Football and "Apps"

I was watching my beloved Patriots yesterday (we’re not EVEN going to talk about the game) – and I saw a boatload of commercials from the large players in the financial services arena advertising their products and services. No big deal – they’re always advertising on TV.

What struck me most during the game was the number of commercials featuring mobile banking. These usually followed the commercials about the new smart phones or iPads or 4g networks.

So I decided just for yuks that I would look at the available apps on my own smartphone (no it’s not an iPhone or a Droid – but I still happen to like the features considering my work experience began with those large planners from Franklin Planner.

I go to the “App store” on my phone, click on the category Finance and voila! Up pops 8 sub-categories with 138 apps all relating to Finance. Gadzooks!

• Banking – 21 apps
• Business – 20 apps
• Personal – 35 apps
• Stocks – 17 apps
• Budget – 20 apps
• Retirement – 5 apps (I guess “app people” are really thinking about retirement)
• Coupons – 2 apps
• Debt/Payments – 18 apps

When I look through some of these apps, some were straightforward, some not so much. The exercise really reinforced my instinct that if the next generation of consumers are going to use this type of technology that overall this is a good thing. They will have the ability to stay on top of their finances faster and in some cases, avoid becoming a victim much sooner than those of us in the paper generation.

However, it also reinforced my belief that personal financial knowledge is even more important in the tech-savvy world. Just because there’s an app doesn’t mean it’s a good app or that it’s accurate and reliable. If a personal has a basic understanding of personal finance, an adequate level of math skills, and a take-it-at-face-value attitude, then he/she should be able to identify the really good apps for them and be a great position to watch and manage their financial situation.

Basic, technical financial knowledge is still key and will need to evolve if it wants to connect with “app people”.

Now about this really cool football app I found……