Hi SavingAdvice community,
For years I have used a home job Excel spreadsheet that I custom made myself. It has done a great job of tracking my expenses and I refer to it with great frequency. It has been one of the primary reasons for my savings over the years.
Excel, has one issue however- it is challenging to update your payments on the hop. I have mitigated this issue by having a Google Keep record of transactions which both my wife and I can add to.
I am, however, interested in Dollar Tree Pro's ability to detect via geolocation the shops you have visited and being able to sync your transactions automatically. $99 USD per year, however is expensive for a highly budget conscious person such as myself.
YNAB is only $60 and I like the look of the interface. The only downer for me is that I want to be involved in a forum that I like. I have a few sour grapes in that I opened a journal on their site and posted thoughts and learnings only to get 13 Spam points within 3 days because I used links to verify my findings and people, as a pack, assumed it was dodgy. As I said, sour grapes but I'm happy to move on if it is really worth it.
Mint is free which is a huge plus!
I am familiar with Excel and I like the ability to incorporate all the expenditure of my investments. I also like being able to calculate with near precision the amount of tax I need to pay or the return I am expected to receive.
Dollar Tree and YNAB offer trials but I don't particularly want to upload a month of data onto a subscription that I won't use.
I have also looked at YouTube reviews but they are often given by people with affiliate codes. Not an issue but I sometimes question the objectivity of the information.
Any advice would be appreciated SA community.
Hope you've all had a spectacular weekend.
YNAB, Dollar Tree, Mint or Excel?
August 16th, 2015 at 11:01 am
August 16th, 2015 at 01:35 pm 1439732110
The big difference between Mint and YNAB is that Mint only tracks what you have already spent, while YNAB allows you to tell your money where to go before it goes there. In other words, rather than your money controlling you, you control your money.
There is a bit of a learning curve to using YNAB because one of it's big philosophies is that you don't budget money you don't actually physically have (cash or in accounts.) Lots of people seem to have a hard time with that. But once they do get it, it is life changing.
I have never heard of the Dollar Tree program, so can't say anything about it. However, YNAB is not a subscription - it's a pay once and you're done. Any updates (to current version) are offered free. YNAB 4 has been around for several years now, so there may be a newer version coming sometime - but if that happens and you have just bought 4, Jesse (the maker) is VERY good at making it right with people who bought the software six months or so before the new version.
August 16th, 2015 at 01:37 pm 1439732253
August 16th, 2015 at 07:29 pm 1439753382
August 17th, 2015 at 07:57 am 1439798239