So I tried EveryDollar by Dave Ramsey

[disneysteve]

Sorry if I hijacked the thread

You're not the one who hijacked it. No apology needed.

[GoodSteward]

You're not the one who hijacked it. No apology needed.

No, you weren't TexasHusker. In fact, the one who did I was thinking should have started a new thread. Comment was completely unrelated

As a side note, I've went back and played with mint.com, personalcapital, everwealth, and ended up on Mvelopes.

The offline YNAB I have is no longer going to be supported after December, and I'm not sure what that means for the app they have. I Don't want to be caught off guard with my finances in one place, and then can't really use them like I want. I don't think I will lose access to the program, but I will lose access to the app if they pull it off the store. They have moved to a subscription based software, and it was a complete redo. You can't even roll your account over, you have to make a new one and pay monthly. They say the program has lost a lot of the features of the desktop version, so a lot of people are dropping it.

[rutgers07]

No, you weren't TexasHusker. In fact, the one who did I was thinking should have started a new thread. Comment was completely unrelated

As a side note, I've went back and played with mint.com, personalcapital, everwealth, and ended up on Mvelopes.

The offline YNAB I have is no longer going to be supported after December, and I'm not sure what that means for the app they have. I Don't want to be caught off guard with my finances in one place, and then can't really use them like I want. I don't think I will lose access to the program, but I will lose access to the app if they pull it off the store. They have moved to a subscription based software, and it was a complete redo. You can't even roll your account over, you have to make a new one and pay monthly. They say the program has lost a lot of the features of the desktop version, so a lot of people are dropping it.

Also a fan of Personal Capital. Helpful to see networth and specific balances on all of my accounts.

[GoodSteward]

Also a fan of Personal Capital. Helpful to see networth and specific balances on all of my accounts.

I like personal capital the best so far for just getting a snapshot of everything, and even some interesting invest advice.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Every dollar can be a difficult thing.

[frugal saver]

I've looked at most of those programs, but 1) linking to my accounts and 2) having to key everything in. I'm not a fan of either.

I use one budget sheet divided into weeks. I reconcile my checking account weekly and figure what's left after any not-yet-paid bills are subtracted. I do that every week and it's worked well for me for years now.

The only thing I've added is the 52-week challenge form that I'm considering modifying for other goals or debts.

I like the concept of Mvelopes--as long as I'm using real envelopes

[Gailete]

Mr. Ramsey has indeed packaged stuff and I wish him well. I remember as a kid the only bottled water was the fancy fizzy kind. If I told my parents that I was going to put tap water in a bottle and sell it at a large markup they would have laughed.
It is a pretty successful business model these days. Look at all the bottled water that is sold. Me, I just fill up my old trusty metal canteen, with tap water.

If bottled water is what you crave then by all means buy some. I like the plain old free tap water.

And then there are some of us on a well that we don't trust what is in the water and with health problems connected to immune problems, drinking bottled water that shouldn't be contaminated is a good thing. But then I rarely buy soda and never buy any alcoholic drinks so I suspect we pay less for something to drink than many.

Dave Ramsey, Suze Ormond and the rest that preach how to be successful with your money are doing a good thing. Many have no clue where to go and what to do to fix the financial mess they are in. These people give a clear path. Thank goodness they cared enough to speak up. Too many think they are all alone in the mess and now someone is telling them they aren't alone and here are some stepping stones. I do like the 5 baby steps of Dave Ramsey though as it gives you focus. I know my 33 year old follows him very much and it is probably the only thing that has kept him solvent over the years.

Like Priceplus I too use a pencil and paper so I know what bills are coming due as I think that is one of the biggest budget busters people go through. They just don't seem to remember that the rent or utility bills or insurance comes due every month and without something written down showing that the money is already accounted for, it is too easy to spend it thinking you have excess.

[GoodSteward]

I'll do a follow-up and say that Mvelopes didn't give enough categories for free, so I turned back to the new YNAB. I actually like it ok so far, but I've had issues with one credit card account not linking, and there is no space meant for check numbers (I still use those for tracking charity for taxes ) You don't have to link the account if you don't want. You can manually enter and clear transactions.

I love how they do credit cards. It is setup so that when you show a transaction on the credit card, and assign the category to the tansaction, it automatially moves money from that cagetory into the payments category for the card. In other words, if you buy a meal for 5 from food on a credit card when you enter it in and mark it as food, 5$ is moved from "food" into "credit card payment" for that account. Then when you are ready you just submit a payment. Pretty neat to me.