Spending Is as Easy as Pushing a Button. The Hard Part? Keeping Track.

One very simple, ad-free and straigthforward budgeting tool is Pear Budget (pearbudget.com). When I set it up I put the due date at the end (i.e., Electric co 3). Love the simple, easily changed software. I'm not a fan of Mint because of all the ads and tie in with advertisers/accounts - they are VERY intrusive.

Started with Managing Your Money when it came out (I think that was the Middle Dark Ages, right?), then moved to Quicken when MYM started dying on the vine. I don't budget, but I do track expenses (to the nearest dollar), and keep a close eye on working capital (current assets minus current liabilities). Retired at 62, after putting two kids through college, with enough money to be comfortable. It's not hard, you just have to find some way that works for you and stick with it.

Fifteen years ago, I started a business called KIDSCA$H, and published workbooks and classroom curricula to teach kids how to manage their money. Couldn't have been simpler. I added a small pocket workbook for non-kids, called MYCA$H. Conducted school seminars and workshops for parents and kids. Parents routinely told they would sooner discuss sex with their kids than talk about money. I gave up after about ten years, since it became quite clear no one was interested. And by then it was 2008.

I live with a soccer fan and we still cut the cord. There are other ways to pay for NBCSN beyond traditional cable.

I write down what I spend or take a receipt, and then once a week enter it into an Excel spreadsheet. Budgets never worked for me, but categorizing and knowing my spending did control my spending. I can better predict expenses and the ebb and flow of spending through the year. It does take time and commitment, but for me it works. When I tell friends what I do they say they don't have the time. I work full time, have five kids, and have finished two graduate programs while tracking spending...not to brag, but just saying anyone can do this. It is simple. I don't earn that much money, yet we don't have debt. It is possible on a middle class budget, but watching spending and living debt free is still hard work. My greatest concern is college for my kids...that will be the budget buster, but watching what I do they seem to weigh costs and benefits well.

Anyone using the internet or apps, esp to teach young kids, should be aware they are no longer used to gather data on you to persuade you to buy things, but to manipulate your future behavior . . . when you use them you surrender who you are now for a whole new future "you" . . . such a deal (except for the part, you don't have much of a say in who you will be)

These tools are fine. But there is no app for discipline and rationality, the two things lacking for most people who can't stay on a budget.

Not on budgeting but on health: "I want to enter a product name into an app so it can assure me that we’re not feeding our children weed killer in their oatmeal." You can do this by looking for the label "Glyphosate Free", certified by Biochecked (biochecked.com). I found one company, One Degree Organic Food, that has this certification for oatmeal. Large companies can't check their supply chains from start to finish but smaller ones can. I only buy One Degree cereal now.

I use EveryDollar and it's been revolutionary. Tracking everything I spend has never been easier and it's so important. It's so much easier than spreadsheets. ED is cloud-based. I flirted with the envelope system once, but that was definitely not for me.

I got quite a lot out of this short read. Similar to Ms. Siegel Bernard, I have a kind of white list budget: rather than track everything, I have tracked my primary savings goals, and then the rest can be a bit less carefully managed. It does work and is a huge improvement over just trying to get by (which was all I could realistically manage when in my 20s). And as I've advanced in my career, I've had more money left, and that has given me the happy problem of adding a bit of charity and also adding a few more financial goals. I've progressed financially, in part by reading "Your Money" regularly—thank you! As for the retire early crowd, I also agree that it seems hard to predict what the future will bring with enough certainty to believe that one can totally retire. Now, for tech execs, I get it, and maybe some others are right. Personally, even if I were able to do so, I would rather keep myself connected to the world of work and keep some income trickling in as I head towards retirement. I can see choosing to transition to work you love, or a very short work week, or giving significant work to charity, but to really retire and just live off the fat of the work you did in your 20s—it doesn't sit right with me and I could never do it.

Today the problem is inflation. This is not jus a matter of education or budgeting . What can you buy today with $1 bill? Almost nothing . And you have to work as hard as it was 10 years ago to get that dollar. In the future our economy will only need consumers, not workers. Automation is taking over. Be careful with useless subscriptions, easy financing and long term debt. Interests are rising. And the feel of having debt is bad.

