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You Need A Budget Pro - Personal Finance Software Program | 
 enlarge | From: You Need A Budget
Category: Software
Buy New: $49.95
Rating:  59 reviews
Sales Rank: 850
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows Xp
Media: CD-ROM
Operating System: Windows 98 or Later
Model: 1.2.6
UPC: 793573437488
ASIN: B000QO76HU
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| | Benefit from four unique, powerful rules for maximizing control over your money | | | Be up and running in just minutes | | | Gain financial peace by tracking all of your spending (dining out, groceries, bills) with one simple interface | | | Save time by importing your bank transactions | | | Generate reports, schedule recurring transactions, and GAIN CONTROL. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
You Need A Budget (YNAB) Pro cuts to the chase with your finances. The software focuses you on the foundation of your finances: the Budget. Experience has shown that when your budget is intact, and functioning correctly, everything else takes care of itself (the bills are paid on time, retirement contributions are made, and unnecessary debt is eliminated). The software is built around Four Rules of Cash Flow. These Four Rules will help you maximize the value of every dollar, get out of debt, save for retirement, and reach your other financial goals. Where other software packages tend to be the products of years of feature creep, YNAB Pro offers you exactly what you need: a simple, straightforward system to manage your money.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 54 more reviews...
 Getting through college debt-free September 2, 2008
Jon M.
As a college student on a very tight budget I'm VERY happy with YNAB. The customer service is awesome because it's a smaller company. It has an open-ended, flexible feel that other software doesn't have and is still pretty easy to pick up with the video tutorials. At the same time it has "rules" that help me not live from one week's plasma donation cash to the next :-) Alright I don't actually donate plasma for money, but if I didn't use YNAB I might have too... It was worth it for me, and probably would be for anyone else trying to get through school debt-free and independent.
Stress free for the first time! August 31, 2008
T. L. Bauer (Schertz, TX USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As others have stated here, I have been a Quicken user for years (since the old "blue screen" days). However, I only used quicken as a checkbook register, and I was never really concerned that much with "budgeting" my money.....that is, until I found myself $30,000 in credit card debt, making minimum payments on everything and finding that I always had too much month left at the end of my money!
Then, in December 2007, my wife lost her job ... I was in a panic; now what would we do? How would we get by? As things turned out, she was entitled to six months severance pay under the terms of a merger agreement when her company was bought out. In addition, she found a new job with a 30% pay increase within two weeks of her severance date.
We both decided that it was time to get our financial house in order. With her severance pay, we paid off half of our credit card debt and put a little money into savings for emergencies. And, with the new job and the pay increase, we had a little breathing room ... but we really needed to do something about budgeting and learning to live within our means.
I tried for two months to make Quicken's budgeting process work for me ... but I never could figure out where or how Quicken arrived at what it spit out at me each month ... I tried creating my own spreadsheets ... but nothing seemed to work for me. Then, I did some "googling" and found You Need A Budget (YNAB). I spent several days on their website reviewing the tutorials and reading user reviews before I forked over the money to buy a copy of the software myself.
I HAVE NEVER LOOKED BACK! I must admit, I had to start over twice with YNAB ... not because the software is difficult to use ... but because I was trying to use it based upon what I knew about budgeting ... you can't do that .. YNAB is designed to work based upon 4 simple rules of budgeting ... once you come to fully understand those 4 rules ... how simple they are and how radically different they are to everything you thought you knew about budgeting ... you have a "light bulb" moment, and after that, you and YNAB Pro become the best of friends!
I sleep much better at night these days, thanks to YNAB Pro! Now, thanks to some hard work, discipline (which NO software can give you), and the financial road map that YNAB has enabled me to keep and to live by, I now have a fully funded buffer! What does that mean? Simply that the bills I pay today are paid with the money I earned last month. The money I earn this month will go to pay my bills for next month. I no longer have to worry about whether a check I've written will get to the bank before my paycheck does! No more late payments, no more late fees!
With the plan I have created using YNAB Pro, I will be credit card debt free by March 2010, but I'll go on using YNAB Pro long after that! And, even if YNAB Pro decided tomorrow to charge an annual upgrade fee (which they don't), I'd pay it anyway! The software is just that good and has become just that important in my life. And, the community on the YNAB website forums are the friendliest and most encouraging folks you could ever meet ... and they come from all walks of life and from almost every part of the world!
I still use Quicken, and some day, I may give it up! But, I won't part with my YNAB Pro software. My only regret is that I didn't have YNAB Pro 20 years ago! If I had, I'd be sitting on a pile of money right now!
YNAB Pro does one thing, and it does it better than anything else I could find on the web: it helps me plan where I am going to spend my money! But make no mistake: that plan is only as good as your willingness and commitment to live within your means and to make that plan work!
