Software for finance question...

[BlueRaider22]

My wife and I have always just winged it when it has come to paying bills, knowing where our money is going, etc. This needs to change.

Anyone use software? What do you use? What do you like or don't like about it?

 

[BlueRaider22]

My brother uses Acemoney Lite and is happy with it. Just wondered what the ballers on the Paddock like

 

[TheEgyptianMagician]

this is just me talking and doesn't answer your thread, but whatever benefits you'd get from that would pale in comparison to minimizing and simplifying.

money goes to 3 things: roof, transport and food. downsize living, drive a toyota and learn to cook; don't eat out. do tthat alone, you should have more money than you know what do with especially if you don't have children... invest the rest however you wan't. this is america, you can be a millionaire burger flipper if you want to be and have an ounce of foresight, no need to charge dad for sharing your netflix.

 

[jtrue28]

We still use Microsoft Money. They discontinued it, but you can still get the software for free.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20738

 

[Ineverplayedthegame]

I have always used Quickbooks but I need the payroll. At various times I have looked at switching but the inevitable similarities of the products and the hassles involved with changing always created enough inertia to keep me where I am. Basically once you get started and commit to using it, it becomes whatever you get used to.

 

[Tskware]

Quicken for personal finance. /thread

 

[BlueRaider22]

How advanced are these programs? Do they automatically pay bills......or give you suggestions on how to better allocate?

When we got married, we divided the bills equally. How do the programs manage this?

 

[BlueRaider22]

this is just me talking and doesn't answer your thread, but whatever benefits you'd get from that would pale in comparison to minimizing and simplifying.

money goes to 3 things: roof, transport and food. downsize living, drive a toyota and learn to cook; don't eat out. do tthat alone, you should have more money than you know what do with especially if you don't have children... invest the rest however you wan't. this is america, you can be a millionaire burger flipper if you want to be and have an ounce of foresight, no need to charge dad for sharing your netflix.

I completely understand and thx for the reply.

Overall, we're doing fine.....but because I'm not a financial wizard, I know there has to be areas where we're not maximizing our dollar.

Also, there is a freedom and reduced stress level that comes with seeing where everything is going in one location......and letting someone else do it.

 

[Chuckinden]

I have always used Quickbooks but I need the payroll. At various times I have looked at switching but the inevitable similarities of the products and the hassles involved with changing always created enough inertia to keep me where I am. Basically once you get started and commit to using it, it becomes whatever you get used to.

This^^^^^
Although I am forced to use it because my accountant uses it and we have to have the same software. However, it does everything it supposed to do to keep up with everything.

 

[AustinTXCat]

This^^^^^
Although I am forced to use it because my accountant uses it and we have to have the same software. However, it does everything it supposed to do to keep up with everything.

When we operated our business 1999-2004, we also used Quickbooks because our accountant used the software exclusively.

 

[LeOtis Merriweather]

I use YNAB (short for You Need a Budget). I use an older version installed on my laptop, but they have gone to an online only model that costs $6.99 a month. I like it because I can easily track exactly where we spend our money each month. I set budget amounts for categories (basically use the same amount each month), and then I can track actual spending vs. budget. It also is easy to search for what we spent on a particular item in the past, or how much we spent at a restaurant ($300 at McAlister's in 2018!!).

I don't really like the way it carries over unused budget amounts each month, but I just ignore that. Also, I don't really want to go to the online subscription model, which is why I still use the downloaded version I purchased several years ago.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Not sure you need to pay for this sorta software. Mint for budgeting and Personal Capital for investments/net worth/etc.

Mint will give you some alerting on bill pay, but not sure it pays the bill for you. If anything, most any service can be auto billed, from Netflix to gyms to your cable provider. I'd take advantage of those features and then use Mint to track it all, see where you can save money, etc.

 

[BlueRaider22]

Not sure you need to pay for this sorta software. Mint for budgeting and Personal Capital for investments/net worth/etc.

Mint will give you some alerting on bill pay, but not sure it pays the bill for you. If anything, most any service can be auto billed, from Netflix to gyms to your cable provider. I'd take advantage of those features and then use Mint to track it all, see where you can save money, etc.

I think Acemoney is free.....otherwise my brother wouldn't use it.

