OT: Best budget apps?

Submitted by Braylon1 on
What are the best budget apps for android/Windows devices? Also, any good pointers on making a budget would be helpful. I know there are a lot of learned people on this site and could really use your help. Thanks.

PointaMinute

February 11th, 2018 at 5:47 PM ^

Income minus expenses equals positive number then on the right track.

 

Try to make the number more positive by increasing income or decreasing expenses

 

Win the game

BLUEWOLFIE

February 11th, 2018 at 5:48 PM ^

What in the holy he** is wrong with your head You Only Live Thrice!! That is a ignorant comment that has nothing to do with the thread. What a waste of your life

gronostaj

February 11th, 2018 at 6:00 PM ^

YNAB (you need a budget) is great if you need the disciplined approach to give every dollar a job. My wife loves it.



Mint is more passive but also my preferred app.

Trebor

February 11th, 2018 at 6:01 PM ^

I've been using Mint for about 1.5 years now and it's pretty fantastic. As long as you're comfortable providing bank account details to a third party, which isn't everyone's cup of tea.

PopeLando

February 11th, 2018 at 10:50 PM ^

Mint is really good for budgeting.

Personal Capital, which I use, is good for seeing your asset allocation and investments.

It's a good app, but it can be SUPER depressing some months.

I also use a couple spreadsheets in Excel for custom things I want to track

Longballs Dong…

February 11th, 2018 at 6:31 PM ^

you should be able to export and checking or credit card statement to Excel and create you own categories to focus on the areas most realistic to control. if you want to get fancy, connect the raw Excel to Power BI. the apps are fine but I like the control and understanding of doing it yourself. it's not very hard if you know some basic Excel.

DairyQueen

February 12th, 2018 at 4:29 AM ^

Certainly true!

Even better than "don't spend more than you make", is "learn to live poorly and happily."

My mother grew up extremely poor in Ireland, and even though she has a nice faculty position at the University, still takes the bus to work so she can read and say hi to the bus driver every day (my dads mad she only puts like 1500 miles/yr on the car he bought for her!).

Books are cheap and you can take you places no airline (or SpaceEx) can go. Musical instruments last forever, and you keep getting better with age, and the ladies seem to like it. Walks are free, and according to doctors the best medicine in the world. Dogs and cats have the highest guaranteed ROI on the planet according to my projections. And cooking your own food is both a joy, more delicious, and cheaper--plus its a great way to trick friends into coming over (restuarants and bars are great to become a regular at too, with moderation). Smiling and being friendly costs very little and makes you feel great.

Making money, saving and investing are necessary, and a fun game if thats what floats your boat (and there's nothing wrong with being a workaholic either), but sometimes it turns into "majoring in the minor things, and minoring in the major things", and "penny-wise, dollar-dumb", and people forget that the point of saving and investing is so you can be free to do what you want, by learning the value and power of both money (keyword: compound interest) and your own time that it takes to make it.

Moleskyn

February 11th, 2018 at 6:35 PM ^

I think it's similar to Every Dollar. There are lots of options out there, and generally they are free for you to create a budget and track it manually. Mvelopes and Every Dollar both have paid memberships that will give you the ability to link your bank/credit accounts to the app and more easily track expenses.

swan flu

February 11th, 2018 at 6:35 PM ^

Excel.

Honestly. Use it to map out your income and ALL your expenses, you can even add a running a calendar and program it to add on payday and subtract on the day payments are due,