Money and Budgets

[Medira]

As some of you know, I was unemployed for six months at the beginning of the year.  Between the absence of a full time job and the slowness of the Canadian Government's EI program, I had no income during that entire time.  My finances took quite a hit. So, now that I'm working and able to start paying things down properly, I'm thinking that it's time to completely revamp my financial outlook, especially now that I'm dealing in a different currency and I have a plan with a timeline that I plan to execute in the spring.

So, I'm looking for suggestions and advice.  I'm looking for software that can interact with my online banking account to keep track of my spending, help with forecasting and create a master financial plan.

For those of you who keep track of your finances online, what do you use?  What do you like/dislike about it?  What do you wish it had the ability to do?

[emeralddancer]

Well I work for a financial advisor. We use AND advise our clients to use (both individuals and Businesses) Quicken. Most (not all) credit card companies, loan companies, banks, etc ... allow uploading and downloading back and forth between companies and such. (this program offers much more than bill paying and keeping track. Offers like creating budgets, calendars, savings, retirement, etc ...) Also this program utilizes if you have retirement accounts and such as well.

Also Bank of America HAS the capabilities to do your entire bill paying online from their website. (I use M&T) but many I know use BOA.

[Medira]

I actually do have my bills set up to be paid online through BoA's OLB system.  I just like having a local copy of everything for planning purposes.

Thanks for the suggestion of Quicken.  I'll look into it for sure.

[emeralddancer]

Quiken and Quick Books are the 2 we use most.

I have my own thing set up with an MAC program. LOL

[etp777]

I've been running quicken for 8-9 years and never had a regret on that choice.

[cornutt]

Another vote for Quicken.  Been using it for... gosh, it's been about 12 years.

[catsmeow]

Nothing like self restraint and cash to save money. anything you do on line will cost you

[Medira]

anything you do on line will cost you

I'm not sure what you mean.  Could you elaborate a bit?

[Ginger]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_begging

That's one good thing I've noticed about the dance community online- I think people are too proud or intimidated to actually, flat-out "beg" here/there. Not so in the horse world, though. (www.fuglyblog.com)

[phoenix13]

I'm a little confused by the last post and I'm not sure Medira's even still around.  I like uicken as well but,to be honest, the ast time I had to dig myself out of a financial hole, I used two old fashioned mathods -- envelope budgeting.  (i.e. dealin cash only and apportion it into envelops to control spending) and a plain little notebook spending log.

I don't have any desire to enter everything online.  It's too much hassle; I'd lose track.