Need user friendly app for budget

[Chillywilly]

I have a computer and Ipad. Now I need a user friendly app to figure out our budget. I get seriously overwhelmed trying to figure out how and what to trim in order to make the transition into retirement at some point. Thanks for all the help in advance.

[alan H]

While not an app. I find Microsoft excel an easy way
You can easily build spreadsheet

[Jon Vermilye]

Originally Posted by alan H

While not an app. I find Microsoft excel an easy way
You can easily build spreadsheet

2X.

I do my budgeting & bookkeeping as well as keep track of campgrounds, fuel use, etc with Excel spreadsheets. While I haven't used it, Microsoft has a free Office for the iPad app (One Note) which might be worth a try.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Chillywilly

I have a computer and Ipad. Now I need a user friendly app to figure out our budget. I get seriously overwhelmed trying to figure out how and what to trim in order to make the transition into retirement at some point. Thanks for all the help in advance.

We use Quicken from Intuit. It allows direction connection to banks, helps budgeting and bill paying. You might check it out. Since we use TurboTax for filing our taxes, Quicken became the obvious choice.
Good luck

[jknight00]

Although excel is an excellent program, it isn't very user friendly. If you have excel you can download a budget template. If you are looking for a budget app for your tablet, Mint is an app that you can link with your tablet and your computer. Let me know if you have any questions and I can email you links if need be.

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[C-Dub]

Give Mint a try. It's free and allows you to hook up all of your various banks and credit accounts. I have had some issues with connection on the iPad from time to time on the app, but I usually just go to the actual website on my iPad or on my laptop anyway. Mint supports robust budgeting, and does all sorts of charting and so forth that you may find helpful.

[Carol H]

Mint.com is a good one and it gets high ratings. Free on I-Tunes. Another one that gets good reviews that is free on iTunes is called Goodbudget Budget Planner - Expense Tracker & Personal Finance Manager
By Dayspring Technologies

You may also went to check with your bank. Many of them have apps these days that have a bit in budgeting function.

[Chillywilly]

Thanks, I'm going to check out Mint and the one Carol suggested. I am very leary about all that important stuff being out there Cyber space but I have to get over it. That's the way life is these days. Thanks again.

[Badger]

+2 on Mint - once you get it set up it pulls all of your data from banks, credit cards and retirement accounts into an easy interface.

Changed my life.

[Glenn Baglo]

What about security?
Personally, I access none of my accounts from a cell phone. I only do on-line banking from home on my own WiFi ( secured ).
My banking password is used for nothing else. My PIN was generated by the bank, not me, so no birthdays or anything that can be used against me.
All said, I wonder what the point is in changing your passwords every three months. As I recall, my password to access my company site was BUYOUT, and when prompted to change it, was BUYOUT 2, BUYOUT 3. Got to BUYOUT 9 and retired with a buyout.

[Badger]

In terms of Mint. It just pulls the totals of all of your accounts into one interface and allows you to assign various transactions into budget categories. You can't actually move any money anywhere so security is no more of an issue than with any internet banking.

[honda03842]

We started it when one year we doubled our income and had no extra money at the end of the year. As a result we began recording everything we spent, just recording it in categories, not setting a budget. Forcing a conscious act resulted in savings the next year.

We have kept track of all our spending since we began RVing. In the early days we used Excel, now we use our smart phone. Presently we use Spending Tracker, a free Android app. It allows us to immediately enter what we spend in categories we define. It automatically totals everything and displays them by category.

As to bill paying we have paid our bills from our phone or computer since before we started RVing. It's great for on the road, written checks are rare and usually gifts. We do not use public wi-fi hotspot locations for banking but rather our own hotspot. We have never had a problem.

We use Bank of America, primarily because they are everywhere and seem to maintain a watchful eye on our credit cards saving us from a few fraudulent charges and immediately replacing our cards when it happens.

[kootenaigirl]

I use the Home Budget one on my ipad and quite like it. The basic one is free but I found you needed to upgrade to get enough categories but it was less than $5 for the app.

[C&G in FL]

Years ago, for those of you who are old enough to remember, before there were any budget programs and Excel did not yet exist, I wrote my own budget program on a Texas Instruments 99. The program has been rewritten for the Apple IIe, and for PCs. Over the years I have modified it, but I still use it today. When I go camping I take a notebook. Financial information is stored on a thumb drive so when at home I run the program on my desktop. Written in Basic, but it is customizable and it does exactly what I need.


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[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Chillywilly

Thanks, I'm going to check out Mint and the one Carol suggested. I am very leary about all that important stuff being out there Cyber space but I have to get over it. That's the way life is these days. Thanks again.

Just make sure that you don't back it all up to the Cloud and you have it well locked down (good hard password) on your iPad or computer which ever you decide to use with it - especially if you travel with either.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

What about security?
Personally, I access none of my accounts from a cell phone. I only do on-line banking from home on my own WiFi ( secured ).
My banking password is used for nothing else. My PIN was generated by the bank, not me, so no birthdays or anything that can be used against me.
All said, I wonder what the point is in changing your passwords every three months. As I recall, my password to access my company site was BUYOUT, and when prompted to change it, was BUYOUT 2, BUYOUT 3. Got to BUYOUT 9 and retired with a buyout.

LOL Glenn didn't everyone who worked at a company that makes you change your password often just add another number to it to change it! Suspect it is why a lot of companies are now making their staff use a USB dongle password generators... generates a new password pretty well every darn time you sign in! Funny though that a lot of people just leave those things laying around on their desks beside their laptops, so not really that much more secure.

The OP did not mention using the app on his phone - just his computer and iPad. Regardless I agree with you & I wouldn't put any of my banking info or cc card info on any devise that was going to be using an open Wifi system. Rather play it safe than be sorry

[sokhapkin]

I used to use Microsoft Money to track funds flow since 2001, but later I abandoned Windows, switched to Linux and now run open source gnucash software to track personal and business finances.

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

What about security?
Personally, I access none of my accounts from a cell phone. I only do on-line banking from home on my own WiFi ( secured ).
My banking password is used for nothing else. My PIN was generated by the bank, not me, so no birthdays or anything that can be used against me.
All said, I wonder what the point is in changing your passwords every three months. As I recall, my password to access my company site was BUYOUT, and when prompted to change it, was BUYOUT 2, BUYOUT 3. Got to BUYOUT 9 and retired with a buyout.

I wouldn't access anything important on a "public" WiFi system (McDonalds, etc.) but I do access my bank accounts from a smart phone using the cellular network. It is just as secure as a home network, which can be compromised by a hacker. In reality, nothing is safe. Even if you do not use any electronic devices, your identity can be stolen and your life turned upside down.



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[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by CPW

Years ago, for those of you who are old enough to remember, before there were any budget programs and Excel did not yet exist, I wrote my own budget program on a Texas Instruments 99. The program has been rewritten for the Apple IIe, and for PCs. Over the years I have modified it, but I still use it today. When I go camping I take a notebook. Financial information is stored on a thumb drive so when at home I run the program on my desktop. Written in Basic, but it is customizable and it does exactly what I need.

BASIC? OMG.. next you're going to tell us you programmed in Fortran and Y2K was a stellar year for you

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

BASIC? OMG.. next you're going to tell us you programmed in Fortran and Y2K was a stellar year for you

Actually, I did a little Fortran and I remember the 8088s. I even remember the IBM 1201 days with keypunch and verifiers processing the data input cards. C'mon Donna, pull yourself off the floor! We're talking the early 80's here. Lots of people here probably don't even know what a TI-99 was. Stored data on a cassette tape!


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