Once you’ve reviewed your spending and identified some small spending leaks that you can plug fairly painlessly, start looking for the larger leaks. Review big-ticket items such as your mortgage, car payments, other debt payments, taxes, and insurance policies. It may take some legwork to reduce these expenses, but the payoff will be worth it when you have more room in your budget for the things that are important to you.
With personal finance software and apps, you can balance your checkbook, pay bills, track savings and investments, and create budgets. You’ll have access to instant reports for things like your planned budget versus actual expenses by category, your net worth, and an up-to-date snapshot of your overall finances.
Personal financial software and apps (like Quicken and Mint) make managing and tracking your finances easier. No need to deal with time-consuming data entry—you can directly link all of your bank, credit card, and investment accounts, and the app or software will do all the work for you.
Many popular personal finance software/apps offer free or trial versions for beginners, with paid upgrades for added features. This gives you the opportunity to try them to see which one works best for you. All of them automate income and track your expenses. Some of the best options to check out include Simplifi by Quicken, Mint, Personal Capital, and YNAB (You Need a Budget).
Where to Find Personal Finance Apps and Software
To try Simplifi by Quicken, visit www.simplifimoney.com; for Mint, go to www.mint.com; for Personal Capital, hit www.personalcapital.com; for YNAB, go to www.youneedabudget.com. For the full version of Quicken software, visit www.quicken.com.
A program like Quicken has many features you may not use right away, but it works well for beginners who just want to do online banking, automatically reconcile their bank statements, track expenses, budget, prepare for tax time, and look at reports. The budget versus actual report alone is worth the investment.
Your budget won’t work unless you stick with it. One of the keys to staying motivated is to keep the budgeting process from being too complex or time-consuming. If you’re budgeting for a family, make it a family activity and involve each family member in some way; it’s a great way to introduce your kids to basic money concepts. Reward yourself for reaching saving and spending goals and making progress on paying down debt.
One of the most rewarding things about tracking your finances is seeing the progress you’re making every month. This is easy if you use personal finance software and apps, because they offer a variety of charts, graphs, and reports you can view in real time.
Remind yourself of the importance of your real goals. The budget is just a tool that increases your awareness of where your money goes and provides guidelines for spending so your money goes toward the things that are most meaningful to you.