George K
Training heart-based business owners & consultants how to do marketing & networking via Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter
Which personal finance / budgeting / money tracking / money management software do you prefer and why?
I used Microsoft / MS Money for many years, along with a google spreadsheet.
Now I'd like to switch to an online solution.
I tried Mint.com but was disappointed at its inability to do manual transactions (see here: http://forums.mint.com/showthread.php?p=18717 ) which means it's impossible at this point to get a "real balance" that includes checks you've written, and difficult to see a projected balance on a given date in the future.
These are the alternatives I'm considering:
Buxfer.com
Wesabe.com
Quicken Online
Yodlee MoneyCenter
I'd love to hear from anyone who has any opinions about the above.
NOTE: please do not use this forum to advertise your affiliate link. Your answer will be flagged and removed if you do. I'm looking for answers unbiased by financial incentive. Thanks.
Answers (5)
Richard H
Entrepreneur
Best Answers in: Personal Investing (4), Retirement and Estate Planning (3), Equity Markets (1), Personal Debt Management (1), Wealth Management (1), Software Development (1), Web Development (1)
Although I use Mint almost exclusively, I mostly use my debt card for virtually all transactions and checks otherwise.
In your case, quicken online may be your best bet. I'm not familier with the others.
Jim P
Product Management and Marketing Professional
Best Answers in: Personal Investing (7), Personal Real Estate (5), Retirement and Estate Planning (3), Wealth Management (3), Economics (2), Hedge Funds (1), Personal Taxes (1), Personal Debt Management (1), Career Management (1), Wireless (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
Have you considered using the online version of MS Money?
Use the MS Money client at home and the online version at work, portfolio updates made on either platform are synchronized.
Links:
Anne K
Promotional Consultant, Ad Infinitum
Best Answers in: Financial Regulation (1), Advertising (1), Graphic Design (1), Organizational Development (1), Communication and Public Speaking (1)
I believe that Intuit now has a basic online version of their Quicken software, and if it is half as good as their Quickbooks software it should work very nicely for you.
Links:
We recently started using Yodlee and after a few months, we can't see why we would ever go back to MS Money. Although we liked some of the graphs in Money a bit better, Yodlee interfaces with our credit card data and seamlessly downloads purchases and (here's the real value) automatically classifies them! It saves us a TON of work each month. Now instead of manually transferring all the data and classifying it, we simply look through the list to make sure the classifications that are automatically assigned are correct (they are easily fixable if they aren't) and we are done. The simplicity makes it easier to keep up with things and that makes it a much more valuable tool.
I use Quickbooks on-line to manage my personal and business finances (in 2 separate "companies"). Although I do pay a monthly fee, the convenience of being able to have my VA automate, update and reconcile the accounts with my real-time review on-line has been a huge resource. I learned the hard way (and now teach) how crucial it is to separate your personal and business finances and this way it is clear, easy and accessible.
Besides Wesabe.com, I also provided 5 free websites for SmartMoney.com to help you manage your finances, plus more helpful articles on my financial education site. See web resources attached.
