You Need A Budget Pro - Personal Finance Software Program
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend You Need A Budget (YNAB) Pro cuts to the chase with your finances. The software focuses you on the foundation of your finances: the Budget. Experience has shown that when your budget is intact, and functioning correctly, everything else takes care of itself (the bills are paid on time, retirement contributions are made, and unnecessary debt is eliminated). The software is built around Four Rules of Cash Flow. These Four… Product details and pricing info |
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129 Reviews for You Need A Budget Pro - Personal Finance Software Program
- We've recently had our one-year budget anniversary using YNAB
- More than a year ago we started using YNAB after our household income was cut in half because of the economic downturn. In 20 years of marriage, we hadn't ever been able to get a budget system to work and we had tried many. I think it is the four rules that have enabled us to successfully use YNAB month after month for more that a year now. Living on last month's income really saved us when we went through a 20-day period this spring where we didn't know if we were going to get paychecks issued at work or not. Our co-workers were juggling credit cards and cash advances while waiting. We were concerned about our employment but our family's cash flow was not a factor because had a whole month to react to the emergency. It's like increasing the distance between you and the car ahead when driving on ice!
YNAB is easy to learn and has a great support system for learning how to budget - not just learn how to use a budget software. Give yourself 3 months when you begin to get your budget act together. YNAB won't take 3 months to learn but it will take you 3 months to figure out all your expenses (you'll have insurances paid at odd intervals, doctor bills hanging around, car repairs popping up, forgetting to budget money for the annual fireworks parking) After 3 months you'll be on your way to being an old pro like me! - 2009-07-03, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Winnar
- I bought this software around Feb of 08 so I've had a while to review it.
This is the best budgeting software I've ever used. It is simple and to the point, but at the same time it is comprehensive in helping me manage my finances. I tried the other popular software years ago but it was simply too complicated for just the personal casual-budgeter that I am.
I basically wanted an e-check-register with the ability to track every penny I spend over time, as well as assign my money a place to go ahead of time so that I'm not tempted to spend too much on things and wonder "where did all my money go??"
Once I bought this software and started tracking everything I spent a dollar on, I was amazed at the things that received significant amounts of money. For example: "I spent $45 this month on beef jerky??! Am I nuts??"
YNAB helped me put a stop to hidden impulse-expenditures, and the effect after a few months of that discipline was like getting a raise in income. I managed to put away around $3,000 dollars into savings in 6 months - money that would have otherwise been spent on who-knows-what.
I sure wouldn't have known where it went before buying this software. - 2009-06-25, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- This may seem silly
- I'm an MS Money user and have been for a few years. I've NEVER been able to stick to any sort of budget. I've tried making all sorts of accounts and sub accounts to mimic an envelope-type system and they've never worked. I've never truly been able to keep up. Everything about it (and Quicken from what I understand) is historical (i.e. Opps, well I screwed up. I'll just have to do better next time. Honestly, what good is that? has that ever helped you when you manager says it to you at work?)
I've grown to truly loath, despise, and hate MS Money. You may ask why I haven't switched yet. Well I guess it is because of the investment I've made. Not monetary of course, just all this time I've put into it.
But I am feed up. I've been searching for alternatives. I'm really surprised by the number of fly-by-night budgeting software out there. I've narrowed it down to two options 1) Mvelopes 2) YNAB.
the reason "this may seem silly" is because I'm leaving this positive comment about YNAB and I don't even own a copy of it yet. Positive in that I find it extremely useful and refreshing that I can go to the YNAB site and look up gobs of information, videos, tutorials about how this system works, how to use it, etc. i'm glad to see the owners are not so protective and proprietary about it and realize the marketing potential of letting people see it in action, watch how it works without having to give credit card information for a "free" trial. I'm very reluctant of the Mvelopes "free" trial despite the rave reviews. I've read to many complaints about trial customers trying to get out of it.
Long and short of it is: if your reluctant to make these types of decisions like I am because your not a maverick or cavalier about using, downloading a piece of s/w that can potentially and ultimately decide the fate of your financial future then really look into YNAB. They have a lot of great information on their site. Once you see that try going to Mvelopes and find the same info about their stuff.
I like the concept of Mvelopes. I hate the fact that the only way to get any further information about the detailed inner workings, how the money physically and logically changes hands within the software, setting up categories, how to moving your money to and fro, the look and feel, the user friendliness, etc. (all these little nit-picky things I lamely stress over) is to download the we've-got-you-now-now-pay-up "free" trial.
YNAB has all sorts of great videos that spell it out for you. And I don't need to be a logged in customer to view them. It doesn't give me all the greatest detail, but paints a much better picture of what to expect.
PS - Some readers may say, wow, what a dweeb. just buy the darn thing already. Well I plan to, however the reason for my... "je ne sais quoi"(deeply over analyzed evaluation, maybe) is not the price, but the value of something like this. the amount of time, effort, learning, doing, typing, entering, tweeking, etc. involved. Not only that but the magnitude of importance: it your finances! - 2009-06-16, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- A Good Starting Point
- This is a good, basic program for those who are trying to get a handle on spending. Using it tends to force some discipline into the spending process and makes one think about where the money goes. It is a bit slow to load each use, and takes some getting used to, but with a little practice, a user becomes adept. The on line video tutorials are quite good. It would, however, be nice if this program played well with others like Quicken.
- 2009-06-05, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- YNab Review
- An excellent and helpful product with great follow up. This is a comprehensive system that is useful and fun. Thanks!
- 2009-05-05, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