I guess I wasn't too clear about the program paying bills. I just meant that I really wanted it to track bill paying rather than me having to input it monthly into the program.

 

[JavaGuru]

mint is pretty good. it will link to all your accounts/assets. roll everything up. breakdown what you spend your money on. alert you to bills you have to make. give a monthly report. probably not totally perfect but its free, easy, chances are good enough.

 

[buckethead1978]

How many bills are you paying?

Aren't most of these bills on autopay?

I write 2 checks a month

 

[funKYcat75]

Microsoft Excel?

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I think Acemoney is free.....otherwise my brother wouldn't use it.

I guess I wasn't too clear about the program paying bills. I just meant that I really wanted it to track bill paying rather than me having to input it monthly into the program.

Oh, if you're just trying to track. Yeah Mint is legit man. You just link your bank accounts, CC's, whatever else you use to receive and spend money. Then you can see where money is going. No need to input each transaction. You'd be able to click a given account and see what you spent and on what.

Then it aggregates all of that into cash-flow diagrams.

What you will need to do is create a budget. So maybe $50/month in gym fees and $300 for eating out. Takes 5 minutes. and then it's all set. You can see where you're going over, see what you don't need, etc.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Me personally, never been a big fan of keeping a strict budget. For me it gets too tedious. I'm good with saving and spending, and I don't really need to know that I spent $40 last month on booze but only $10 this month (Those numbers aren't factual). But with a wife and kids, maybe a budget is more critical.

I use Personal Capital for this reason. More of a larger view of ones finances, mortgage, retirement, etc. It gives all the same info as Mint, just not too much of a budgeting feature.

 

[BlueRaider22]

Me personally, never been a big fan of keeping a strict budget. For me it gets too tedious. I'm good with saving and spending, and I don't really need to know that I spent $40 last month on booze but only $10 this month (Those numbers aren't factual). But with a wife and kids, maybe a budget is more critical.

I use Personal Capital for this reason. More of a larger view of ones finances, mortgage, retirement, etc. It gives all the same info as Mint, just not too much of a budgeting feature.

That's kinda how we've been operating. We haven't operated on a strict budget. What I really wonder is because we aren't so strict, are we not maximizing our money. Meaning that if you don't keep track of where your money is going, how do you know if you could've put $300 into investments last month rather than the $200 you through in there? Or if you are a trying to target those pesky school loans, what if you only put in $200 last month because that's all you thought you had available but in reality you could've put in $400?

Also, you can see where the money is going and who's spending it. How much do my restaurant lunches add up throughout the yr? How much do all the Amazon packages add up for my wife?

 

[DSmith21]

How advanced are these programs? Do they automatically pay bills......or give you suggestions on how to better allocate?

When we got married, we divided the bills equally. How do the programs manage this?

Quicken is pretty powerful. I have been using it since my grad school days in the 1990's. So I still have all my records going back that far. You can make electronic payments with Quicken or have the software print the checks out for you to sign. One of the best things that it can do is tie into you bank accounts and show you every check that hits your account. It will basically balance your checkbook for you. It does the same with your investment accounts at Vanguard, Schwab, etc. There a planning tools and you can even tie it into Turbo-Tax to prepare your tax return. I would highly recommend it. The only downside is that you have to upgrade it every 3-4 years at $50 or so.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

That's kinda how we've been operating. We haven't operated on a strict budget. What I really wonder is because we aren't so strict, are we not maximizing our money. Meaning that if you don't keep track of where your money is going, how do you know if you could've put $300 into investments last month rather than the $200 you through in there? Or if you are a trying to target those pesky school loans, what if you only put in $200 last month because that's all you thought you had available but in reality you could've put in $400?

Also, you can see where the money is going and who's spending it. How much do my restaurant lunches add up throughout the yr? How much do all the Amazon packages add up for my wife?

Yep, good thought process to have. You can certainly use these free platforms for a quick one-time glance, something you do quarterly, or monitor it everyday from your smartphone. And yes, you can track where money goes. There is a bit of setup for Mint. For example, not every transaction is categorized correctly. "Bob's Wieners" might show up as "Dining", but really, it's the gay strip club you go to. So you want to change the category to "Entertainment". You can even make new categories like "My Gay Strip Clubs"

But from there, you can search for places and see how many transactions you had, how much money you spent on lap dances from Bob himself.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Bottom line: they take 15-20 minutes to set up and start changing categories. But once you have it down, you can keep an eye on things how often or as little as you want. No cost to you.

