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| You Need A Budget Pro - Personal Finance Software Program | 
 enlarge | From: You Need A Budget
Category: Software
Buy New: $49.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 378
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows Xp
Media: CD-ROM
Model: 1.2.6
UPC: 793573437488
ASIN: B000QO76HU
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Nearly there for a real 5 star January 14, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I'm just doing the basic budgeting stuff, not using the account management yet. It was great to hear my wife on the phone asking if something was "in the budget".
I'm a big overspender when it comes to "home upgrades". I like the best of everything and my credit card was starting to show it. This software has helped me in so many ways with respect to money management.
I have quicken and money, but both were really a waste of money for budgeting. They are too complex and just don't provide the "in your face" numbers that YNAB Pro does.
The forum community on his website is also pretty active and questions are answered pretty immediately.
You won't be disappointed!
*******
here is my update
I started using and reviewed YNAB with 5 stars back in January. I'd like to rereview the product now that I have been a faithful user.
First, the budgeting philosophy that the creator penned is interesting. I'm not actually following most of it for now as it doesn't fit with my priorities. However, I am doing zero based "every dollar" must have a job budgeting. When my immediate goals are reached within 9 months, I will follow his rules more closely. With respect to the software, this demonstrates that you have freedom. The "philosophy" and the software can be separate or run in harmony.
I have 4 credit card accounts (for various rewards) and a few bank accounts. I regularly logon to my online credit and bank accounts and download my transactions. This is what confuses some people as Quicken or Money does this automatically. I don't believe YNAB will ever be able to do this because of banks' security requirements. I don't know if banks have to form partnerships with the software companies, but I have a feeling it is way out there in the too hard for a tiny company field. It's easy to import transactions and categorize them.
The planning part is very intuitive. You get an immediate picture of your entire budget month to month and you really are forced to make sacrifices. Are you going to a B&B or are you buying a bird bath? I've actually been planning on my car insurance bill coming since January and for the first time have the right amount saved up to pay it.
I used to spend time with it every night in January. I think this period of intimacy for the first month is required. It's kind of like dieting. To properly diet you must keep track of calories or points because at first there is a learning curve (unless you are on some freakish diet that requires juice and a lot of pooping). Now I use it about once a week. I still am not at the point of always saying no to something that's not in the budget, but I'm slowing down.
The one negative part for me is the reporting. Although this software never advertised itself as something that does reporting, it easily could and should. It has all my data, why can't it provide me with totals. It has some very customizable charts and graphs, but they are mostly meaningless to me. I don't expect it to show me my net worth based on investments, but I do expect a how much did I spend in timeframe X. If better reporting is added in, it gets 5 full stars again instead of 4.25.
***May 1st update: According to the YNAB forums, the reports should be added by summer. The best part is that there will be endless possibilities for reports. My only hope is that some are intuitive, such as just hovering the mouse over a column or total.
Great Methodology, Great Customer Service! January 3, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I consider myself fairly financially savvy. I understand financial concepts very well and have worked in finance for some time. However, implementing this knowledge is where I get lazy.
I purchased YNAB Pro a week or two ago in order to finally get our finances back in order and figure out where our money was going. When first purchasing the product, I was disappointed that it did not allow for transactions occurring in multiple accounts. I therefore emailed the creator and asked if a refund was available.
He emailed me back within hours and said a refund was absolutely available, but suggested I wait for the new version that would be available within a day. I waited, and was totally impressed! I quickly withdrew my refund request and started using the software.
My experience is that once the concept is understood (which the creator invests a LOT of time in teaching through help materials), the program does exactly what it claims to do. I could not be happier with this program and feel it's worth every penny of its meager cost!
If you struggle with living paycheck to paycheck and not having enough money for your bills, you can't afford not to buy this!
No more paycheck to paycheck January 1, 2008
We've been using YNAB for six months now, and it's made an amazing difference. We used to live from paycheck to paycheck; after following YNAB's Four Rules, we're living on last month's paycheck and what we make now is budgeted for the next month. We know exactly how much we can afford to spend on anything.
We used to use Quicken, which has a "budget" feature that allows you to set a budgeted amount per category, but it will only notify you if you exceed your amount. With YNAB you assign funds for every category, and you can easily see how much you've spent and how much you have left. Every penny is allocated somewhere--it sounds very restrictive, but in fact it's incredibly freeing. It's not about knowing where your money went. It's about knowing where it WILL go. YNAB helps you control your money instead of the other way around. I'm so glad I found this program!
Just what I needed. YNAB is laser focused on budgetting! December 29, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I've been using YNAB for only a month, but I can already tell that I will be using it for a very long time to come. I can honestly say that I've already saved enough money by using YNAB to pay for itself several times over.
I've tried MS Money, but it was a nightmare to figure out. I gave up after several frustrating hours.
I tried to budget with my own excel spreadsheet but that was too tedious to stick to for more than a day.
I even tried putting cash in envelopes with various labels, but that idea was quickly foiled because I use my debit card or online billpay nearly everything.
YNAB was a breath of fresh air, I was able to get it up and going in a matter of minutes. I followed the setup guide and searched through the user forums to help me figure out one or two things that I didn't understand at first. Hint: Go to the FAQ section of their user forums to find the "cheat sheet" to get started on the right foot.
If you're a Dave Ramsey fan like me, then you'll approve of the methods used in YNAB. It uses "Zero Based Budgeting", the "Envelope System", and a "Buffer" as tools to help you get control of your spending.
The software looks simple and was painless to setup, but after using it, you will see that it has some really clever features that were put in to deal with life in the real world!
Absolutely the best - at what it does December 13, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you have 5 figures in your accounts and you want to manage account transfers buy something else. If you can't figure out why you are living paycheck to paycheck BUY YNAB!
This software is not "another" software that you use in place of Quicken or Money. It is a piece of software that changes how you handle money completely. It takes all the temptations away from spending every penny by assigning jobs to every dollar.
I will not use any other software, it rocks!!
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