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Personal finance app for beginners

jbhtexas

jbhtexas

Well-Known Member
Oct 20, 2006
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Arlington, TX
Hello! What is a good personal finance app for people with disorganized basic finances who are trying to get organized? For now, I'm just looking for something that can handle income and expense categories. It should have some way to import a statement (i.e. quickbooks format or CSV) from an external bank account, or have some way to link to a bank account to get transactions. It would be best if it were an online app with web and phone access. Free would be ideal, but a small monthly fee would be acceptable. For now, we don't need investing capability, just basic household finance. The app should also have a simple report feature (basically to show how money is being spent).

There are alot of internet recommendations for Mint, but it seems that Mint has now been merged into Credit Karma, and Credit Karma requires opening a new "spending" account with CK in order to get access to the banking functions.

Thanks!
 
I used You Need a Budget for a few years until the price spiked. Idk what it is these days. A friend made a google sheet that does just about everything YNAB did, except auto-import from linked accounts. Personally I find needing to manually enter transactions keeps me more accountable. You can find a ton of google sheet options for cheap on Etsy or finance subreddits.
 
jbhtexas said:
Hello! What is a good personal finance app for people with disorganized basic finances who are trying to get organized? For now, I'm just looking for something that can handle income and expense categories. It should have some way to import a statement (i.e. quickbooks format or CSV) from an external bank account, or have some way to link to a bank account to get transactions. It would be best if it were an online app with web and phone access. Free would be ideal, but a small monthly fee would be acceptable. For now, we don't need investing capability, just basic household finance. The app should also have a simple report feature (basically to show how money is being spent).

There are alot of internet recommendations for Mint, but it seems that Mint has now been merged into Credit Karma, and Credit Karma requires opening a new "spending" account with CK in order to get access to the banking functions.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Not free but basically the same thing as Mint.

https://www.monarch.com/
 
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Tried a bunch of them but ended up just using a spreadsheet. Nothing good is free or cheap anymore.

Our current budgeting plan is to live off my income and save the wife’s. Nothing I found worked well for itemizing expenses.
 
We use YNAB. Good product. Great owner. Been using it since the early 2000s when it was originally an Excel spreadsheet.
 
Used Mint and Simplifi in the past, but a recent spreadsheet convert. Started with the excel budget template then adjusted it to read another tab where you enter your transactions. A little more work on the front end, but feels more organized.
 
Quicken since 1991. I would be lost without it. The one thing that is proven over and over again by using the net worth graphs is that there is a very obvious drop, everytime we purchase a vehicle. Investments and retirement planning can be as detailed as you like. BMO Alto was the only institution that I ever used that wouldn't download transactions automatically. We don't have an account there anymore, we found a higher rate for our 6 month emergency cash fund. I think it. $ 83.33 a year. I just looked it up from July of this year. 2023 was $64.07. Higher priced like everything else.
 
If you can get past his politics Dave Ramsey actually has a good app called Every Dollar. The basic version is free. If you want to link it with your bank account that is part of the premium option, $17.99 / month
 
When I still ran Windows on my computer, I used the sunset version of Microsoft Money. It is still available for free, but it is quite dated. It does the imports that you want.

I have never been comfortable granting web based programs like Mint direct access to my bank and investment accounts. I prefer to use a computer for this stuff and not a phone

I have since replaced Money with a linux based equivalent, but in all honesty, I don't keep it up to date. I pretty much pay the bills that are due each paycheck and save everything that is left to my HSA, IRA, and high yield savings without letting my checking account go below a safe minimum that will get me to the next paycheck.

The big killer of our monthly budget is unbridled amazon spending. Yes honey, I am looking at you.

H
 
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cyphoon said:
When I still ran Windows on my computer, I used the sunset version of Microsoft Money. It is still available for free, but it is quite dated. It does the imports that you want.

I have never been comfortable granting web based programs like Mint direct access to my bank and investment accounts. I prefer to use a computer for this stuff and not a phone

I have since replaced Money with a linux based equivalent, but in all honesty, I don't keep it up to date. I pretty much pay the bills that are due each paycheck and save everything that is left to my HSA, IRA, and high yield savings without letting my checking account go below a safe minimum that will get me to the next paycheck.

The big killer of our monthly budget is unbridled amazon spending. Yes honey, I am looking at you.

H
Click to expand...

Same
 
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