Posted: 5/29/2014 9:41:49 PM EDT
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Anybody recommendations for personal finance software for a Mac? I'm considering iBank and mint.com. I would like to be able to track all my accounts and investments (no rental property just yet). I do not need the software to interface with banks and stuff. I actually enjoy entering the transactions. I'm considering tracking my home value, cars, etc. for a net worth, and really be hardcore about treating my finances like a business. I realize that might be a overkill, but I'm a huge nerd and just want to do it.
Thoughts or suggestions on software are appreciated. |
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Quicken is head and shoulders above anything else I have seen. I too use a Mac and I run Windows in a virtual machine for Quicken and a couple of other windows only programs that I use.
I have heard iBank is good, but have not really used it other than messing around with the download trial. I have a ton of banking/investment data going back to the nineties in my Quicken file. |
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Mint.com is basically a dumbed down version of Quicken created by Intuit (i.e. the makers of Quicken). I suggest it as a good starting point to see if this is something you can really keep up with. Linking your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, etc really only helps eliminate the data entry part of the process. I still have to do periodic reviews to verify that all the transactions are posted to the correct category. Additionally, if you write checks, you'll have to manually enter payee information as well as the category.
For light budgeting and net worth calculations, I think Mint.com does a fairly decent job (I also like Personal Capital for net worth and portfolio reviews, but if you have more than $100K of invest-able assets outside a 401K be prepared for their sales pitch if you signup). However Mint doesn't have the customization possibilities that Quicken does, so in that respect you get what you pay for. |
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I, myself, am considering going with quicken.
However, a colleague of mine has recommended the software YNAB (you need a budget). He said they have phone apps, and he can make it pull all information from his banking account, and can sort it etc. He runs his budget through there and basically set up sub-accounts (in the software) for different categories (food, gas, etc) and allocates funds to each account. Periodically he will reconcile the amounts of his accounts in YNAB with the total in the bank account. That way he is working to having a extra money in each account so he is a month or two ahead. I believe you can do the same with Quicken, but he seemed to like the simplicity of the other. |
| I used AceMoney when I had a PC. I went through many demo versions of software when I changed to a Mac. Ended up using the Mac version of AceMoney. It runs much better on the PC though. If there is a better software out there that is not expensive I would like to give it a try. |