I barely use Mint. I utilize Personal Capital and keep a broader eye on things from there.

 

[-Mav-]

DAVE RAMSEY THAT **** YO

 

[Deeeefense]

Another vote for Quicken for personal finance. I've used it for nearly 20 years and it's always worked great. I still use paper checks and I can enter and print 4 or 5 payments, stuff them in window envelopes and stick them in the mail box in about 3 minutes flat.

For business it's hard to beat Quickbooks. They now offer an on-line version that saves your data to the cloud which some people prefer to installing software and keeping data on a desktop or laptop.

 

[Tskware]

Keep track of my personal expenses on MS Excel, don't use Quicken b/c my wife and I have separate checking accounts, we both pay with cash, etc. Once you get the hang of it, can enter two weeks transactions in 10-15 minutes. Only headache is figuring out our joint Kroger MasterCard, can't always tell what the purchases are for.

 

[Deeeefense]

don't use Quicken b/c my wife and I have separate checking accounts

FWIW Quicken can handle multiple checking accounts - unlimited so far as I know.

 

[dgtatu01]

Mint is really good. It's made by quicken, ties everything together (bank, retirement, credit, everything), and allowa you to setup a budget. It automatically tries to assign $'s spent to categories you set up and sends you notifications when something is spent outside of those specs. It's really easy to set up as well.

 

[BlueRaider22]

Mint is really good. It's made by quicken, ties everything together (bank, retirement, credit, everything), and allowa you to setup a budget. It automatically tries to assign $'s spent to categories you set up and sends you notifications when something is spent outside of those specs. It's really easy to set up as well.

I was just reading that. The parent company is Intuit. They make both Mint and Quicken.

-Mint is the free version so it has ads that you'll have to wade through. It's also supposed to be wicked easy for those that find Quicken a little too advanced.

-Quicken has more depth.....bells/whistles. No ads, but you have to play the annual fee.




I might give Mint a look first since it's free. Thanks for all who voiced opinions.

 

[Tskware]

FWIW Quicken can handle multiple checking accounts - unlimited so far as I know.

Probably so, and I really need to get with the "program" so to speak, but you still have to get online after the transactions are downloaded to categorize every one, that is why I quit doing it years ago. And a lot of my transactions can be prefilled in all year on a spreadsheet, e.g., mortgage, health insurance, car insurance, golf club dues, etc.

 

[buckethead1978]

Who balances their account?

I log in my bank app and check the transactions and balances. If it doesn’t have an autopay setup, a check gets written. I write a mortgage check and a HELOC check. Other checks might be a kids field trip. Can’t imagine needing a QB style program for my home stuff.

I use Personal Capital. The categorization is pretty smart and learns as you go.

I export it at the end of the month. Run a pivot table in excel and fuss at my wife for us spending $300 at El Nopal in a month.

 

[WayneDougan_rivals170043]

money goes to 3 things: roof, transport and food. downsize living, drive a toyota and learn to cook; don't eat out. do tthat alone, you should have more money than you know what do with.

Are you a Quaker or something?

 

[BBUK_anon]

this is just me talking and doesn't answer your thread, but whatever benefits you'd get from that would pale in comparison to minimizing and simplifying.

money goes to 3 things: roof, transport and food. downsize living, drive a toyota and learn to cook; don't eat out. do tthat alone, you should have more money than you know what do with especially if you don't have children... invest the rest however you wan't. this is america, you can be a millionaire burger flipper if you want to be and have an ounce of foresight, no need to charge dad for sharing your netflix.

Yep, it's not what you make, it's what you keep.

I always liked this quote:

"Wise man need little..."- J. Weissmuller

 

[BBUK_anon]

Microsoft Excel always worked well for me and it's compatible with about everything.

 

[TheEgyptianMagician]

Are you a Quaker or something?

Spartan

 

[Chuckinden]

Why do people still write checks for monthly bills? Very rarely do I write a check. Online bill pay is awesome.