This article explains the whole housing crisis in 2008, no one know how to balnce their books. I'm 60, opened my first savings account when I was 6, still have the pass book, for those of you who know what that means. When I was 12 I had to turn in an account statment each month to my parents to get next month's allowance. Have saved at least 10% of every dime I earned, even when I was living in the back seat of my 1973 Firebird. Paid cash for every car I owned, bought first new car for my 50th birthday, rest were used cars. Grew up on a pig farm in the upper Midwest in a house with no heating in the bedrooms. I got a crisp $100 bill every semester from my folks when I was in college, which was the cheapest school that accepted me. Pretty much know were every dollar I ever earned went. Funny thing is that now I have a net worth of just over $5 million. House is paid for, beach house is paid for, condo in Thailand is paid for, and a $55k pension. If you don't know where every dollar went then why shoudl you expect to have any left?

I'm a great believer in budgets and also in the old "envelope" system. One budgets for each item, and then puts that amount of money in an envelope for that expense. For a child, using an actual envelope is very useful. Can I order pizza? Look in the envelope. How much money do you have left in that category? How long till you get your next allowance or paycheck? One quickly understands if one can "afford" that pizza! As an adult, having multiple checking accounts can be useful, too. I absolutely believe in direct deposit into the various accounts one uses for savings. What was never in ones checking account cannot be spent, no matter how weak ones willpower is! But also seeing online how much is left in the "household" account of the "entertainment" one or "clothing" - whatever, is very useful. If little is left and it's early in the month, the decision to not spend is pretty easy. These are far from "high tech", but they not only work, but work very well. It's far easier than tracking every single penny one spends. I do use my AmEx card that earns FF miles for most of my purchases, but I can track that spending online as well, and at the end of the year, AmEx sends me a statement breaking down my spending by category. It can be an eyeopener! But using a CC for most purchases is not for "beginners" - too easy to slip up. Only after one has established truly reliable spending habits, will this not be a disaster. And it must always be paid off monthly.

I've been tracking my spending since 2005 with a simple Excel spreadsheet customized by me. Last year I decided to not follow every penny I spent and guess what? I spent more money than I should have. As of this January, I am back to tracking everything again, and surprise, surprise I have not spent any money other than the standard bills and have started saving money again. Keeping track of your money keeps you accountable to yourself.

just use quicken if you are serious about this stuff, comprehensive, detailed, automated. i started with managing your money in the 80’s, moved to Microsoft Miney which was powerful but now defunct and eve using the legacy defunct version you have no online services, moved to Quicken when Money went kaput. For those with portfolios to manage or rental property to manage their are quicken flavors with that stuff built in too. i’ve known my net worth and expenses vs budget to the penny for three decades and it is enormously useful.

I've been using a legacy program called Microsoft Money for over 15 years (yes I can look up what I spent on my hair in 2002). It is still available for free although no longer supported by Microsoft. It's simple to use, very visual and makes tracking your spending a snap.

I think budgets work. I used them for decades. Only now in retirement do I not need a budget, as my savings are sufficient to last the remainder of my life, even if I live to 100. The key is to figure out the large items like housing, utilities, medical and transportation first, then the more flexible ones, like clothing and entertainment. I always left a cushion which could go into savings when I didn't need it. And of course, saving was high on my list. Now I simply track what I spend to make sure the charges are correct. That and no debt are the reward for a lifetime of budgeting.

Why would you give your personal financial data over to untold 3rd parties? These apps all sell your data and harvest your personal information ....alll too be sold !! Wise up !! get off the aps.

Charge everything possible to a rewards card like Costco’s CITI Visa. Write down every charge like you would a check. Reconcile checkbook and VISA statement monthly. Cash in yearly rewards, and see your credit score soar.....and simultaneously keep an eye on any suspicious transactions...

Gee, how frugal with her Sonos, iPhone 6s that shuts down in the cold and 4 year old Roku. How does she manage? All facetiousness aside, the automated saving tip is the best one (assuming you are fortunate enough to have a job that covers essential living expenses). Set it and forget it.

By dint of my hard work allowing a decent financial situation, and their motivation, my two daughters graduated with advanced degrees debt free. They are working, living at home, saving. They splurge on targeted experiences like travel while they are young, but are focussed on getting a house or whatever their plans are. I, now free of college expenses, contribute the max to their RothIRAs for them. I will do so for a decade or so. That will seed them with $60,000 plus earnings that will cook for the next 30-40 years. Being out of debt and having some money in the bank means OPTIONS. You aren't a slave to a payment. You can decide what you spend your money on - or NOT - each day. If an opportunity presents itself, you can jump on it if that is what you want to do. My daughter just bought a really nice 6 year old car for $4K. She already has a car. She's going to take her time and sell the second one, and make a profit. You (hopefully) wouldn't consider taking advantage of that opportunity if you are drowning in debt, but can if you have money.

