Personal Budget Software: Buget Planning Tools, Personal Budget Planners, Best Home Budget Software

PayOff Live: Debt Payoff & Debt Reduction Tool

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:24:58 +0000

PayOff Live is an online service that provides personalized direction to become completely debt and mortgage free in less than half the time while saving money and gaining thousands of dollars in the process. As a debt payoff and debt reduction tool, it doesn’t matter how much money you make or what kind of debt you have, as long as you make more than you spend, PayOff Live can help.

While the rest of the budget planning tools and personal budget planners focus on personal finance budgets, PayOff Live is a debt payoff and debt reduction tool. It uses algorithms to figure out the order you should pay off your debts, how much to pay each month, and more, in order to ensure that your debt is paid off as fast as possible. The faster you pay off your debt the less interest you have to pay.

PayOff Live plans on adding account integration and features to become a budget planning tool and the best home budget software.PayOff Live is extremely secure.

Sign up for a free trial of PayOff Live!

Cost: Different membership levels

Free 30-day trial
One month – $9.95
Six months – $49.95 (1 month free!)
One year – $99.95 (2 months free!)

Ease of Use: easy
Help/Support: FAQ’s, quick turnaround & direct response for email & phone support
Mobile: coming soon
Advertising: None

Sign up for a free trial of PayOff Live!

Buxfer: Personal Budget Planner

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:00:35 +0000

Buxfer has the usual fuctions of a budget planning tool, including the ability to create simple budgets, use tags, and download account information. You can set spending limits and set up alerts.

Buxfer has a social network community which allows you to add contacts and track what they owe you. This might be the best software for a loan shark or bookie or for anyone who loans their friends a lot of money. You can enter your bank information each time instead of having it stored in the program. For some, this will be annoying, for others it will feel more secure.

Cost: membership levels:

Basic membership – free
Plus – $1.79/month
Pro – $2.79/month.
Plus offers unlimited budgets, accounts, bill reminders as well as cashflow projections. Pro offers the same plus no advertising.

Ease of use: easy
Mobile: web based, available on all mobile phones & iPhone
Advertising: Depends what plan you have, Basic & Plus have ads, Pro does not.

WEBSITE: WWW.BUXFER.COM

Yodlee: Budget Planning Tool

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:45 +0000

Yodlee is the business and home budget software behind Mint. It may not be as pretty as Mint, but it can do more for you. It’s easy to import data from banks, credit cards, loans, investment account, Gmail and Paypal. You can view all accounts including mortgage and investments. Yodlee has bill pay, a budget planning tool and goal setting.

You can see your spending compared to your income and your expense categories, view specific transactions, and tag your transactions to put them in categories. You can set up alerts and manually enter transactions.

Yodlee doesn’t offer any money saving advice.

Cost: Free
Ease of use: So-so: not as intuitive or basic as others
Help/Support: Not great – FAQ’s & forums
Mobile: web-based, available on all mobile phones
Advertising: None, Yodlee makes their money selling this product to banks and other financial institutions (you may already be using Yodlee through your bank and not know it)

WEBSITE: WWW.YODLEE.COM

Geezeo: Personal Budget Planner

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:11 +0000

Like the other budget planning tools and money management programs, Geezeo helps you keep track of all of your account and helps keep you on budget. Geezeo is easy to use. You can automatically download your transactions from your bank. Your budget categories are tags, and these are color coded: red, yellow and green. With a quick glance you can see if you have spending money available.

Geezeo provides a social network to help you with keep your spending under control. Think of it as an online support tool, you can confess extravagant expenses or set savings goals and compare your progress with others. It also provides access to 2000 brokerage, mutual fund and insurance companies and partners with The Motley Fool to provide a stock rating service.

Cost: Free
Ease of Use: Very basic
Help/Support: They have an FAQ page & ask you to create a support ticket to get help.
Mobile: Yes, as long as your phone can text, you can use Geezeo on your phone or iPhone
Advertising: Geezeo calls this area their product marketplace. You can compare offers for checking accounts, savings account, student loans, and credit cards.

WEBSITE: WWW.GEEZEO.COM

Wesabe: Budget Planning Tool

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:10 +0000

Wesabe lets you upload account information from banks and credit cards. Add tags to each entry in your account.

