138 of 143 people found the following review helpful:
Great software
YNAB Rocks! In a truly frightening kind of "I spend that much money on THAT!" way but in a great way because you can see the impact of your daily coffee habit on your car insurance payment 6 months away.
YNAB allows you account for all your annual bills in 1/12 increments and then when they roll around the money is there to pay for them.
58 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
Going back to Quicken for now
I bought this based on the reviews of the product and the whole concept of sticking to a budget. Unfortunately, because I am a very old school Quicken user, I am used to the features and setup of Quicken. I found this to be VERY frustrating to get up and running, and then found there is no place in the register for transaction type, i.e., check number, electronic...
This review is from: You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)
YNAB Rocks! In a truly frightening kind of "I spend that much money on THAT!" way but in a great way because you can see the impact of your daily coffee habit on your car insurance payment 6 months away.
YNAB allows you account for all your annual bills in 1/12 increments and then when they roll around the money is there to pay for them.
The heart of the YNAB system is a "buffer" which is comprised of last months paychecks in order to allow you to save this months paychecks. You can only live on last months money that you have budgeted into categories beforehand. The premise is that you are never broke and will not have to worry about fluctuations in income if you are living on what you have ALREADY earned.
So the buffer is one full months income. So I'm earning May's income and it is just pouring into my checking and sitting there. Also sitting there is all of April's income. April's income is what I'm paying my current bills with. May is accruing. And I'm budgeting for June's expenses with an eye to leftover April income instead of instantly using Mays.
The way I'm beginning to think of it is: Quicken is a snapshot of yesterday. YNAB is a crystal ball showing me the future.
This is a stand alone piece of software that can download transactions right from your bank so if you use a debit card you don't need to enter receipts for things. I can also say the tech support is the most amazing I have ever dealt with. I sent in a bug report and within 15 minutes had email waiting for me telling me to delete a particular font and then it worked perfectly.
Two thumbs way up but only if you want to see all the leaks in your money handling.
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This review is from: You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)
I earn a good living. Yet earlier this year, several months after buying a house and getting settled back into the swing of things I couldn't escape the notion that my family was living beyond its means.
And we were. And YNAB helped me see it.
I'd previously used Quicken and Microsoft Money in an effort to do budgeting to no real effect. 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.
YNAB is straightforward and it does one thing, and one thing only -- it helps you create and manage a budget. With careful record keeping, you can do the same thing YNAB does with a pen and paper, or with Excel -- but the software is simple and easy-to-use and readily imports transactions (without fail) from my banking institutions.
I used to worry that the number in my checking account may not be enough to make everything come together. I can unequivocally state that now... I just don't care. Because of YNAB, I absolutely know that there's always money enough for anything that's going to come along.
YNAB has helped me exercise some discipline and do so without significant data entry or long, tortured sessions at the computer. If you're looking for something to help you manage your budget this is the software you should get. Ignore the name brands that simply aren't up to the task.
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This review is from: You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)
If you are like me you have copies of quicken and money on your shelf, plus hours invested in trying to make them work for you all ending in frustration because you didn't have a working budget...the money still disappeared the same way. Like me you may have taken excel and spent hours developing a custom model. And that sort of worked but took tinkering all the time, but you had given up hope of ever finding anything that worked like you need it to work. That was me and then one day google magic struck and YNAB came to the top of the list, I don't know what search terms I used, why I hadn't used them before, but I found a program that sounded simple and just like what I had been trying to create. The 4 rules had sounded like the discipline from one of my professors in school. The fact that it was an application assured me that the tinkering had been done by someone else, and so after searching the forumns and seeing that the owners where even participating; I bought the program.
Well, I have never looked back. This program does everything you need it to do, It allows you to track through the months those major expenses like tuition, property taxes, and insurance, while tracking the small stuff too. The object is gradually build up a buffer so that you are constantly living on last month's income which is what over financial gurus would have you do they just call it different things. The budget, once setup is very easy to use...Setting it up only requires picking a starting place, naming your budgeting accounts,getting your bank balances entered, and oh yeah, i would recommend reading the quick setup guide at least. Once there you can enter transactions manually or download from your bank accounts or credit cards. Enter paychecks in as much detail as you like or just enter your net, it is not nearly as complicated as other programs I have dealt with in the past.
