What software do you use for financial planning / budgeting and why?

Feb 16, 2019 31 Comments

Personally, I use YouNeedABudget (~$85 per year) for monitoring monthly expenses and identifying problem areas. I think it really excels at that and has helped me identify and cut out about $1000 in monthly expenses in just two months of using it. I have my regular accounts and credit card linked to it, so that’s all tracked.

I also use personal capital (free) for monitoring the above accounts plus my auto loan, investment accounts (401k, ESPP), HSA, and market value of hard assets. It’s great for net worth tracking, portfolio management and long-term planning.

I’m interested in hearing what other people use, let’s compare notes.

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 TOP 31 Comments
  • VMware / Eng
    vLol

    Go to company page VMware Eng

    PRE
    Wayfair
     vLol
    Mint + Personal Capital + Excel
    Feb 16, 2019 5
    • eBay / IT
      manorama

      Go to company page eBay IT

      BIO
      Coder
       manorama
      @vmvare Any sample pointers or reference template in tacking with excel sheet for projections , cash flow etc ? I am not very proficient at excel but liked your idea 💡 on exploring this
      Feb 17, 2019
    • VMware / Eng
      vLol

      Go to company page VMware Eng

      PRE
      Wayfair
       vLol
      Should look into NPER (how many years will it take to reach x value from y periodic investment and z interest?) and FV functions (starting with x value, contribute y per period with z interest for t periods, how much will it be worth?)
      Feb 17, 2019
  • Google
    Eating

    Go to company page Google

    Eating
    I have my own excel sheet
    Feb 16, 2019 3
    • Dropbox
      oi77jqt

      Go to company page Dropbox

      oi77jqt
      I also just used a spreadsheet and it was a huge PITA to keep up to date. After a while though my wife and I formed good spending habits, now we have simplified our budget greatly in to a few categories: savings, recurring bills, individual spending (we each get an allowance per week), and shared variable spendings (food, gas, weekend outings). We use multiple bank accounts to keep it all separate, the main thing now is to watch the bank balance of the variable spendings. If it gets close to 0 we stop spending so much. Of course this only works because we had done the years of budgeting and understand how we spend our money. We used our original budget spreadsheet to figure out how much each category needs
      Feb 16, 2019
    • Google
      Eating

      Go to company page Google

      Eating
      Dropbox nailed it. Same here. Originally I couldn’t find a software or app that fit my needs of tracking both my net worth and my expenses and income. So I tracked everything on excel (actually I use google sheets.. so I can access from anywhere.. also I work at google so familiar with tool) but overtime I cut back on the things I tracked (ex. I use to track each line item of expense literally including transport cost each day) because i got a good enough sense after a half a year and now my google sheet just has details on my net worth, my stock gains / losses and income - expenses. If my expenses > income too much too regularly then I know I need to fix something. But I think my sheet will keep evolving based on needs and circumstances.
      Feb 17, 2019
  • Intel / Eng
    RTL_

    Go to company page Intel Eng

     RTL_
    I wrote a script that can parse my bank statement. I surely don’t trust any online service consuming all my card information.
    Feb 17, 2019 0
  • Apple
    EXQB54

    Go to company page Apple

    EXQB54
    Google docs spreadsheet, I've worked on it over years to account for living costs, salary, rsu. Created variables for income and expense growth rates to project out net worth x years out.

    It helps me manage financial goals. I would never pay someone to do this for me.

    I also save receipts for everything and total up monthly costs into categories to track spending habits. I tried using mint for this but it just doesn't work well.
    Feb 16, 2019 2
    • Google
      Eating

      Go to company page Google

      Eating
      Would you be able to share a screen shot (blinding your data is fine). I use google sheets also but curious to understand your perspective on personal financial management
      Feb 17, 2019
    • Google
      Eating

      Go to company page Google

      Eating
      Also how would you categories expenses such as upfront medical expenses that you would get reimbursed for later through insurance ?

      (Sorry for the specific question but that was always something I struggled with labelling on my own google sheet .. not sure if should include in expenses and and income or just rule out entirely)
      Feb 17, 2019
  • Amazon / Eng
    DynamoDB

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

     DynamoDB
    Mint for budgeting. Betterment for retirement.
    Feb 16, 2019 0