The budget is broken down into categories, such as housing, transportation, and food. The paid version adds, among other things, online connectivity to your financial institutions. It comes in both a free and paid version. It is an online budgeting and money management tool. But it's an important consideration, particularly when tools such as Personal Captial are free.įor Dave Ramsey fans, EveryDollar is a good option. However, if I want to automatically download transactions, I must pay a yearly fee of nearly $45. The software set me back $64.99, which by itself would be fine. What I've found most appealing about Banktivity is that it just works. I've successfully connected investment accounts from major brokers, a mortgage on an investment property from Chase, and credit cards from Citi, Capital One and other issuers. I've found connecting accounts to be, while not perfect, workable. Once connected, Banktivity manages your entire financial life in one place.

Much like Quicken, you can connect bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and even investment accounts. It may take some time to get there, but I've found YNAB the best tool to support this type of prudent financial management.įor those with a Mac looking for software, Banktivity is an excellent choice. As a result, you're not living paycheck to paycheck. The goal is to live off of money you earned the previous month. Once you've used the software for about a month, you'll rarely need to categorize expenses manually.Īnd YNAB follows a very interesting approach to budgeting. Categories can be assigned to your spending automatically. It uses a familiar spreadsheet format that's very easy to use. I've tried virtually every budgeting tool available, and YNAB is without question the most effective. It even provides useful data on 529 accounts you may have for your children and tracks the value of real estate.įor those focused exclusively on their budget, there's nothing better than YNAB (short for You Need a Budget). You can see if you are on track to retire as planned. This is particularly helpful if you, like me, have multiple retirement and taxable accounts.įinally, Personal Captial offers a retirement planning tool. From asset allocation to investing fees, this tool gives you easy insight into your investment portfolio. Once linked, Personal Capital provides a wealth of information about your portfolio. It enables you to link all of your investment accounts.

Best personal finance software 2017