The best part about this software is that new features are constantly being added. There is a new Features forum on the bulliten board and believe me, the programmer and owner are taking notes. Even in my short time I have seen several things added to the program, with many more on the list to come soon.
This software is worth every penny.
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This review is from: You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)
In the good ole days (when I was younger), you wrote a check and automatically subtracted it from what you had on the spot, and waited for your monthly statement in the mail. Now with ATMs, etc, you loose track, spend more than you make, you just loose track quickly of where your money isn`t going. What YNAB does is take you back to the tried and true method. Meaning you write down everything you buy, everything, gas for the car, cleaning supplies, etc. Yeah, you can do it yourself, maybe if your really good with Excel or Open Office you could build something like this. I'm computer impaired when it comes to doing that. What has it done for me?
You can download your checking statements in Quicken format, and it pulls in all the updates, categories them (food, gas), and does the math.
I was floored I wasted $260 at the gas station alone on junk, not gas. I got that total down to $150, and still got all my beer and smokes, yeah. Last week we spent $174 on groceries, this week, $68 (we checked what we had in the cupboards/fridge this time before going), saved $100.
At the end of the month I expect to have an additional $500 left over, ear marked for a slush fund, and paying for medicines and such. Also, I set aside mad money for my wife to use on herself, not me, or clothes, hygiene, just on stuff of $150.
I'm old, so it was confusing at first to figure out the program, but it works. Bottom line, you won't make anymore money per payday, but you won't waste your money, and still "have it all," plus allot more left over. You won't be reaching for that credit card as often to bail you out of a heavy month where the car insurance payment from hell comes in, or medical insurance quarterly bill.
To me, it's worth the $40, chow.
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This review is from: You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)
I give YNAB five stars because it is a great product for those seeking to control their spending. If you've never budgeted your finances before according to the "envelope" system (what I call it), I recommend this item as products like MS Money and Quicken are poorly lacking. YNAB follows four rules of cash flow that I believe that everyone should follow. Rule #1 is especially unique and can save a lot of stressing over finances. YNAB does what it says. I commend Jesse for creating the system and the programmer for designing Jesse's system into a program like Pro.
One thing that needs to be mentioned, however,(and which gives me mixed feelings) is that YNAB is a product that budgets your money, but does not keep track of what you have in your accounts. Again, to be fair to YNAB, it doesn't claim to do this so it would be unfair to expect it from the program. For those looking for a program that will budget your money, let you follow your accounts and easily reconcile them then YNAB may not be your thing. I currently decided to go back to my former envelope budgeting software program (for a while, anyway) because I'm one of those people who like to follow my accounts as well as budget my money using the same program. However, the downside to the program I'm using is that it also doesn't follow Jesse's (the creator of the program) Rule #1 of the cash flow system, which makes very practical sense to me. You certainly can't go wrong using YNAB if you're looking to simply budget your money. I intend to follow up with it as it progresses and hopefully there will be added features for those who want to follow their finances a little more closely. I am one of those people who like to use one program to follow my finances instead of two or three, but that's just me. I especially wish that there was a way to easily reconcile, at least.
Again, I give YNAB five stars for doing what it promises. Here's to YNAB's future! MS Money and Quicken could take a few lessons from YNAB.
UPDATE: I just read that account tracking will be implemented into the software. This will be a really great plus! Hooray! :)
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This review is from: You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)
I've been looking for a good financial program for years. I've attempted MS Money but it just didn't cut it. Reviews for Quicken have continued to go down...so I didn't even try it.
Then just last month, I stumbled into the world of YNAB. The dreaded 'budget' is what matters most when it comes to household income. Fortunately, I was able to start the program well into YNAB's step 4. (Actually, I was only on step 2, because I didn't have the software to help me be certain I was giving every dollar a job.)
This software is just great. It has an automatic 'scheduler' function that will automatically show the inflow's and outflow's of my family $$, as many things such as paychecks, rent, utilities, and even tithing occur on a scheduled basis. It quickly shows how much total $$ we have available in our 'budget'. And there's many other features you can easily see over on ynab.com.
Finally, I should make note that this is not a checkbook register to tell you how much $$ you have in your account. Currently, it focuses on the essentials...your budget. However, the software is always being improved upon, and all updates are free. That's right...you won't have to purchase YNAB 2008...the new features will download for you automatically. Rumored future features include account designation abilities, so that you can not only budget appropriately, but then check the amount of $$ you have in each of your accounts, as well as many, many more.
