ScriptUO
General => Off Topic => Topic started by: 12TimesOver on December 28, 2011, 06:31:53 AM
-
Hey all -
Just wondering what people are using to manage their home finances - budgeting, etc. I've committed to getting this part of my house in order asap and have been considering purchasing Quicken to assist. A close friend of mine does everything on a spreadsheet and I can certainly keep it that simple, but this won't as easily help me manage investments, retirement savings, etc as well as Quicken might, or are there some other tools out there?
What is your experience? Should I pull the trigger on Quicken Premier 2012? A different version? A different product?
X
-
As long as you're decent with Excel, a spreadsheet will suffice. Granted, you can't import your account from online banking and such, but it's really not too complicated. Start with one worksheet for income, one for expenses, and third for investments/retirement, and a fourth as kind of a summary. Makes it pretty easy to see what's coming in and going out and also how much you can set aside each month for retirement/savings and how much "flex" spending money you have for the little things. And the best advice I can give is ALWAYS ROUND UP! Make everything pretty whole numbers (Like if your rent/mortgage is $1650/month, make it $1700). This will help make up for the little things that you might forget or are hard to budget (like a random lunch at Panera because you were out running errands).
-
I still only use Excel for the adds/subtracts, and Quicken for the bill pay thing. That's it.
-
As long as you're decent with Excel, a spreadsheet will suffice. Granted, you can't import your account from online banking and such, but it's really not too complicated. Start with one worksheet for income, one for expenses, and third for investments/retirement, and a fourth as kind of a summary. Makes it pretty easy to see what's coming in and going out and also how much you can set aside each month for retirement/savings and how much "flex" spending money you have for the little things. And the best advice I can give is ALWAYS ROUND UP! Make everything pretty whole numbers (Like if your rent/mortgage is $1650/month, make it $1700). This will help make up for the little things that you might forget or are hard to budget (like a random lunch at Panera because you were out running errands).
This.
-
Check out Mint.com
-
Check out Mint.com
Nice, but it is for USA only.