I will leave my account open with Mint, though, as I found the reports interesting as a way to look at my overall financial picture.Įvery Dollar has almost nothing going for it compared to the other two. I think it’s pretty obvious that I’m still a huge fan of YNAB and don’t plan on switching my budgeting software. It’s certainly more than $83.99/year! Bottom Line: Mint vs Every Dollar vs YNAB I left the $ numbers off of the chart, but you can see that the change has been very significant. Need convincing that YNAB works? Here’s a chart of the amount of money in our bank and investment accounts over the last 2 years while we’ve used YNAB: Now if you subscribe to YNAB through my link, both you can get a free month of YNAB! Go now to sign up for the free YNAB trial through my link. YNAB now offers a referral program, but I’ve been spreading the news about YNAB for a long time because I just believe it’s that good. Has it’s own “budgeting philosophy” which can be a little hard to adjust to if you’re coming from a different system like Dave Ramsey’s plan (but the two are compatible with each other).Requires more effort and involvement than Mint (but I think that’s actually a good thing).Does not do as good of a job at calculating debt payoffs and other goals as Mint.There is no free version after the 34-day trial period – cost is $6.99/month, billed annually as $83.99/year.Extensive support available including live online classes, videos, message boards, and an excellent support staff.Mobile app has GPS capabilities so it remembers your favorite stores’ locations and saves time on the transaction entry.Allows multiple budgets on one account (for example, home and business).Quick budget options make monthly budget set-up easy.Category tracking features allow you to see average spent in each category.Budgeting goals are flexible and helpful for tracking long-term progress.Works seamlessly with credit cards and almost all banking institutions.Easy bank account reconciliation to make sure your budget matches reality. Automatic matching of manual entries with bank import.Robust account register system including recurring transactions.Advertises Dave Ramsey’s network of local providers.No way to easily move money from one budget to another.Very clunky to use for transaction entry with no memory of payees.Does not connect to American Express and some other banking institutions.Can’t work on budgets for future months ( only current month).Lacks any support for account registers so another tracking method is needed to keep track of bank accounts.Looks very similar to the budget forms from Financial Peace University.Keeps track of your progress on Dave Ramsey’s baby steps (if you’re following that program).Paid version offers connection with banks for drag-and-drop categorizing of transactions.Nothing is really free and Mint is paid for by plenty of advertising for credit cards, investments, and other financial products.Makes it too easy to just track spendingafter-the-fact instead of planning ahead with a real budget.Two major competitors to YNAB are Mint and Dave Ramsey’s Every Dollar. Is your current budget causing marital stress too?Īlthough I adore YNAB, it’s not perfect or free, so I decided to check out other options. Our previous homemade system was too complicated and I had to manage it all myself, making my husband like he had to ask permission to spend money. This has really helped relieve some stress about money management in our marriage. I felt like someone had created a tool to help me do what I’d been trying to do on my own, but it was SO MUCH BETTER!Ī side effect of using YNAB was that it allowed my husband to be more involved with the budget. It was a lot of work to set up, but once it was running, it was incredible! Are you having trouble making your budget work in real life too?įor the last few years, I’d heard about the software called You Need a Budget (YNAB) and two years ago, I decided to give it a try. I knew I had a clunky budget system, but I didn’t know of any viable alternatives. For many years, my husband and I budgeted with a homemade spreadsheet, some cash envelopes, and a bunch of savings accounts.
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