Personal Finance Software Reviews

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.

This Halloween you could win a FREE copy of YNAB Pro — one of the highest rated budgeting applications on the market.  Enter below for your chance to win YNAB Pro!

Giveaway Winner Announced!

Congratulations to David Ganeway for winning the FREE copy of YNAB Pro!  Using random.org, comment #16 was chosen as the winner.  You can see the screenshot of the random number generator here:

The giveaway received a lot of entries, many of which stated an important need and sincere desire to use YNAB.  If you’re one of the many who didn’t win the giveaway, you can still get YNAB Pro (and a free upgrade to YNAB 3 when it’s released) for a great deal:

For those that didn’t win, YNAB is offering a 10% discount for a limited time!

Click here to automatically enter coupon code “pfsr” and receive 10% off of YNAB Pro.

Buy now and save even more if you plan on purchasing YNAB 3:  YNAB 3 will sell for $59.95 when it’s released.  But if you buy YNAB Pro now with the 10% discount, you’ll only pay $44.95.  Since you can upgrade to YNAB 3 for FREE, you’ll save 25% by purchasing YNAB Pro now.

Most users report that they save much, much more in the first month of using YNAB than they spent on the actual software.  And if, for whatever reason, you’re not totally satisfied with YNAB Pro, you can always get a full refund within 30 days of your purchase.

Thanks to all those that entered!

What is YNAB Pro?

YNAB Pro is budgeting software built around the “YNAB Methodology” to help you take control of your money.   The very simple, yet extremely effective, software helps you to focus on the money management tasks that actually make a difference in how you spend, save, and plan for your money.  You can read the full YNAB Pro review here.

How to Enter

To enter the contest, all you have to do is leave a comment below stating briefly why you would like to win YNAB Pro or why you think a budget is important.  Be sure to enter your email address in the comment form so I can notify you if you win.

Extra Entries

If you would like, you can also earn extra entries in the contest by doing the following:

• 1 Extra Entry: For each promotion of this site on a social media website (Twitter, StumbleUpon, digg, Facebook, a forum, etc.).  Simply enter an additional comment for each one and state where you posted it.
• 1 Extra Entry: For subscribing to our RSS feed.
• 3 Extra Entries: For blogging about this contest and linking to this site.  Be sure to enter 3 additional comments.

Giveaway Details

1. Each eligible comment below will count as one entry in the giveaway.
2. The winner will be drawn at random using the comment number.
3. Winner will be notified by email, so be sure to provide a valid email address.
4. Deadline: All entries must be submitted by October 30th, 2009 by midnight.  The winner will be announced on Halloween day (in the afternoon/evening)! If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, we’ll run the selection process again.
5. The winner will receive YNAB Pro for FREE (a $49.95 value) as well as a FREE upgrade to YNAB 3 when it’s released later this year (2009).

Good luck with the Giveaway!