Personal Finance Software Reviews

We knew that YNAB had been working on a YNAB iPhone/iPod/iPad application for a little while now, but I just got word (as did all other YNAB users) that it’s officially been approved (yesterday) by Apple and available for purchase in the iTunes store.

This is great news for all those YNAB users out there. The only thing better than using YNAB that I can think of, would be to have YNAB in your pocket at all times. With the introduction of this app, YNAB users will be able to have all their budget balances and transactions as they stand in line at the checkout counter (imagine how this will help with impulse purchase decisions).

Now I’ve played with the beta version of the app, and it was looking very nice! I’ve yet to download the official release of the app, but will do so soon and post a full review of the app here. So stick around and I’ll have the complete review of the app so you can see everything that it has to offer!

I happened across the Moneywell website today and saw that they are offering a 15% discount on MoneyWell version 1.4!  For those Mac users that have been considering MoneyWell as their budget software of choice, this is a good opportunity to get a great a discount.  The discount is only available until version 1.5 is released (which is currently in open beta).

*Update: Version 1.5 has now been released so the discount is no longer available.

And in case you were wondering, you can upgrade to 1.5 for free if you purchase version 1.4 at the discount.  Also, if you want to give MoneyWell a whirl before you buy, they have a full-feature trial that you can download.  The only limitation to the trial is a 200 transaction limit, which should give plenty of time to get a feel for the application.  You can download the trial here.

For those new to MoneyWell, it uses the effective envelope budgeting method (only rather than envelopes, MoneyWell uses buckets – get it? Well = Buckets).  The software is solid and is sure to help with your finances if you use it consistently.  You can read the full MoneyWell review here.

My wife did something this week that she hasn’t done in a very long time.  She’s always been one who is very good at drawing the line between needs and wants.  She buys the needs, and only rarely gets a want.  But this week, she totally splurged and paid a lot of money for something that she didn’t need:  A cute little coat.  And what’s even more strange:  she felt totally good about it!

It was Thursday.  Someone came into her work wearing a cute coat from Nordstrom’s.  She got off work, went to the (fairly expensive) clothing store, and bought herself a coat.  And if you knew my wife, this is totally abnormal behavior.  She’s always felt a strong sense of guilt for buying things for her that we didn’t need.  But she didn’t feel the least bit of guilt that day.  Why?  Because we follow a budget.  And in that budget we include a little something called “Fun Money.”

In our budget, among many others, we have two categories: “His Fun Money” and “Her Fun Money.”  We take this fun money rather seriously.  We can use our respective fun money funds for absolutely whatever we want, without having to give any explanation at all.  We budget a mere $15 per month into each of these two categories.  Our budget software uses envelope budgeting so any amount that we don’t spend in a category during one month gets rolled over into the next month.  This way we can “save up” in categories for Vacations, Car Repair, Insurance, and yes, even Fun Money.

I think this a practice that everyone should incorporate into their budgets.  It allows you save up money (even just a little each month) and use it for those things that you want, but that normally wouldn’t “fit in the budget.”  Too often, if you don’t budget for “fun” like this, something always comes along that you “really” want and you end up going over your monthly budget to get it.  You need to budget for fun and entertainment or else you’ll soon grow to hate your budget and all the restrictions that it stands for.  But a budget isn’t a restriction — a budget is a tool to help you afford the things you really need and want.

So when my wife said “I love fun money!” while modeling her new (and I’ll admit, very cute) coat, what she was really saying was “I love our budget!”  Try it out.  Make sure to budget for fun and you’ll soon find that your budget is your best friend.