Same. But its essentially unusable for me due to continued linking problems. If I have to manually relink a good portion of my accounts...what's the point.
Following along to see if there is something automated and not manual out there.
Financial Tracking options
- Thread starter dmclone
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Same. But its essentially unusable for me due to continued linking problems. If I have to manually relink a good portion of my accounts...what's the point.
Following along to see if there is something automated and not manual out there.
I started with my own spreadsheet for years, then switched to mint, then paid for YNAB, cancelled and went back to Mint, then joined YNAB again for good last year.
I just renewed my subscription. I checked and it was $105 for a year. So $8.75/month.
I’m not shilling for them. I’ll just say their customer service and syncing are way better than Mint ever was. I constantly had accounts in Mint that wouldn’t sync. That and all the ads for the different intuit products drove me crazy. As someone else said, it was “free” but they were obviously using it to sell other products.
I’ve rarely had sync issues with YNAB. And when they have occurred, they are usually corrected within a day or two. Since it’s a subscription, there are zero ads.
Just my $0.02.
Appreciate the feedback. Mint has worked great for me so that might be why I'm having a harder time paying for something. ads were annoying but it wasn't like I was on the app a lot so it didn't bother me too much. Maybe I'll give ynab a shot and see how it goes
And just to be clear: YNAB is a whole different approach than Mint. YNAB is not just financial tracking, it's really "active budgeting." You set your budgets based on the money you have in the bank, you adjust category budgets as you spend, you budget new money when it comes in based upon where you need the money, etc. I'm usually doing something in the ap for a few minutes every day to categorize expenses and adjust budgets to cover overages.
It's been really helpful for me, but I was not that way at first. Being used to a financial tracking approach, I hated YNAB at first and that's why I cancelled and went back to Mint. I got so frustrated with Mint's syncing problems, I committed to learning the "YNAB way."
If it's financial tracking you're looking for, I'm guessing YNAB will not be for you and there are better products out there. YNAB is a great product, if you like the approach they take on budgeting.
If you have any Fidelity accounts, they have a pretty good aggregator solution called "Full View" that I use and works well with most my non-fidelity accounts and assets too. It also has budgeting and expense tracking functionality that seems to work pretty well but I'm not sure how it compares to what Mint did.
Seems like YNAB is geared for people who really need to stick to their budgets?(Ramsey-esque approach?)
At this point my spending and budgets are pretty under control, but Mint was still useful for a few reasons:
1. Helped make sure any unexpected or big purchases were funded one way or another
(helped tracking exactly how much $$ I spent in Vegas last month)
2. If there was money left over at the end of the month, with the tracking I knew exactly how much I had to spend or invest
3. Reminder to pay the CC bills the occasional times I forgot
Researching different sites, I think Quicken Simplifi is the one I’ll try first
Several brokerage firms/banks now have the ability to aggregate at least account values. Schwab and Fidelity do at least.
Not the same as mint, but it’s free and gives you an idea of where you are at.
Not the same as mint, but it’s free and gives you an idea of where you are at.
Mint has been helpful for my wife and I to see where our money is going each month. We got burned last year by a recurring membership payment that we missed when looking at our accounts. Now we review our expenses once a month to see where we spent and discuss any bigger expenses coming up (example: Christmas gifts, trips, repairs and larger purchases.
Good point. I should follow-up with my financial advisor to see what tools they use/recommend.
Yes and no. YNAB is the exact same philosophy as Ramsey's Every Dollar App. It's zero-based budgeting but it's not just for people who really need to stick to their budgets. We are a higher income household and I really like it.Seems like YNAB is geared for people who really need to stick to their budgets?(Ramsey-esque approach?)
At this point my spending and budgets are pretty under control, but Mint was still useful for a few reasons:
1. Helped make sure any unexpected or big purchases were funded one way or another
(helped tracking exactly how much $$ I spent in Vegas last month)
2. If there was money left over at the end of the month, with the tracking I knew exactly how much I had to spend or invest
3. Reminder to pay the CC bills the occasional times I forgot
Researching different sites, I think Quicken Simplifi is the one I’ll try first
In mint: You generally budget one month at a time. You set all your budgets at the start of the month and you track against those budgets as the month goes on. If you go over, nothing "happens." If you're on top of things you make adjustments. If you're not, you get to the end of the month and go "holy sh*t, how did we overspend by $500 this month? Oh, that's right, we spent x, y, and z." (I'm oversimplifying for illustration). But at that point, there's not much you can do other than try to be better next month (this was me to a T).
In YNAB: You budget the money you have. You budget all the money in your accounts (savings included). However, you can't budget money you don't have. So, if you get paid every two weeks, you use the first month's paycheck to cover whatever expenses you have in the first half of the month. When the second paycheck comes in, you now have more money to budget for things you know you'll need to buy in the next two weeks.
I also like to look far ahead into the future. So, I have all my yearly subscriptions in my YNAB budget. I don't budget $120 when that subscription is due in a particular month, I budget $10 per month as I go. So when that subscription is due, that money is already sitting there.
It's hard to explain in narrative format, but the big thing is it requires more effort and you have to stay on top of it or it doesn't work. I'm a very disciplined spender (engineer so also nerd out on numbers) but I just like the philosophy of YNAB.
In the past, I was the guy who would look at the end of the month and realize we were way over budget on several things. Now, I know if we overspend eating out, I'm gonna have to cut back somewhere else if I want to hit my overall goals.
You can do all that with Mint or others, I just like how YNAB keeps it front of mind.
I 2nd everything. It puts you in a mindset where you’re very aware of what you’re doing and planning, instead of just winging it and taking things as they come. You plan for future events that are coming, but normally don’t think about like insurance, or car maintenance, or vacationing and fund into the future also. It isn’t just for tight budgeting, you can be comfortable but just easily keep funding your daily life months into the future as much as you want.
I just link it to accounts for monthly and future expenses, which works really well. I don’t do it for overall asset tracking and other accounts like retirement and corporate.
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I use an OLD version of Quicken still.
I don't have all my accounts (401k, bank, etc) tied into it to do all the net worth stuff (do that manually w spreadsheet), but I mostly use it for bill reminders, checking account balancing, and understanding where the money goes.
I try to have as few accounts as possible to simplify everything. One bank, one 401k, all IRAs in one rollover, etc. The only loose ends really are like paypal and one random savings account that I should probably close. Too old to keep track of 12 accounts that I roll around in order to get an extra 2% interest here or there.
How about this,....invest at least the minimum to get your employer maximum match if a 401K is offered. 35 years later you are a multimillionaire.
WHAAAAT!!!!,.... what if I change employment?
401K's are moveable without any tax implications if done correctly.
WHAAAAT!!!!,.... what if I change employment?
401K's are moveable without any tax implications if done correctly.
Don't you think it would be nice to have a tool that looks at these types of scenarios? Don't you think people want to see what's happening with their other accounts? Not everything is retirement, what about net worth? Budgeting? Debt?
Most people that want to track their finances are well aware that 401k's are portable as well as the miracle of compounding.
I'm for any tool that gets people thinking about their finances.
Just getting by can be difficult enough. It's compounded by poor decisions and lack of awareness/understanding.
Guess I'm old school. Most in my head and tracked on an old fashioned spreadsheet.
Kids, remember. Those who understand compound interest earn it. Those who don't will pay it.
I just signed up this morning to check it out. I tried Nerdwallet and Credit Karma and those just seemed to want to bombard me with product offers.
Simplifi on the surface seems a lot more like mint. Bummer to have to start paying though.
Another new Simplifi user here. Still getting used to working with it (as with anything new) but looking like a good choice.
