![]() ![]() The software lets you anticipate and save for larger, irregular expenses so you’ll be ready. Your financial awareness will increase tremendously, and you’ll find contentment as your spending aligns itself with your core values.Ĭommunication between spouses about money can be restored in the process.ģ. It helps you put every dollar to work with a specific purpose and plan. Plus, if you’re on a variable income, your budgeting “problem” will be eliminated.Ģ. This will give you breathing room and allow you to stop wasting time by timing paychecks with bills. As you start using YNAB, the software will literally guide you to help you get ahead by a month (so you use May’s paychecks to pay June‘ s expenses, for example). I encourage you to head over and read more on the You Need A Budget website ( save $6 when you use that link!), but here’s a quick overview of why these “rules” matter and how powerful they really are:ġ. Pretty killer financial principles, right? Well, the best part is that they… ….Are Built Right In!ĭo you want to know why I’m so excited about You Need A Budget? It’s because these Four Rules are built right into the software! I want you to read the following four principles for sound money management and think about how important they are for success in personal finance…and marriage. However, the real power in budgeting is the ability to plan ahead and change your behavior to achieve financial goals. The budget is a great tool for identifying how you are spending your money. So whether you use a great software like YNAB or you just write everything down on a piece of paper and track your spending manually, please know that you must have a budget if you want to achieve any level of financial freedom. If you don’t already know that having a budget is the first step to financial success, well now you do. OK, this is where the nerd in me really gets excited. ![]() Sounds great, right? Well, what makes You Need A Budget superior is all that is goes well beyond the basics of normal spreadsheet budgeting! The Four Rules for Financial Success… And it gives you the insight you need to make wise decisions about your family finances.It allows you to plan ahead to save for large purchases and irregular expenses.It lets you know when you are overspending on a certain category and lets you balance your budget on the go.It makes it easy to categorize your purchases for simple budgeting on the “envelope system” (without the need to carry around envelopes…unless you want to).Plus, with slick iPhone and Android apps (plus Kindle Fire), keeping track of your budget on the go is super easy. It allows you to import your banking transactions as you wish (with no need to give up account passwords like you do with Mint), so you never have to worry about saving receipts for every nickel you spend day-to-day.You Need A Budget does all of the things you’d expect a premium budgeting software to do: It’s not bad for a free service, but it simply didn’t stack up to YNAB. ![]() Mint doesn’t “look ahead” and it makes the process of planning for the future quite cumbersome. While I enjoyed Mint’s online access and the overall picture it provided (including retirement accounts and other investments), I felt that it came up short in the primary area that we’re concerned with, which is budgeting. Well, after trying them both out and putting them to the test, I’m confident that we’ve found the right budgeting tool for our marriage. The Best of the BestĪfter I did that initial review, I basically narrowed things down to just two choices that seemed like the best fit: Mint and You Need a Budget. Each had their strengths, and many offered a way to track spending and plan for the future with far less time and energy than I had been spending with my homemade spreadsheets and manual receipt tracking. In a quest to find the right software to get us back on track, I reviewed 5 of the top budgeting tools on the market and wrote my opinions of them. If you are a regular reader here at Engaged Marriage, you may recall several recent posts about our search for budgeting software that met our needs as a busy family.Īfter many years of faithful budgeting that allowed us to pay off $54,500 in debt, we recently started to slip up in our spending and planning. In fact, YNAB is so awesome that my wife even likes it! But more on that later… ![]() You Need A Budget (YNAB) is the best budgeting software I have ever used. 187 Shares (Save $6 when you click this image) ![]()
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