I've made YNAB Pro a partner in my efforts to become debt free and financially independent. While I have a way to go yet, I just cannot express in words the sense of freedom and the level of stress reduction I have come to enjoy in my life in the six short months I have been using the software. It was the BEST money I have ever spent!
YNAB has helped me to get a handle on my finances for the first time in my life. August 30, 2008
Kythers (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
You Need A Budget (YNAB Pro) is an exceptional program and life tool. I am not one to bother reviewing programs, books or whatever on the net. I normally don't bother, but this is really something special.
I have been struggling with my finances for my whole life, really. I just never learned how to deal with and manage (budget and follow a budget) money. I have always just spent all that I had and more, going into very deep debt over time.
YNAB is the easiest tool for budgeting that I have see or could dream of. It actually makes budgeting fun! Honestly, I have been one to poo poo budgeting as a waste of time. I never thought that it made sense to waste time creating a budget when there was no way to guess what I would spend. (Please don't laugh at my naivety! You may be just as bad!) Now I am using YNAB Pro on my laptop and a couple of Apps on my iPhone to keep track of my spending and savings. I am flat out loving it. Really. You have no idea how strange it is that I am saying these things. I mean we are talking $49 here for a tool that is far more effective than Quicken in useability and forward budgeting. Also, Jesse has excellent teachings on how to live on last months earnings.
Go to the site to read more or just buy it and find out more. It's certainly the best value I have found for a very long time.
Oh yea: If you have an iPhone they are working on a Mac version of YNAB Pro and then they are talking about making an iPhone Application for YNAB!! Yeeha. I look forward to it!
Mark
The Methodology Alone Works Wonders August 29, 2008
Mike Heggeman (Gilbert, AZ)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The methodology alone saved me from having to live paycheck to paycheck. It took literally all of the financial stress away, knowing I was always a month ahead of my income. I guess this isn't so much about the software, rather about how the software teaches you to manage your money in a whole new, more effective way.
Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. August 29, 2008
readlots (Silverstrand, CA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I originally purchased YNAB in Excel but quickly upgraded. The newest interface is amazing. In the 6 weeks that I've used it, we've saved $1600 and I wasn't even trying THAT hard. YNAB makes one notice spending habits and it helps to see where the dollars disappear. The forums are so helpful and interactive. Everyone is nice and understanding of the mistakes we all make financially. It's well worth the money.
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| Worthwhile Reading | Myths and Realities about Working Longer
Alicia H. Munnell and Steven Sass. 2008. “Working Longer: The Solution to the Retirement Income Challenge.” Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
For more information, contact Andrew Eschtruth at 617-552-1729 or eschtrut@bc.edu.
Myth: Given the growing retirement income challenge, people will have to work forever.
Reality: If individuals worked full time until at least 66, they could enjoy a long and financially secure retirement, with incomes one-third higher than if they retired at 62.
Myth: Older workers will choose to work longer on their own.
Reality: Most people retire as soon as benefits are available at age 62.
Myth: As baby boomers approach retirement, employers will embrace older workers.
Reality: Many employers are lukewarm toward retaining older workers due to concerns that they cost too much, lack current skills, and don’t plan to stick around long.
Myth: Employers will quickly change their tune in response to labor shortages.
Reality: Many employers with a high proportion of older workers are in declining industries. Others can tap global labor markets.
Myth: Older workers have little to offer employers.
Reality: Older workers often have advantages over younger workers — including higher productivity, better judgment, a stronger work ethic, and better people skills.
Myth: Phased retirement — shifting to part-time employment with a career employer — is the solution for keeping people in the workforce longer.
Reality: Many firms are reluctant to offer phased retirement due to concerns over which workers would be eligible, health insurance costs, and part-time schedules.
Myth: Most workers can work longer by remaining with their career employer.
Reality: Career employment is declining fast — only 44 percent of male workers age 58-62 are still with their age-50 employer, down from 70 percent two decades ago.
Myth: The working longer prescription is the answer for everyone.
Reality: While today’s older workers are generally healthier and better educated, up to a third could be hard pressed to work into their mid-60s due to poor health or job prospects.
Myth: Government cannot do much to encourage longer work lives.
Reality: Raising Social Securitys earliest eligibility age of 62 could push back the work-retirement divide by changing the mindset of both workers and employers.
Myth: Eliminating mandatory retirement removed a major barrier to working longer.
Reality: Mandatory retirement could actually promote longer work lives by providing both employers and workers clear expectations about when careers end.
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| | Retirement Facts | In the private sector, participation by type of retirement plan has largely reversed over the past quartercentury: 'Traditional' defined benefit pension plans were dominant in 1979, but have been overtaken by defined contribution (401(k)-type) plans. The share of workers who are in both a defined benefit and defined contribution plan has remained fairly constant over the years.
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