Personally I like YNAB program but it does require dedication on a day-to-day basis. I do believe that most of the positive reviewers are short-term users. Meaning you write down everything you buy, everything, gas for the car, cleaning supplies, etc. Yeah, you can do it yourself, maybe if you're really good with Excel or Open Office you could build something like this. However, if you're doing a head-to-head comparison to Mint, you're going to find YNAB (slightly) clunkier to use. Instead of focusing on the very challenging and expensive syncing distraction (it's a large distraction for most financial software), YNAB focuses on sound money principles. Before buying YNAB, you must understand what it is and, perhaps more importantly, what it is not. YNAB is not an accounting system, it's a *household* budgeting system.
It has an automatic 'scheduler' function that will automatically show the inflows and outflows 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'.
So all in all, all four of the "rules" are really optional, and not following one of them can actually cause the math that the program uses to not add up, which can be really confusing for someone not expecting it or understanding why it is happening. In addition, the software has a strange understanding of non-categorized spending, and if you misuse the ability to avoid assigning a line item to a category, then that can also cause your budget to no longer balance. It's a simple, straightforward, effective program. It deserves 5 stars.
YNAB breaks it down into a process that actually makes sense, unlike trying to budget using a program like Quicken or Money. YNAB is a very slick piece of software that guides you through the process of creating a budget. With most software programs the software is just given to you for you to figure out how to use it. But YNAB provides a system to teach you how to manage your money guided by your budget. This is truly a case of someone who's first goal was to design a very usable piece of software, and only then decided to make it available for others to benefit from. Most banks/cards support QFX. This is a HUGE timesaver compared to manually entering 100% of your transactions, particularly for anyone who is used to tracking things manually in a spreadsheet.
I followed the setup guide and searched through the user forums to help me figure out one or two things that I didn't understand at first. Go to the FAQ section of their user forums to find the "cheat sheet" to get started on the right foot. This didn't cause me any serious problems; I merely unmatched the transaction, deleted the resulting "new" transaction, and manually marked the correct transaction as cleared (about 10 seconds). I submitted a bug report on that yesterday and received an email back from the company within 24 hours looking for more information - on a Sunday!
Basically you can save up money for a future expense, or just increase your savings. When I saw this section in the video tutorials on the YNAB website, I was sold on the spot -- this meant that I no longer have to keep such things in my head or cringe at my credit card bill when a big expense was due. And there are 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.
It has an automatic 'scheduler' function that will automatically show the inflows and outflows 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'.
So all in all, all four of the "rules" are really optional, and not following one of them can actually cause the math that the program uses to not add up, which can be really confusing for someone not expecting it or understanding why it is happening. In addition, the software has a strange understanding of non-categorized spending, and if you misuse the ability to avoid assigning a line item to a category, then that can also cause your budget to no longer balance. It's a simple, straightforward, effective program. It deserves 5 stars.
YNAB breaks it down into a process that actually makes sense, unlike trying to budget using a program like Quicken or Money. YNAB is a very slick piece of software that guides you through the process of creating a budget. With most software programs the software is just given to you for you to figure out how to use it. But YNAB provides a system to teach you how to manage your money guided by your budget. This is truly a case of someone who's first goal was to design a very usable piece of software, and only then decided to make it available for others to benefit from. Most banks/cards support QFX. This is a HUGE timesaver compared to manually entering 100% of your transactions, particularly for anyone who is used to tracking things manually in a spreadsheet.
I followed the setup guide and searched through the user forums to help me figure out one or two things that I didn't understand at first. Go to the FAQ section of their user forums to find the "cheat sheet" to get started on the right foot. This didn't cause me any serious problems; I merely unmatched the transaction, deleted the resulting "new" transaction, and manually marked the correct transaction as cleared (about 10 seconds). I submitted a bug report on that yesterday and received an email back from the company within 24 hours looking for more information - on a Sunday!
Basically you can save up money for a future expense, or just increase your savings. When I saw this section in the video tutorials on the YNAB website, I was sold on the spot -- this meant that I no longer have to keep such things in my head or cringe at my credit card bill when a big expense was due. And there are 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.
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However, if you're doing a head-to-head comparison to Mint, you're going to find YNAB (slightly) clunkier to use. Recliner Slipcovers.
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