Also, the author of YNAB has designed a 10-day budget boot-camp, to help you see the importance of the monthly budget, free via email. There's other free extras as well...you really have nothing to lose.
If you're living paycheck to paycheck...buy this software. If you are living in financial peace, but know you can be a better steward of your money...but this software. If you're frustrated with Quicken or Money...buy this software!
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This review is from: You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)
I found this software through a budgeting forum, and tried it out. I wasn't expecting much - I've used an Excel spreadsheet, Quicken & Mvelopes before, and didn't have much "success" with them. Those programs worked fine, but I needed to BUDGET my finances, not track where I spent my money after the fact. So, I bought this program, and after a bit of reading (there's a great guide) and surfing their forums for help, I got it figured out! Now, I've got my life budgeted - I can spend money on the fun things in life without worrying that I'm taking money away from something important (you know, like mortgage, car loan, etc.) because I saved for it.
Just a FYI - because the program is based off of the common sense "rules" that the developer created, it might take a bit before you have that lightbulb moment... And, the program isn't designed to let you blissfully automate your spending - you NEED to track your money, and be more aware if you're going over your budgeted amounts.
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This review is from: You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)
I bought YNAB Pro about 2 weeks ago after being a long-time Quicken user so this review is not based on extensive use of the software at this time. However, I'm not new to financial/budgeting software. I've tried out several. I liked all the bells and whistles of Quicken, but it wasn't working for me as a budgeting tool as it only shows you where you're money went. Quite frankly their budget set-up interface left a lot to be desired, only allowing you to create a general monthly budget.
With YNAB, I was up and running within a few minutes, and after playing with all the features to see what it could do, I was fully loaded with a budget and bank transactions within twenty minutes. It is the most user friendly software I've ever encountered. The YNAB website has comprehensive advice and How-To's in the forums, VIDEO How-To tutorials AND a users manual in PDF format. If that's not enough "Help" you can post a question to forums OR contact the seller via the website.
I have encountered no issues with downloading bank transactions or issues of any other kind. However, if for some reason you're not happy with YNAB there is a 60 day money-back guarantee. ALSO, you will get any future software updates for free. No yearly upgrade fees and YNAB never becomes an obsolete software as so many do. It is a one-time purchase that will last you the rest of your life.
Do not mistake YNAB as a financial tracking system; if that's what you're looking for don't buy it.
YNAB is a hard-core, balls to the wall BUDGETING tool for planning your monthly expenses with the sole purpose of getting a grip on your out of control spending so you can begin saving money and basically build up that nice nest egg; creating financial stability and freedom in your life. This is not for the wishy-washy, faint of heart person who thinks a software application is going to miraculously "fix it". It's for the person who seriously wants to make changes in their spending habits and is willing to work at it. YNAB is the best friend you'll ever have if this is your goal.
The very best feature of this software, in my opinion, is it's ability to be 100% personally customized to your unique budgeting needs. You can add, delete, and rename categories and sub categories as you wish. You do not have to wade through a bunch of pre-determined expense categories to get to the ones that matter to you. Other great features is the bank transaction downloading, transaction scheduler, and the ability to transfer funds from one account to another within the budget. The methodology behind the software is not difficult to understand, but sheer common sense.
Oh, I've never met the software creator or anyone else involved in the YNAB creation. I am a mere consumer who purchased the software and am currently using it.
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This review is from: You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)
This program is a must have to get your financial house in order. I was looking for this type of program since Money 2000! It gives you a roadmap of your finances, where it was spent, how much of it and how much surplus you have. Every dollar/cent has a job (rule #2 per the guide), if not spent then save it, or pay extra on your credit cards. You won't be dissapointed with this God-sent utility.
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This review is from: You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)
It's eye-opening, to say the least. It will change the way you think about your money, or in my case, it made me *start* thinking about my money. It's easy to use and has an incredible support system. We found Microsoft Money to be clumsy, difficult to use and uninspired so we tossed it out. (Why would you purchase a program that has a 360 page 'For Dummies' book written for it? Not to mention the 2 1/2 to 3 star rating...)
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Crown Money Map Financial Software by Crown Financial Ministries (Linux, Mac, Mac OS X, Windows, Windows 2000 / Vista / XP / XP Home Edition / XP Professional)
