Balancing our checkbook and listing out our investments in a notebook (In MS Excel these days) is all we need to be doing about money management. No?
Most of us would not bother about setting up a detailed system that tracks our expenses, optimizes our income and tracks our savings and investment.
But there are several downsides for not maintaining any records or just maintaining a manual notebook for all your financial transactions.
Notebook records don’t give you the options of retrieval of data in any desired format other than the one you are using. For example, a list of fixed deposits will not give you another list which is sorted in a way that shows in an order when you will get the redemption or maturity of those FDs.
Excel is a powerful spreadsheet and can be used by trained users in a very effective way. But the caveat here is that you need to be a trained user to make use of the spreadsheet software. Even with trained users, getting reports in charts, tables, etc will not be easy.
Record keeping is a simple, easily implemented, and cost effective management tool. Complete, well organized records can help ensure proper management of your money.
But it is also important to be aware of the limitations of good record keeping. We need to take care of the following:
I believe that available technology can help create a strong system to manage your money. But they also need to be easy to use. It should not be like a Jet’s dashboard which has hundreds of powerful utilities and features but very complicated to understand.
There are some desktop softwares that are coming to the market and promise loads of features.
An option that is growing in popularity is software that is kept entirely online. You never actually download a program to your computer and can access your information from any computer connected to the Internet, including SmartPhones.
This is referred to as “cloud computing.” Some websites offer a low monthly fee to use the software and other sites are free and entirely advertising supported. Some people prefer this method for its convenience and other people stay away from these programs due to security fears.
Once you begin to use personal finance software you’ll wonder how you ever managed your finances without it. I believe that people might become addicted to seeing the computer generated reports of exactly where their money goes each month. They should find this makes it easier to create a budget and stick to it.
That’s the premise that I am working on right now. Do you have thoughts on using software to manage your money. I’m listening.
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I think there are two questions please need to ask before looking at the many products/services in this space.
1. Do you want to track your monthly expenses and create budgets or track your investments/portfolio
2. Do you want an internet based offering or a desktop based product. Easy access, data security and pricing are some of the pros/cons for each.
I’ll highlight some of the offerings, I’m hoping others can fill in any gaps:
Monthly Expense tracking:
Online – Intuit Money Manager, Perfios, ArthaMoney
Desktop – RupeeManager
Not all portfolio manager products are the same, some are basic watch lists and others offer some great reporting.
Portfolio Manager:
Online Watch List – Moneycontrol, Value Research Online and Rediff
Desktop: MProfit, InvestPlus and Myiris Plus
@Manish Thanks. That’s a very valid question to answer before you decide on what to use.
Double thanks for filling in with the offerings available in India.
Am using acemoney for almost 2yrs to manage savings a/c, FD, stocks, MF, ETF, PPF, EMI, monthly expense, cash, forex
am quite satisfied with outcome and its worth.
What a coincidence, I just moved from spreadsheets to dedicated software a week ago…and now I see your post!
I have been using GnuCash (http://gnucash.org/) and am already liking it very much. It is Open Source so that’s the main reason I chose it.
But I am still trying to figure out how to update the latest stocks and MF quotes automatically for Indian market…
I was also looking for a good desktop based software for longtime, as I was skeptically about using a web based system for storing all my personal financial information.. Security of any system is only as strong as its weekest link .. After trying few trial versions of different software, i ill finally got settled in “Moneydance” . You need to pay one time fees of 40$ ( approx 1800 Rs) . I think it is worthwhile to spend that much. It can be used for tracking day to day financials.. However i never used its feature to download bank transaction online, as I was unable to find any Indian banks in that list..
@Ranjan @Manish
Good start and great questions to answer before embarking on your financial journey. I’d also add that the foremost question people have is around cultivating the mindset of saving. In my mind, saving IS making money in a way and involves a certain level of discipline and consistency. Sure, online software and desktop versions make it way easier, but it all comes down to changing the mindset and keeping track of your spends each time you do.
@Vidyuth @Aby @Manish K Thanks for your comments. I guess that once we start using some kind of software, we are on the way of making some progress. Along the way you develop a mindset of saving and getting bang for your money!
@Vidyuth agreed.
All these tools are great but without the discipline it doesn’t mean much.
Dear Ranjan
Can you please suggest me some good personal finance software?
thnx
@Amit The comments have a lot of pointers. Depends on your requirements and choice. Btw I’m building RupeeManager myself.
thnx Ranjan for your quick response!! Thnx again..:-)
Unless you are extremely disciplined, it is difficult to track expenses, income across all your accounts and all members of your family.
I’ve taken a shortcut. I use Yodlee MoneyCenter to automatically track all transactions of online bank accounts. I restrict my cash transactions as much as possible. I move a certain percentage of the salary to an FD or a separate account as soon as I get it. I then try to live within the remaining money. After a few months, you figure out how much is required for your monthly expenses and you have the advantage that the remaining money has been saved/invested/
You need to reveal your online banking passwords for all your banks to Yodlee. This can be considered risky, but Yodlee has a very strong security system in place and is the backend provider for account aggregation services for top banks in the US and Australia.
Artha Money and Yes Bank’s Money Monitor are based on Yodlee. But Yodlee is FREE!
I use Mint.com to manage my money. And I must say I am pretty impressed. It organizes all my expenses very well and gives me a view on what I have spent on and If I am overspending.
@Neha Has Mint been customized for India? I mean does it import your Bank details?
Hi Ranjan,
On behalf of Intuit, I’d say that Mint is currently not customized for India…
So no@Ranjan, it doesnt import Indian bank details yet, atleast not most of them…
Mint has been customised. check perfios.com
@Vidyuth, what is the rational of developing an application (Intuit Money Manager) from scratch instead of expanding Mint to include Indian financial institutions. I’m a paid member of Intuit. I have to say Mint.com is ahead in terms of look and feel when compared to Intuit Money Manager. Although Mint is free, there will be some who are ready to pay for it, like me. At the end of the day you are just incorporating the features of Mint into Intuit Money Manager (I have signed up for Mint too, hence I know).
Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone can give some honest and blunt reviews on some free money management sites. From what I’ve read, Mint.com is horrible and has many problems since it got sold.
The other two sites I’m checking out is Yodlee and Perfios. Perfios can be used in the U.S. right? and I want to know if Yodlee has any of the same problems as Mint.com has since I’ve read that Mint.com comes essentially from the Yodlee software…
And of course if there are any other free sites out there that perform better but still link all of your accounts. I am a college student and would really appreciate finding something that is easy to use, updates daily, is secure, and has personal customer service that may be reached by phone….. maybe I’m asking for too much?
Nice to know that you are developing money managing software. I wish to use one such software. Will it be possible by such softwares to workout how much I need to pay tax if all my transactions are updated ?