The Best Value For The Cost - Household Finance Software Review
No more overly optimistic guessing! I have used a well-known software program at my house for over a decade but have never been totally happy with it. I know, because I used to think that way. Knowing what your day to day expenses are is not the same as actively planning for your future and having control over your money.
I wasn't expecting much - I've used an Excel spreadsheet, Quicken and Mvelopes before, and didn't have much "success" with them. Those programs worked fine, but I needed to BUDGET my finances, not track where I spent my money after the fact. I really wanted to. I love this program and feel that it has helped me immensely to understand and gain control of my finances.
It will not baby sit your kids, but it will help you find some extra cash to pay the teenager down the street to baby sit for you. I have not found a better budgeting program out there; all of the creator's "Rules" make sense and will work when applied in the real world. I've had two incidents in which an imported transaction was incorrectly matched to an identical but already cleared transaction from a week earlier. In both cases, the matched transactions were actually transactions that I downloaded and imported to populate my account when I first installed the program, and had never been "matched" before. It is not an "oops, I messed up this month, I hope I'll do better next." YNAB forces you to simplify your spending into categories and spend only within those categories.
YNAB is an excellent program IF you are completely dedicated to maintaining the input on a daily basis. If you let it slide, it becomes almost impossible to catch up. I simply set up more "fields" to track the money in that fashion instead of by "payee". If you are new to budgeting or a veteran looking for something to make your life easier, this software is fantastic.
You can download your checking statements in Quicken format, and it pulls in all the updates, categories them (food, gas), and does the math. I was floored I wasted $260 at the gas station alone on junk, not gas. I love that I can save up for upcoming expenses, like car registration and Christmas by saving a little each month. It's been a wonderful system for my family!
The software can show you an average of your monthly expense in each category, getting more accurate as time goes on obviously. This allows you to plan for unexpected expenses. There was not a steep learning curve like I've experienced with other software programs that I spent hours and hours setting up only to be completely burned out and baffled afterward and give it all up. This program really teaches you how to budget and provides accountability.
All of my accounts get automatically downloaded to Quicken, a feature not available in YNAB. All in all, I just found that YNAB requires way too much manual entry. It has changed my approach to handling my personal spending and in managing my own business bottom line. I am learning to let money sit, unspent, in my pocket or my bank accounts.
I wasn't expecting much - I've used an Excel spreadsheet, Quicken and Mvelopes before, and didn't have much "success" with them. Those programs worked fine, but I needed to BUDGET my finances, not track where I spent my money after the fact. I really wanted to. I love this program and feel that it has helped me immensely to understand and gain control of my finances.
It will not baby sit your kids, but it will help you find some extra cash to pay the teenager down the street to baby sit for you. I have not found a better budgeting program out there; all of the creator's "Rules" make sense and will work when applied in the real world. I've had two incidents in which an imported transaction was incorrectly matched to an identical but already cleared transaction from a week earlier. In both cases, the matched transactions were actually transactions that I downloaded and imported to populate my account when I first installed the program, and had never been "matched" before. It is not an "oops, I messed up this month, I hope I'll do better next." YNAB forces you to simplify your spending into categories and spend only within those categories.
YNAB is an excellent program IF you are completely dedicated to maintaining the input on a daily basis. If you let it slide, it becomes almost impossible to catch up. I simply set up more "fields" to track the money in that fashion instead of by "payee". If you are new to budgeting or a veteran looking for something to make your life easier, this software is fantastic.
You can download your checking statements in Quicken format, and it pulls in all the updates, categories them (food, gas), and does the math. I was floored I wasted $260 at the gas station alone on junk, not gas. I love that I can save up for upcoming expenses, like car registration and Christmas by saving a little each month. It's been a wonderful system for my family!
The software can show you an average of your monthly expense in each category, getting more accurate as time goes on obviously. This allows you to plan for unexpected expenses. There was not a steep learning curve like I've experienced with other software programs that I spent hours and hours setting up only to be completely burned out and baffled afterward and give it all up. This program really teaches you how to budget and provides accountability.
All of my accounts get automatically downloaded to Quicken, a feature not available in YNAB. All in all, I just found that YNAB requires way too much manual entry. It has changed my approach to handling my personal spending and in managing my own business bottom line. I am learning to let money sit, unspent, in my pocket or my bank accounts.
About the Author:
April's income is what I'm paying my current bills with. windshield scratch repair.
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