I need personal finance software

**Baby_nurse** · 07-27-2013, 09:10 AM

I see you rued out mint.com

I was able to set up a cash account that I call Donna's wallet to track my cash.

**Baby_nurse** · 07-27-2013, 09:29 AM

Here are the directions to do it. I set it up as a property account , then chose "cash"

https://satisfaction.mint.com/mint/topics/manually_add_account-tzomj

**neatdesign** · 07-27-2013, 02:33 PM

I use YNAB, which stands for You Need A Budget. It meets some, but not all, of your desired features.

The thing about YNAB is that it's not just about tracking your spending; it's a whole different approach to budgeting. It has its own philosophy -- something that took me a little while to completely wrap my head around, but once everything clicked I've achieved more financial goals in the past 18 months than I have in a decade. I got out of heavy credit card debt and no longer live paycheck to paycheck. It's been very liberating.

But because YNAB makes one go deeper than just logging your transactions, it's not for everyone. Let me clarify: It CAN be for everyone, but some people may not be as open to it as others.

For example, I personally would never just automatically import all of my bank transactions into my budget software. There's no accountability there. It's too easy to underestimate how much I'm actually spending needlessly if I never tasked myself with manually entering my transactions and categorizing them appropriately. I only do this every few days; it takes maybe 10 minutes a week.

(Just so you know: There IS a way to import transactions from your bank into YNAB, but I've never used that feature so I don't know if it can be done automatically or only manually.)

I see budgeting like losing weight: You don't want to go to the gym, but you have to if you want to get in shape. You don't want to spend extra time looking up low-fat versions of your favorite recipes, but if it means you end up losing more weight faster, you do it. You might like someone else to do all your food shopping for you, but that means you lose control over what foods they actually bring home (some of which might make it harder to lose that weight).

The other thing I like about YNAB is that the support network is awesome. They have tons of free webinars and support videos, a free podcast, and the message boards are very active and helpful. The people there are incredibly friendly and really want to see each other succeed using the YNAB method. It's one of the reasons I've stuck with it.

Check out the website for full details and features: http://www.youneedabudget.com. There is a free trial period so you can try it out and see if you like it.

Note: I don't think you can use the iPhone/Android apps without the corresponding desktop software. On the upside, the YNAB iPhone/Android apps are now free -- I had to pay $4.99 for my Android app, on top of what I'd paid for the desktop software!

**ESMonitor** · 07-27-2013, 08:32 PM

@ AggyBella

Do you have a computer at work? You can use an Excel spreadsheet and update daily before work starts or at lunch...or even better do this on your computer at home.

Don't give up on Excel. If you are disciplined to used a credit card like a sweep account, I would get a Capitol One Rewards credit card and use it to buy everything. All transactions are in real time so you will see "pending" and "posted" transactions online. Just make sure you pay the credit card off weekly...sweep out the balance with your bank account.

Get in the habit of updating your budget spreadsheet first thing in the morning, only takes 5minutes to update and look over. With all your transactions listed online with Capitol One card all you have to do is key in the numbers to the appropriate budget categories and let Excel do the rest.

**AggyBella** · 07-28-2013, 03:52 PM

Thank you all for your responses!

@BabyNurse - I looked into that option, but it doesn't quite fit my needs. For this to work for both my and my husband's brains we need to have separate cash account, both of which can be directly linked to specific expenditures. e.g. "Husband spent $27 on food" has to deduct $27 from the Husband's wallet account, and record that $27 was spent in the food category. "Wife spent $15 on clothing" has to do similar with the wife's wallet and clothing category. Mint just doesn't let you do that. The user complaints on the page you linked are very similar to mine.

@ESMonitor - I can't export anything from work computers, no internet access, no removable drives. Budget work happens at home, after kids are in bed. If kids can't sleep, or other things must get done, budget work is postponed a day. I loved using Excel, but eventually I had to accept that my husband and I think in very different ways and viewing a budget spreadsheet on a daily or weekly just doesn't inspire him to keep on budget. He is willing to stay in budget if he can access the current budgets and balances while he is shopping. If he's at the doohickey store and wants a $30 doohickey, and sees that there is only $10 in the doohickey budget he won't buy it. If that information is not available while he's at the store, he'll just get it and figure that it all comes out in the wash.

@neatDesign - I'll check out YNAB and see if it works for me. Ideally, my husband and I would manually enter & categorize each thing together, but I have accepted that that just isn't going to happen.

I have the discipline to check every entry and correct those that are wrong, but I want the time savings of the categorization being done automatically, even if it isn't huge. I have also come to accept that my brain works in certain ways, and that my children will continue to have certain special needs, and that the only time I can think budget, or several other critical planning type things, is when I am at home without them home or awake for at least 1/2 an hour. That doesn't happen often enough (I have a sleep disorder so I can't just say "I'll just stay up a bit later bc this is important") and won't for several more years, so I need whatever budget times savers I can get for right now.

Again - thanks for the responses and I'd love to see some more! If you use some sort of budget software please tell me - and everyone else - what you like about it and how it works for you!

Thanks!

**KelsAisling58** · 07-31-2013, 05:12 AM

I use YNAB as well because I can sync up using Drop Box. Between my Android phone, my Kindle Fire and my laptop, I am covered. It's a great tool, and they're always updating, fixing and upgrading the software to stay caught up the technology.

**Blessed** · 07-31-2013, 07:05 AM

I love YNAB!!!!

**rennigade** · 07-31-2013, 09:43 AM

I just checked out YNAB...pretty neat application. For whatever reason I couldnt find out where to add income? Also, on my iphone I wasnt able to click Add Transaction. I was probably doing something wrong.

For those that do not want to pay after the trial period...there is a 131kb file on TPB that resets the trial period. You can also reset the trial period to 99 days as many times as you want. I downloaded the file and tried it out. I can confirm that it does work.

Ive always used quicken in the past to track my expenses.

**NewBeginnings** · 07-31-2013, 11:18 AM

If you have a Mac iBank is a good choice. I love it

I need personal finance software