The truth is Quicken and Money are more about having fancy checkbook registers than they are about helping you identify and conform to a budget. This is where they fail.
I've been a Quicken user since the DOS days (around 20 years), and have tired of the level of detail I need to track and the time it takes to do it. For those previous reviewers complaining that the positive reviews sound like propaganda (I'm paraphrasing), I assure you I have no connection with the company at all, and had never heard of YNAB until quite recently.
I have recommended it to friends, family and co-workers and only wish I could give it more than 5 stars. Give it a try, you will not be disappointed.
I usually write everything down with pen and paper. I bought this because of other reviews and will say I am glad I did. I did not need to duplicate the financial information that was kept elsewhere, such as my 401(k) and other financial investments. I still reconcile my banking and credit card accounts, but have saved many, many hours per month by switching to the YNAB Pro software to facilitate my family budget. So some people may need to use YNAB side by side with something like Quicken until it catches up. A few of my issues will be addressed with the release of YNAB 3 (which you will get as an upgrade if you purchase version 2 now). There was a learning curve at first, but once we got it down and had the transactions importing every week or two our financial situation went from nerve racking to comfortable fairly quickly. It gave us the discipline and accountability we needed to get our finances where we want them.
I do this pretty frequently. The software is able to alert you of this so you can make adjustments. This software is nothing more than a logbook, pencil, and calculator. You can also do the same thing with any quality spreadsheet program. And I've not yet come across a program like YNAB to do just that: Create and maintain a budget. YNAB is totally unique in that sense. Even the simplest things took forever, and even then were only achieved by Herculean effort. I eventually gave up and discovered YNAB Pro on this site and was instantly struck by the near unanimous ovation given by its users. The idea behind YNAB is great but delivery of that idea is short. Basically, YNAB tells you where you are spending your money and that is the main strength of it. I have used an online budgeting program for a few years now and while it was not perfect and I hated paying the fees, I thought I'd never find anything better. Then I decided to give YNAB a try and so far I find YNAB to meet all my needs in a budgeting program. Thank you YNAB! We're currently taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University which uses a series of manual forms to track your budget.
Again, the software doesn't enforce this rule, but it does make it possible in ways that other software just doesn't facilitate, and it makes it easy to plan ahead. Rule Four is that if you overspend in a category, rather than carry a negative balance on that category into the next month, it zeroes out the category at the beginning of the next month by stealing money from the available balance for that next month.
I've been a Quicken user since the DOS days (around 20 years), and have tired of the level of detail I need to track and the time it takes to do it. For those previous reviewers complaining that the positive reviews sound like propaganda (I'm paraphrasing), I assure you I have no connection with the company at all, and had never heard of YNAB until quite recently.
I have recommended it to friends, family and co-workers and only wish I could give it more than 5 stars. Give it a try, you will not be disappointed.
I usually write everything down with pen and paper. I bought this because of other reviews and will say I am glad I did. I did not need to duplicate the financial information that was kept elsewhere, such as my 401(k) and other financial investments. I still reconcile my banking and credit card accounts, but have saved many, many hours per month by switching to the YNAB Pro software to facilitate my family budget. So some people may need to use YNAB side by side with something like Quicken until it catches up. A few of my issues will be addressed with the release of YNAB 3 (which you will get as an upgrade if you purchase version 2 now). There was a learning curve at first, but once we got it down and had the transactions importing every week or two our financial situation went from nerve racking to comfortable fairly quickly. It gave us the discipline and accountability we needed to get our finances where we want them.
I do this pretty frequently. The software is able to alert you of this so you can make adjustments. This software is nothing more than a logbook, pencil, and calculator. You can also do the same thing with any quality spreadsheet program. And I've not yet come across a program like YNAB to do just that: Create and maintain a budget. YNAB is totally unique in that sense. Even the simplest things took forever, and even then were only achieved by Herculean effort. I eventually gave up and discovered YNAB Pro on this site and was instantly struck by the near unanimous ovation given by its users. The idea behind YNAB is great but delivery of that idea is short. Basically, YNAB tells you where you are spending your money and that is the main strength of it. I have used an online budgeting program for a few years now and while it was not perfect and I hated paying the fees, I thought I'd never find anything better. Then I decided to give YNAB a try and so far I find YNAB to meet all my needs in a budgeting program. Thank you YNAB! We're currently taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University which uses a series of manual forms to track your budget.
Again, the software doesn't enforce this rule, but it does make it possible in ways that other software just doesn't facilitate, and it makes it easy to plan ahead. Rule Four is that if you overspend in a category, rather than carry a negative balance on that category into the next month, it zeroes out the category at the beginning of the next month by stealing money from the available balance for that next month.
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