Best Budgeting Tools

[butterpecan]

I am also interested in this YNAB, is the monthly cost after trial reasonable?

[disney2]

@butterpecan you pay yearly for YNAB.  It's a great budgeting tool.  You can link up to 25 accounts, however if you have several at one bank like NFCU, that's one.

[butterpecan]

@disney2 Thank you and that is a helpful tidbit of info on the account number capabilities as well. I will download it now. 

[TheRedHat]

Honestly, the best budgeting tool is the one that you will use regularly and follow. Personally, I am also a fan of YNAB.

[TXSunflower]

This is helpful. Ive used quicken and and mint. I stopped using mint because it has a lot of issues that concerned me. I went to quicken but for a paid service the support is just not there. I tend to find myself no longer using it. I am looking for something new to keep me on track. I figure at this point since ive given quicken this much of a chance i might as well do the same for YNAB.

[coldworld]

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@iheartwings wrote:

I have been using YNAB for almost 10 years, so I can only speak for this particular app. For several years, I used it for mostly tracking and a little budgeting, but I went all in for the 4 rules in 2020. Turns out I was living on the credit card float, and I got away from that when I did. It's essentially an electronic envelope system of budgeting, and you only budget the money you have (not forecast what you're supposed to have), while being intentional with that money. It took time to get to a point where I'm living on last month's income (current YNAB calls it aging your money), but since getting there, it just feels good to know everything for the next month is covered by the end of this month. 

One thing that it's helped me think of is to put away small amounts through the year for costs that you normally have (sinking funds). Yeah, it seems silly to save $0.64 month for the next 4 years for my driver's license, but then I don't have to worry about what other category I have to pull from to have the money to pay for it when the time comes. Same as insurance premiums, personal property tax, etc. 

You can link accounts to upload your transactions, but I started before that was an option - so I still enter my transactions manually. Everyone is different in this respect, so ymmv. 

For those with irregular income (freelancers, contractors, etc), YNAB does provide educational resources on how to use the program to help even out the ups and downs. I have a regular paycheck, so am less familiar with this, but I think it can be helpful for someone who might need a little more direction in knowing what they need to cover their expenses. 

They do offer a 34-day free trial before you will need to commit, and it isn't the cheapest subscription, but for me, it's been very much worth it. 

hth

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You sold me on trying it. I've been looking for budgetting app for a while. 

[Just1Starfish]

Just another voice for YNAB....while it has a somewhat insanely steep learning curve, having now used it for 6-7 months, I'm not sure how I ever got along without it.  You just have to commit to working through the panic of the first month, and utilize their FB group for questions, too....truly an amazing group!!

[jimenez12]

I'm using Song Nhi App, a virtual financial assistant. It's alternative to which supported split bill payments and four types of profiles that fit my needs. It was built from ground up with the vision of helping people escaping rat race and achieve financial freedom. Any budget app that supports a milestone of financial freedom as well?

[MarkintheHV]

I tried YNAB, Quicken and Tiller.  I just couldnt get YNAB to work the way I wanted it, and quicken would not download a couple of my accounts.  I settled with Tiller since I am a spreadsheet guy (I can customize as I see fit) and once your monthly and annual budget is set up the only thing I do is download and catorgize the the transactions that I havent set a rule up.  It comes with several reports (you can always download different ones) that give you and idea where you stand with your budget daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.

[gardenmom]

I really like Buckets.app. It's really useful and so much faster than using a spreadsheet (I did that for years). It's an envelope method.  There's an untimed free trial, and then it's a one-time purchase. It's hosted locally on your own computer, so it's as safe and secure as your computer. And it helps me to see my trends with spending and create savings goals.