Seems like YNAB is geared for people who really need to stick to their budgets?(Ramsey-esque approach?)
At this point my spending and budgets are pretty under control, but Mint was still useful for a few reasons:
1. Helped make sure any unexpected or big purchases were funded one way or another
(helped tracking exactly how much $$ I spent in Vegas last month)
2. If there was money left over at the end of the month, with the tracking I knew exactly how much I had to spend or invest
3. Reminder to pay the CC bills the occasional times I forgot
Researching different sites, I think Quicken Simplifi is the one I’ll try first
Yes and no. YNAB is the exact same philosophy as Ramsey's Every Dollar App. It's zero-based budgeting but it's not just for people who really need to stick to their budgets. We are a higher income household and I really like it.
In mint: You generally budget one month at a time. You set all your budgets at the start of the month and you track against those budgets as the month goes on. If you go over, nothing "happens." If you're on top of things you make adjustments. If you're not, you get to the end of the month and go "holy sh*t, how did we overspend by $500 this month? Oh, that's right, we spent x, y, and z." (I'm oversimplifying for illustration). But at that point, there's not much you can do other than try to be better next month (this was me to a T).
In YNAB: You budget the money you have. You budget all the money in your accounts (savings included). However, you can't budget money you don't have. So, if you get paid every two weeks, you use the first month's paycheck to cover whatever expenses you have in the first half of the month. When the second paycheck comes in, you now have more money to budget for things you know you'll need to buy in the next two weeks.
I also like to look far ahead into the future. So, I have all my yearly subscriptions in my YNAB budget. I don't budget $120 when that subscription is due in a particular month, I budget $10 per month as I go. So when that subscription is due, that money is already sitting there.
It's hard to explain in narrative format, but the big thing is it requires more effort and you have to stay on top of it or it doesn't work. I'm a very disciplined spender (engineer so also nerd out on numbers) but I just like the philosophy of YNAB.
In the past, I was the guy who would look at the end of the month and realize we were way over budget on several things. Now, I know if we overspend eating out, I'm gonna have to cut back somewhere else if I want to hit my overall goals.
You can do all that with Mint or others, I just like how YNAB keeps it front of mind.