Wanted: Best Financial Tool for Budgeting and Tracking Expenses

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Krishant007

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#175771 11-Jul-2015 11:18

I am not sure if this is the correct forum for this. Mods, please feel free to move it if it isnt.

I am looking for a financial tool (or budgeting software) that others can recommend for someone to track expenses and do up budgets and keep track of financials. I have had a google and found a couple:
Mint
YNAB

Just wondering if anyone has used either of these 2. These 2 are more towards the American market I guess so I would like one that is more for NZ.

Things I am looking for:
Mobile apps (tablet and smartphone)
Desktop client
Ideally it is not an online client and I can keep my records on my computer rather than on some server. I guess if it is sync'd via dropbox or something, that should be ok. But basically I want to be able to access my data from my computer whether Internet is working or not.
Simple and easy to keep track with finances
It doesnt have to plug into the banks website to download any data, at this stage, I am ok to enter the data by myself.

It would be great if others can share their experiences and perhaps even give a couple of tips to manage one's money. So far I have been keeping track using statements etc but with a mortgage, things are getting a bit more difficult.

Thanks

PeterReader

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#1341055 11-Jul-2015 11:18

Hey, have you listed a price, location and how much shipping would be to other parts of New Zealand? Also if you are asking for a PM make sure your Privacy settings allow your account to receive PM otherwise people can't contact you. Also note if you are selling something we ask you to offer to other members first. Links to private sales (including Trade Me posts) aren't accepted anymore and will be removed.

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icekayak

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#1341072 11-Jul-2015 11:22

We've been used ynab for a couple of months now. No direct link to the bank but you can just export the statements and import into ynab fairly easily.

icekayak

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#1341073 11-Jul-2015 11:24

Is mainly offline but syncs over Dropbox. Has ios and Android app. Unfortunately doesn't work on my chromebook though.

alasta

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#1341093 11-Jul-2015 12:30

Another vote for YNAB - I have been using it for two years and it's excellent.

As above, it stores your records locally with the ability to sync with iPhone/iPad apps over Dropbox if you like. I import my transactions on a weekly basis by means of downloading an OFX file from my BNZ internet banking, uploading into YNAB, and performing a bank reconciliation. Both the budgeting and reporting side of things are very flexible.

Disrespective

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#1341095 11-Jul-2015 12:31

Yeah I used YNAB for over a year to get an idea of where our money went. 15min at the end of the week with bank transactions exported and imported. Easy peasy.

testha

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#1341119 11-Jul-2015 13:56

I used to be really bad with money, the best thing that helped me control my behavior was a process, not a tool.

I use 2 accounts, one for income, one for expanses. I only transfer money from my income (ingoing) to my expanses (outgoing) account once every week. I pay everything with my Eftpos card from my outgoing account. Except the really important stuff that goes directly from your income account: mortgage/rent, power, telco/internet. This makes sure the most important stuff is taken care of, the rest can be reduced and money saved a long the way.

I have no overdraft on my eftpos. Once I get declined it forces me to check online banking and I can easily see on the income account the last time I transferred money, keeping me in control how much I really spend and adjusting my spending on a weekly basis.

There is not much effort required to keep track of anything, just set up 2 accounts with your bank, agree an no overdraft and once a week transfer an adjustable amount of money. I have been doing since 10 years and it becomes so easy to save instead of overspending.

This plus one additional rule of never spending money that you dont have in cash makes it easy to decide when to spend and when to safe.

Sometimes simpler is better. (:

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mentalinc

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#1341125 11-Jul-2015 14:10

What are you trying to get out of using the tool?

Are you trying to save for something?

Do you find you have no money and live pay cheque to pay cheque?

I found YNAB to be far too simple. It's based on the methodology of every dollar has a purpose rad about it on their website...

If you just want to get an idea of where you spend your money check if your online bank has a function (ASB does) that will draw a little pie graph...

Personally use Quicken and a custom spreadsheet

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alasta

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#1341155 11-Jul-2015 15:40

mentalinc: I found YNAB to be far too simple. It's based on the methodology of every dollar has a purpose rad about it on their website...

If you just want to get an idea of where you spend your money check if your online bank has a function (ASB does) that will draw a little pie graph...

YNAB has extensive analytics in the reporting section. This allows you to filter and drill down through dates, expense categories, payees and income sources. This is very important because most people who don't do this type of analysis are spending a lot more in certain areas than they would like to believe.

The 'every dollar' methodology focuses on your current position, however it is possible to perform forecasting in YNAB by setting up your budgets for future months. It will complain that you've 'budgeted for more money than you have' but that's okay as long as what you're budgeting in future months is consistent with your expected income for those months.

Krishant007

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#1341156 11-Jul-2015 15:40

Thanks for the input guys. I am looking at tracking where my money is going, starting to work on a budget so i don't spend money willy nilly. Basically work towards saving up a lot more than what i am doing now.

I do like the feel of YNAB. Any others that people can recommend?

aumouth

73 posts

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#1341185 11-Jul-2015 16:39

Tried several. YNAB included.
PocketSmith.com !! By far the best, I love it!

Perthman

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#1341246 11-Jul-2015 18:30

I find Moneydance works well - on Window, Ipad and Linux boxes. Can't link directly with our banks, but handles imports easily and quickly "learns" transactions.
System wont let me link it for you, but http://moneydance.com/ will get you there...

Cheers Grant

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BuzzLightyear

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#1341274 11-Jul-2015 18:47

Tried a number of these over the years. A big vote for pocket smith. Locally developed, live feeds and a nice user interface.