th birthday, which is in 15 days, and first thing this morning she ran downstairs, “I get to take off a link now, right?!” Even though she knew it was 15 days until her birthday, she was excited to see the message inside, and I have a feeling that excitement will last through the next two weeks!

Click here to download or print the birthday countdown chain.

How do you celebrate birthdays in your family?

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Fun Birthday Traditions & A Printable Birthday Chain is a post from Life Your Way

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Family Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.

Better Personal Finance with the Personal Capital App

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Personal Capital for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Today, you can do almost everything from your mobile phone — create a shopping list, email for business, connect with friends, read your favorite blogs or magazines, etc.

You should be able to manage your finances from it as well!

With the Personal Capital App, you can do just that. This app puts all of your personal finance information literally at your fingertips so that you can see all of your financial accounts in one place.

Track your income, spending and savings, and get a clear picture of your investment portfolio with the touch of your finger.

Personal Capital is FREE and perfect for anyone who wants to stay on top of their finances, and you’ll also gain access to private investment advisors for a small percentage fee (this part is optional, of course!).

With the app, you’ll get the following tools:

Portfolio Performance
Asset Allocation
Mobile App opportunities
Investment Check Up
401k Free Organizer
Mutual Fund Fee Calculator
Universal Check Up

Plus, use the Personal Capital Cash Manager to track your income and spending, identify your largest expenses and easily view all of your transactions.

These detailed reports are perfect for staying on top of your cashflow and identifying trends (good or bad) in your spending.

Detailed reports about our spending habits help us see the way little expenses add up over time, where we have bad habits (such as someone’s Kindle book addiction, ahem) and where we can tighten things up for a better budget.

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Better Personal Finance with the Personal Capital App is a post from Life Your Way

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