Personal Budget Software -- More Than It Seems

Freedom is part of what you get with control of your finances. That freedom looks like fewer worries and more peace of mind. Several methods of getting this done will work. Personal budget software becomes a tool to let you reach your goals. Two inexpensive options are up for consideration.

Free software may be all you need. The Intuit Quicken online personal finance package actually is the same as the Mint.com system. Why free? They make their money by recommending ways to save money. The payoff for them is they get affiliate commissions from the recommendations. You don't have to buy anything though. Here's what you get and why you may like what you get.

It's that all your online transactions and balances are in one spot. Skip the bookkeeping. Updates are automatic. The system must interact with all your accounts. There is easy interaction with some but not all accounts.

The Mint.com personal budget software program helps you with budgets with special reports, built-in calculators as well as video tutorials. You get reports and charts to help track spending and compare your spending to your budget. But what about something that's not online?

Many personal finance software packages are more like bookkeeping systems and less help with budgeting. A popular budget system is the You Need A Budget (YNAB) Pro package. Most reviews of the YNAB program are widely positive. The objective of this program is control of spending with a specific plan.

Critics point out that the program is a modified spreadsheet and not an accounting system at all. But if you have repeatedly tried to make a budget work and failed, know that the approach here seems to have worked for many people whereas they have failed with more conventional finance programs like Microsoft Money and Quicken.

Microsoft Money is now gone but Quicken lives in several versions.

The entry level Quicken Starter Edition may be best skipped. You don't get loan tracking except for credit cars. Investment tracking is missing too. That means no mortgage tracking and no 401K either. A better choice is the Quicken Deluxe.

But the learning curve to put all this to use is quite formidable. Easy is not the right description for the Quicken software. Though it does offer lots of features and it remains the leader in personal finance software.

Check and see what reviewers say. It's not so easy and maybe that's a surprise to many. Sadly, part of that probably just stems from the power of the package. Doing complex work takes complex solutions sometimes...

Grab additional tips for picking the top personal accounting software at an additional one of our articles.



See our article and get the scoop on how to get home accounting software for no cost or possibly you don't really need the free software after all.