The new year is all about doing things in a better way, and it’s never uncommon for an individual to feel like there’s a chance to really make some much-needed lifestyle improvements whenever January rolls around. It makes sense — the start of the new year seems to many of us like an exciting new beginning, and we want to take advantage of all the exciting potential that comes with it. What better time to make a serious change than at the turning point which sees one year becoming another? It’s not always easy, though, to keep up with those promises that we make to ourselves. When you’re riding high on all that great holiday cheer, great holiday food, and great holiday company, it can be easy to get a little optimistic and tell yourself that you’re going to make some grand, sweeping life changes that you might not actually wind up getting around to. Sometimes we even set relatively simple goals for ourselves — goals like eating better, getting back into shape, or just exercising a little more often — and have a tough time meeting them simply because life can just get a little too busy. This is the case for a lot of individuals, and if you’re finding yourself feeling like you could use all the help you can get when it comes to something like sticking to your New Year’s resolution, you’re not alone. Fortunately, the modern smartphone has given us a ton of ways to improve the way we live our lives, and a new application is here to help you make sure you meet those goals, and do it in high style.

Lift is a brand new app for the iOS operating system (which means you can only use it on an iPhone), and it’s beautifully designed to help you make the best possible progress toward your goals, so that you meet them within the timeframe that you had originally intended. What’s best is that Lift does so by keeping things incredibly simple and clean.

It doesn’t matter what habit or behavior you’re trying to improve. It can be health- and fitness-based, or you can simply want to read a bit more every afternoon. Whatever the case may be, the Lift app will help you by letting you input your habits and figuring out how you should best approach progressing towards your specific goal. Your challenges will be very easily broken down so that you can understand and deal with them one by one, and when you do well you’ll get to publicly log all your progress. This social element is one of the smartest of the application’s ideas, and you don’t need to have studied to be a master of public health online to know that sharing your progress with supportive friends and family is a great way to feel better about yourself and your hard work. If you’re seriously trying to work out some self-improvement for 2013, Fmight be the perfect application for you.

The recession economy has caused most Americans to keep an even closer eye on their finances than ever before. The regular costs of living continue to rise, while paychecks have flatlined or even gone in the wrong direction, and the market doesn’t offer very many safety nets these days. Although the overall picture isn’t particularly bright, technology does offer some powerful tools to help you keep your house in order. And thanks to mobile hardware, it’s now easy to find apps that act as your full-time financial planner. And the best part is that they’re right there in your pocket, not sitting in some expensive office charging you $100 an hour. Here are five of the best personal finance apps for iOS to help you manage your money. And they’re all free.

Really no list like this can begin without including the app designed by Mint. This online money management company has a website platform as well, but you can basically do almost anything you want with just the mobile app. You input all of your account balances, your banking information, the loans and debts you have outstanding, and your credit card situation. And then the Mint software gives you a quick and thorough picture of your financial situation. You can use the free app to keep track of bills, to set up a detailed budget that will help you cut down expenses, or even to devise a savings plan that finally gets you behind the wheel of that car you’ve eyed.

If you’re looking for something that allows you to perform transactions as well, check out the iPhone app designed by Pageonce. It will also work on your tablet device, and you can handle all of your bill pay needs through their easy system. Pageonce has a fantastic interface, with a thumbnail system that shows you the major bottom lines with one glance at the home page. The only issues are that balances don’t update in real time and it won’t integrate with PayPal, which depending on your usage patterns could be a real problem.

While we’re on the subject, you should definitely check out the free app by PayPal. This fantastic software allows anyone to set up digital transactions. You can accept credit cards or direct deposits from bank accounts, design and send out invoices, and take payment in the vast majority of international currencies. It’s incredibly full-bodied for a free app, and will integrate with your full web-based account as well.

If you’re a die-hard investor but must often step away from your computer check out the iPhone app released by Bloomberg. It’s completely free, and allows you to track your full portfolio in real time. It also comes with a constantly updating news ticker, audio reports you can listen to live or download and save for later, and a wide range of tools to help you improve your investment picture. And you can rest easy with the peace of mind the Bloomberg brand brings.

Finally, check out the fairly new app called Doxo. This one is unique, in that it doesn’t end with financial planning. You can certainly manage your money with Doxo, but it also allows you to track and collect any necessary documents as well. That means you can keep all of the information for your various utility providers in one place, not only the cable and electric companies, but also your life and health insurance as well. So from one place you’ll be able to get a snapshot of all of your recent statements. It can certainly help you organize that structured settlement cash into the proper accounts, but you’ll essentially be able to organize your entire family from one free app.

The new year is a time when a lot of people decide that they’re ready to make big changes. The holidays are a great time of celebration, and the new year that follows often winds up feeling like an exciting new beginning. As such, many individuals take advantage of this feeling of potential, and make resolutions to change or improve a behavior that dissatisfies them. Maybe it’s diet-related, or maybe it’s something as simple as watching a bit less TV. Many of us make resolutions, however, and a lot of them revolve around addictive habits like smoking. In fact, the resolution to quit smoking is probably one of the most popular every January, but it’s also one of the easiest commitments to break. Nicotine addiction can be a pretty powerful things, and we can sometimes use a break just about anywhere we might be able to get one when we’re trying to truly kick a serious habit. These five smartphone applications will give you a little help kicking that nicotine addiction in 2013.

1. MyQuit Coach. Lance Armstrong might not be doing so well in the trust department, but his LiveStrong fitness brand certainly did a good job cranking out a lot of materials and products related to health and self-improvement. The MyQuit Coach app is available for both iOS and Android operating systems and is free, too. It’ll help you by creating a personalized plan that monitors your progress and lets you know how well you’re doing by giving you things like achievement badges.

