Budgeting

(Personal Capital is now Empower) Mint and Empower are two web-based, money management platforms that are frequently compared to one another. While there are some similarities, the differences between the two render them very different services. Which you will prefer to work with will depend entirely on what you are looking for the platform to…

Quicken is one of the best known financial management systems available. Its also one of the most widely used, and commonly reviewed by financial websites. It’s a particularly strong budgeting software, with plenty of features and benefits to make your financial life easier. But Quicken is hardly alone in the budgeting software space. One other…

Empower and YNAB are popular financial applications. There are plenty of similarities between the two. Both provide budgeting capabilities, as well as various tools to help you better manage your finances. But that’s where the similarities end. Empower does offer budgeting capabilities, but it’s mainly focused on overall financial management. This includes, first and foremost,…

Type ‘broke athletes’ into Google and you’ll see a hall of fame that no athlete wants to be in. For example, boxer Mike Tyson’s career earnings of $300 million were gone by the time he filed for bankruptcy in 2003. NBA star Jason Caffey, who earned $35 million, filed for bankruptcy in 2007. Footballer Warren…

I hate budgeting. I’ve tried using envelopes, Quicken, YNAB, and even fancy spreadsheets. The results are always the same. I start off strong, but within a few weeks, I lose interest in the time-consuming chore that budgeting can be. The problem is that I still need to manage my money. So, what do I do?…

This is the fourth day of our 31-Day Money Challenge. Over 31 days we’ll publish 31 podcasts, each designed to help you move closer to financial freedom. Yesterday we walked through how to prepare your net worth statement. In today’s podcast, we discuss 7 tips for effective and stress-free budgeting. Sponsors: The 31-Day Money Podcast…

Update: Since publishing this Mint vs YNAB comparison, two significant events have occurred. First, a new version of YNAB was released. The product now requires a monthly subscription, which we don’t like. Second, Empower has launched a free financial dashboard that does what YNAB does, plus a whole lot more. You can read the details…

When it comes to personal finance, we all do things a little differently. After a few years, our money habits can become more like money rules, and staying open-minded to new ways of handling our finances can be tough. Even the more flexible among us can still struggle with financial changes. Still, though managing personal…

There are plenty of budgeting services and apps to choose from. One well worth taking a close look at is PocketGuard. It’s a free app that tracks your spending, helps you to budget for expenses, and begin allocating money for savings. It doesn’t promise to make you rich, but it can give you greater control…