When I met my husband in 2003, I was an old-school, money-tracking kind of gal. I logged everything in my check register and checked my transactions every month against my paper bank statement. Super cool, right? Anyway, when I met my hubby, he convinced me to “go digital” and try Quicken. Once I got the hang of it, I was sold and never looked back. (And the hubby enjoyed being right.)
No matter what method you use, tracking your income and expenses is a must to manage your money well. Knowledge is power, right?
So here are the top 3 tools I recommend for counting your costs from beginner to advanced.
- EveryDollar.com
EveryDollar was created by the Dave Ramsey team to help you create a budget in 10 minutes or less. It incorporates the baby step system into the budgeting categories and is an easy way to learn how to create a zero-based budget like Dave teaches. The biggest downside is that the free version doesn’t import transactions from your bank accounts automatically; you have to enter them manually unless you want to pay for the Plus version, which costs $99 per year. It is accessible from any device and offers Apple and Android mobile apps. - Mint.com
Mint is a free service that allows you to create a budget and import and categorize transactions from banks, investments and credit card accounts. You can set up alerts and be notified about bills due, large deposits made and if you exceed your budget in a certain category. It is accessible from any device and offers a robust mobile app. - Quicken
Quicken is owned by the same company as Mint and offers all the same features with one exception: it is a software program that is housed on a computer and not accessible online. And although you have to sacrifice some of the accessibility, Quicken makes up for that in added features. It allows you to attach images and PDF files (which I use for business receipts), make bill payments and generate in-depth reports. Some of the report options include net worth over time, spending over time, spending by store and more. It also has a mobile app similar to Mint. They offer three software options that range in price from $40 to $105 for Windows and $75 for Mac.
Quicken is my favorite tool, because it is invaluable to me during tax time. I can print out reports in minutes that contain all the information our CPA needs to complete our taxes.
What about you? Do you track your expenses? Maybe you use something different than these 3 tools. Feel free to share what you use and what you like about it.