The problems isn't budgeting, or tracking. It's impulse control. Impulse control, I would bet, tracks very closely with financial security, incarceration and crime, teenage pregnancy, and any number of other things. Have control, and you get control.

To me, the most interesting part of this article was the author having to explain patience and delaying gratification to her young son. Budgeting and exercising restraint can be, I think, difficult in this day and age of instant gratification (as noted by the author) and where we are constantly receiving messages to buy new cars, clothes, furniture, toys etc. to look good and live better. I am trying to be much more mindful about what I buy and to pause and ask if I really need the item. Last year I went through my closet, pulling out the $15 or 20 blouse, the $25 jeans, the $30 dress that I picked up at TJ Maxx or Marshalls or Target, because I could and I felt good at the moment of purchase. After setting these items aside, I counted them and thought, Wow, they add up to a couple hundred + dollars. That was money I could have put into savings or a Roth IRA. And the Apple Watch? I realized months later that I am not really impressed (except for the moments it alerted me to stand up and move around) and I am back to wearing a regular timepiece. That money too could have gone to retirement or towards a vacation. I think being more mindful and patient about consumer purchases, in conjunction with the support of the tools and apps, can help. These are really lessons for many people.

I use MINT to track spending and account balances, and Numbers on my iDevices to create monthly budgets. This has worked very well for me. I started budgeting once I got on the Dave Ramsey plan after reading Total Money Makeover. In two years my net worth went from -$30,000 to +$30,000. If anyone is struggling with debt or even getting started in emergency savings or investing I highly recommend reading that book as a first step. Once you are out of debt and have 3~6 months expenses for emergencies, start saving 15% of income in HSA, then 401k, then regular investment accounts. This is how you get wealthy. LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS.

The easiest and best way I've found to manage and evaluate spending is through my bank app--way easier than Quicken, Quickbooks, Excel, etc. By clicking on the 'tools and investing' tab, then 'transactions', I can sort income and expenses among accounts (checking, savings, credit), categories, date range, amount range and/or description. What makes it easy is the information is automatically entered. This is especially helpful for tax time and if you are so inclined, budgeting. This strategy works if you have everything with the same bank.

Very sane, down to earth advice in an era when so many think an app can do what they can’t/don’t want to do, or learn. And mindless monitoring of spending is only a step to become conscious of bad habits.

This is an example of advertising masquerading as “news”. My undergraduate degree is in accounting with an emphasis on personal finance, and I can tell you that the first step in accumulating wealth is preserving the wealth that you already have. To a young person or couple just starting out, adequate savings and insurance are far more valuable than any “investment. Without these things, an accident or injury will quickly wipe-out any investments, no matter how lucrative. Unfortunately, savings and insurance, being relatively static, don’t lend themselves to the creation of a sexy app, which means that don’t lend themselves to advertisements for financial products, and advertising is the sole purpose of “free” apps, as is much of the Web at large

I'm puzzled by the endless flow of articles describing budgeting as difficult (or worse, stating "it doesn't work"). I moved to NYC to live on my own (with a distant cousin who basically left me alone) in my junior year of high school. I managed my $15 weekly allowance, easily keeping track of every penny. This habit continued through the decades. The major stumbling block came when a financial manager insisted that my Word documents were useless compared to computerized money programs. I started in 2001 with Quicken and went on to Quickbooks for my business. I don't think I ever managed my money as well with these programs as I did with my pen and paper or, later, Word docs. I finally switched back to Word in 2017. Saved $1000 in the first month. I've regularly tweaked the weekly tables I use. On average, I spend about 30 minutes a week (Saturday mornings). I spend an extra 15 minutes at the end of each month, summing up our income and expenses (personal and business) and select from the monthly budget statement whatever I need for our 2019 taxes (we expect our year-end tax accounting will take about 15 minutes this year). Due to the care of record keeping over the past 2 years, our retirement needs are set, and we know from day to day what we have and what we need to spend. This averages out to about 35 minutes a week. It's incredibly liberating, and does not require any apps or money management programs. www.remember-to-breathe.org

For the youngsters: I have nothing against apps to keep track of spending, or whatever. But back in the day when the abacus was hi-tech, my wife and I raised our two children by giving them each an allowance. It was theirs. They could do anything they wanted with it, and they didn't get any additions to it. They both learned "the value of money" pretty quickly, pretty well, and for the rest of their lives (they're now in the 50s). It ain't about tech. It doesn't require gimmicks. It's about responsibility.

It is possible to retire in your 30s. I know because I did it, and only 40 years late . . . .