What’s different: Every time you add a tag you get a tip on how to save money or organize your finances. You can add your own goals for other people. Wesabe is as much about community as money management. You can create your own wesabe page so people can come and see your tips, you get an RSS feed to share them, you can blog, and you can join goals or start goals so other people can join yours.

Cost: Free
Ease of Use: so-so, many find it “clunky” Help/Support: user manual (?!?), If you are “freaking out” wesabe offers photo’s of kittens (no joke), you can also request support
Mobile: web-based, available on all mobile phones
Advertising: No ads, no cost – so how do they make money? Wesabe is VC funded and plans on offering a pro service that costs money

WEBSITE: WWW.WESABE.COM

Mvelopes: Personal Budget Planner

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:04:28 +0000

Mvelopes takes the traditional envelope method of budgeting into the 21st century. Web-based system and mobile access allows you to check your finances from anywhere.

Mvelopes offers a free trial.

2-Year Plan: $189.60 automatically charged every other year – Best Value (equivalent to just $7.90 per month)
1-Year Plan: $129.60 automatically charged every year (equivalent to just $10.80 per month)
Quarterly Plan: $39.60 automatically charged every 3 months (equivalent to only $13.20 per month)

WEBSITE: WWW.MVELOPES.COM

moneyStrands: Budget Planning Tool

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:51:47 +0000

The budget planning tool, moneyStrands, allows you to track your spending, and have all of your accounts in one place . moneyStrands uses social recommendation technology to help people find the best ways to invest and to save money. They see what you like, compare it to other people, and recommend it to you. You can anonymously compare your investing and spending habits to other people within the same demographic, or with similar traits.

From its cartoonish look and spokeswoman “Monica” it seems that moneyStrands is going after a late teen, early 20’s market.

Cost: free
Ease of use: easy
Help/Support: forum, FAQ
Mobile: web-based, mobile phones with browsers, iPhone
Advertising: making recommendations, they make money off each referral

WEBSITE: WWW.MONEYSTRANDS.COM

Intuit Quicken

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:43:13 +0000

Quicken has a suite of programs, the more you want it to do, the more you have to pay for it. Quicken Online is free. Like all of the other money management tools you can have all of our accounts in one place, track your spending, and budget your money so you can start saving.

All of the Quicken products allow you to track your finances, see where you spend and where you save, and make doing your taxes easier. Quicken lets you import your data directly into Turbo Tax.

Only Quicken Premier, Quicken Home & Business, and Quicken Rental Property Manager help you to manage your investments.

Cost:

Quicken Online – free
Quicken Deluxe – $59.99
Quicken Premier – $89.99
Quicken Home & Business – $99.99
Quicken Rental Property Manager – $149.99

Ease of use: Not as intuitive as some of the other programs, but if you know computers you can pick it up.
Help/Support: Quicken says it offers free support. They have a support website with email, chat and phone options.
Mobile options: Only Quicken online allows you to check your balance from your iPhone or cell phone.
Advertising: Quicken doesn’t bombard you with advertising

WEBSITE: http://quicken.intuit.com/

Clear Checkbook: Online Checkbook

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:00:03 +0000

ClearCheckbook is an online checkbook. Keep track of your checks, debit card/credit card purchases and returns anyplace you have internet access. You can put all your spending into groups so you can see how much you spent on clothes or food, etc. Charting feature shows you how your spending varies.

Cost: Free for some features, Premium Features have monthly membership

1 month$4.00
3 months$12.00
6 months$22.00
12 months$42.00

Ease of use: easy
Help/Support: Forums, FAQ & Tutorials
Mobile: Yes, online & mobile phone access
Advertising: None

WEBSITE: WWW.CLEARCHECKBOOK.COM

Mint: Budget Planning Tool

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:33:27 +0000

Mint.com is a kind of portal for all of your credit cards and bank accounts. It provides tools for budgeting and investing, and manages all of your different financial accounts. It even comes up with your very own personalized money saving ideas. But, most importantly, Mint allows you to get a handle on your current money situation (bank balance, spending habits, and credit cards).

Mint averages your spending in each category and alerts you about any major changes. Mint also recommends better credit cards or a bank that pays higher interest rates—a time and money saving service.

Cost: free
Ease of use: easy
Help/Support: FAQ’s & support forums
Mobile: web-based, all mobile phones with browser & iPhone
Advertising: Recommending banks, credit cards, etc to you.

WEBSITE: WWW.MINT.COM