2. My Last Cigarette. This app is geared towards really building your motivation when you’re actually getting ready to quit. It’ll start you off by gathering all your data and information, and then it’ll tell you things like how many years you’re going to add to your life by kicking that awful habit.

3. Quit Smoking Pro. Quit Smoking doesn’t really mess around when it comes to its functionality: it’s going to help you do exactly what it sounds like it’s going to help you do. It’ll ask you how stressed you are and how strong your urge is every time you crave a cigarette. It’ll use this information to help you quit the most efficient way possible.

4 . KickSmoking. KickSmoking is a great app that helps you focus on your goals and your progress as a way of diverting your attention from how badly you’re wanting to smoke a cigarette. Even the most convenient online smoke shop will be no match for your willpower after using an app like this one.

5. QuitNow! Support is often a huge part of doing something as tough as quitting your nicotine habit, and QuitNow! aims to integrate this part of the process by giving you what amounts to a chat room where users can talk about their experiences and help each other overcome that habit.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this guest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

In this day and age, there is no shortage of tools for the graphically minded. The digital medium has created a world in which anyone with a vision can now bring it to fruition in a virtual, 3-dimensional format. Not only that, but with enough work and the right software, movement and audio can breathe life into an otherwise static image. It used to be that only those with artistic talent and hand-eye skill could take a picture from their head and transfer it to paper. And motion graphics were of the frame-by-frame variety. But a little creativity and a lot of technical know-how is all it takes to make the digital graphics that we see on web pages, in movies, and pretty much everywhere we turn. You don’t even need to spend major money on specialized graphics equipment and software anymore thanks to the low-cost of high-end home computers and open-source programming. And if you happen to be a graphic designer looking for mobile solutions, Forger is one handy Apple app that you should definitely check out.

While the name may have some people raising an eyebrow, the app has nothing to do with the criminal art of creating false identities or copying another person’s signature. In fact, it’s designed for use by both amateur and professional modelers, or those who create 3D models (of characters, objects, and so on) in virtual space. And along those lines it allows users to not only sculpt frameworks, meshes, masks, and skins, but it also provides the tools necessary to add the finishing touches to any model with a variety of options for color, texture, effects, and so on. With options for layering and saving previous versions, as well as the ability to work on multiple models at the same time (jumping back and forth between them if you want) even the pros will find this mobile tool immensely useful. And at just $2.99 for the download, it’s definitely a steal.

What you will probably love the most, aside from the comprehensive functionality of Forger, is that it has been intuitively designed with the touch user in mind. You might be accustomed to working with a keyboard and mouse, or if you have a professional tablet (like a Wacom product), a stylus is likely your tool of choice when it comes to graphic design. But the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch are built to be manipulated with your hands, and in this regard the app is ideal. With a little practice you’ll be using gestures to zoom, pan, orbit, and select in no time flat. The only way 3D modeling could be more realistic is if you were actually prodding and pinching a piece of clay.

Of course, the app has not yet been optimized for the retina display on the iPad 3, although one can reasonably assume that is in the works for future updates since this app is graphics-based. And if you’re looking for a simple tool to create 2D images (a storyboard or infographic, for example) you will likely find this app far too complex to suit your needs. But for anyone who would like to use their leisure or travel time to work on 3D models, Forger is not only ideal; it is probably the best option in the mobile marketplace.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this guest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

When it comes to personal finance apps, of which there are quite a few, you might think that you’re necessarily limited to programs that allow you to integrate your various expenses and credit accounts, manage your investment portfolio, or track your budget for home and work. And in truth, most of your financial needs revolve around these accounting types of tasks. However, managing your finances is not just about monitoring expenditures and tracking balances. The other side of the spending coin, so to speak, is saving. And while many financial apps can give you the raw data you need to shave a few dollars here and there to balance your budget, there are also apps that allow you to actively seek savings on every purchase you make. iSlick is one such application for your favorite Apple mobile devices, and free download is just the start of your savings.

If the five-star rating and myriad raves on iTunes aren’t enough to convince you that this app is well worth the download, then perhaps using it will do the trick. With comprehensive functionality wrapped up in an intuitive interface, you’ll have no trouble finding your way around this app, and you can get started with saving immediately. If you’re a fan of deal-of-the-day sites like Groupon, Woot, and Hautelook, you’ll no doubt recognize the format of the front page, which offers the hottest deals of the day on an easy-to-scroll list, complete with pictures, pricing, and a user rating for fast perusal. But you don’t have to limit yourself to whatever is topping the list. If you don’t see anything you like you can simply start searching for deals on the items you want.

There are dozens of categories to choose from to narrow your search, so whether you’re looking for entertainment media (movies, music, books, etc.), you need some new electronic devices (computers, TVs, cameras, and more), or you’re on the prowl for jewelry, clothing, housewares, or even travel-related items, this app can help you find relevant deals post-haste. You can also pursue hot deals, coupons, and freebies. Additionally, if you’re not quite ready to buy you can add any items of interest to your passbook for easy reference later on, including deals, coupons, and even sales events. You can also connect with friends to share the savings and even upload any discounts or deals you happen to stumble across that aren’t yet listed.

Of course, new deals are being added all the time, not just daily but hourly. If you don’t have time to check back regularly, all you have to do is set up notifications. Based on your criteria, the app will inform you of sales that meet your requirements so that you never have to miss out on a good deal simply because you didn’t have time to check in. Now, iSlick won’t technically deliver more money to your bank account, like a cash deposit from dollarsdirect.com. But it will ensure that you spend less on absolutely every purchase of consumer goods. And this will result in more coins in your coffer in the long run. That’s something that everyone can get behind, especially in a recession economy.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this guest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.