Personal Finances Budgeting Software Review WOW

This is a budgeting program designed to help individuals better manage their money.

Loan payment calculator! Calculate your monthly payments on your next car purchase, home purchase or whatever you need an installment loan for.

Track Credit Card or Loan Balances automatically! Set up all your credit cards, home loan, and car loans and Personal Budgeting will keep track of you current balance automatically! You will alwasy know how much you owe!

PB is a comprehensive budgeting product designed to help individuals track and plan their monthly expenses. It is designed to be easy to use. Have you ever tried to use Quicken? MS Money? These are very powerful programs, but require a lot of knowledge to operate them efficiently.

It comes complete with formated reports that you can view, print, or print to a file (HTML, Excel Spreadsheet, or Text). So after you have entered all this data, you can run reports and analyze the data to determine where all your money goes, or which categories you spend too much money on or not enough.

As you can see from the sample screens, this program contains buttons and help screens to help you set up a budget and track your monthly expenses. After you establish your personal categories, you enter an amount you think you will spend in that category, then as expenses come in during the month, you enter them in as a new transaction. The software will then sum all your actual expenses and compare them to what you budgeting. It's that easy.

Features

Track Monthly Expenses!

Compare against Budgeted Expenses!

Track Credit Card and Installment Loan Balances!

Keep Your Checking Account Balance!

Track Unlimited Checking Accounts!

Estimate Your 401(k) At Retirement!

Calculate Loan Payments (for a new car)!

Print Detailed Reports to Analyze Your Financial Condition!

Now Only $14.95 Buy Now

Personal Budgeting is a fully automated software product that tracks all of your monthly expenses and compares them to the amount you budgeted. It comes complete with formatted reports so you can view or print reports to analyze your performance. This program is designed so that a beginner will be able quickly learn and utilize its functionality, and is detailed enough to meet the needs of the most experienced budgeter.

Budgeting 101

1. KEEP IT SIMPLE (AT FIRST)

The best way to get started is to put together a very basic list of your monthly income (i.e. your paycheck) and expenses. Just give it your best guess. Stick to listing things you can easily identify: rent, car payment, insurance, utilities (you get the picture). As time goes by you can add more detail.

2. DETERMINE YOUR MONTHLY INCOME (after tax how much can you spend)

To be effective, you must determine how much you make each month. This is not as straightforward as it seems. If you get paid once a month, it's easy -- just use the amount from the check. If you get paid on a different schedule use the chart below:

**Monthly Salary Calculation**
Payment Interval	Multiply By	Divide By
each week	52	12
every 2 weeks	26	12
twice a month	24	12
every 3 weeks	17.34	12

If you have other sources of income other than your paycheck that you use for expenses each month (i.e. interest income, alimony, child support, other), you will want to include these sources as well. You can use the chart above to determine the monthly income from these sources as well.

3. EXPENSES

This will be the difficult part. It will be more difficult than income sources because you will have many more expenses than incomes (if you do have more sources of income, than you probably have enough money to hire your own personal accountant and shouldn't be wasting your time with my site). You will also most likely have hidden expenses or expenses you currently do not realize exist. Group these expenses into categories as best you can -- you can always re-categorize later. Just prepare your list for now, don't worry about estimating the amount spent each month.

4. RECORDING REVENUES AND EXPENSES IN PERIOD INCURRED

You need to select your time period. I suggest selecting a month (I have been referring to the month time period throughout this site). You need to match all your revenues for one month against all your expenses. Don't record an expense to the proper month based on in which month you paid the bill, but rather record the expense in the month that reflects when the expense was incurred. Here's an example of what I am talking about. Let's say you get your electric bill on the 23rd of each month and it is not due until the 3rd of the following month. Let's also say in June you pay the bill early (on the 23rd), but the July bill (which comes on July 23) you don't pay until August 3. If you recorded your expense based on the date paid, you would not have any electricity expense recorded in July (since the June bill was paid on June 23 and recorded in June, and the July paid was paid August 3 and recorded with August expenses). By matching revenues and expense to the period in which they occurred, you will be able to determine if your monthly expenses exceed your monthly income.

5. ESTABLISH ESTIMATES FOR MONTHLY EXPENSES

Make your best guess for some those items that are not reoccurring. It may take you a couple of months to get good at estimating the more difficult expense categories. If you find you have a large amount of money in any one category, consider breaking it down into more detail. Utilities is a good example. You may want to break it down into: (1) Electricity, (2) Gas, and (3) Water/Sewer.

6. TRACKING ACTUAL EXPENSES

You need to keep track of your actual expenses incurred during the month and group them into these categories. It will be easy for things like rent, phone (stuff you get a bill for and write one check). The tough part will be those cash expenses (lunches, sodas, beers after work, movies, etc.). If you don't have a memory like a steel trap, carry a small pocket size note book with you and write them down as they are incurred. Or if you find that to be a big pain, you can take the easy, but much less accurate, way out and each time you withdraw cash, guess which categories these cash expenses will fit into and record them. You can always adjust them later. This way, you will at least have something recorded and are less likely to forget that $5 purchase of lottery tickets the other night.

Guideline Percentages to Budget By

Although every family's budget is different, the chart below offers a guideline you can follow to help develop your personal budget.

Category	%
Housing	28.3
Transportation	23.9
Food	10.8
Personal insurance and pensions	9.1
Personal taxes	5.7
Entertainment	4.5
Apparel products and services	4.3
Health care	3.9
Miscellaneous expenses	2.3
Education	2.1
Personal care products and services	1.0
Alcoholic beverages	.7
Cash Contributions	.6
Reading	.5
Savings	2.3
Total	100.0

Money Saving Ideas

Auto Insurance

Raise your deductible

What's your current deductible? It should be at LEAST $250, unless you're one of those drivers that gets into an accident every year, then there is no hope for you in this area . Call your agent tomorrow and find out what the difference is in your premium if you raise your deductible. If it costs you say $75 to have that low $100 deductible rather than having a $250 dollar deductible, then you are effectively buying only $150 of coverage with that $75!! That is bad. If you only file a claim every 3 years, it is actually costing you an additional $75 for that low deductible. BEWARE, don't raise your deductible high if you don't have the money set aside incase you do have an accident.

Shop for a new company

Have you been with the same company for a long time? When was the last time you shopped for a lower rate? If you have a good driving record and are currently insured with a major insurance company, call a couple of other reputable companies. Make sure you have a copy of your existing policy when you call so you can be sure to get a quote based on the same coverage. BEWARE some agents will give you a quote based on lower levels of coverage to lead you to believe their rates are a lot lower, MAKE SURE YOU ARE GETTING A QUOTE FOR THE SAME COVERAGE. If you do get a quote that is lower, have them fax or mail a copy of the quote, then call your existing insurance company to see if they will match it. Many times they will. You will have saved money and avoided the hassle of switching companies =)

Bank Fees

Cash Machine Fees

Does your bank charge you a fee for each withdraw you make from a cash machine that they don't own? Most do anymore. Not only will your bank charge you a fee but the bank that owns the cash machine you are using will most likely charge you as well. If you pull out $20 from one of these machines and have to pay fees of $3, that is a 15% charge. That is robbery and should be a crime. Check your last bank statement and see how many of these charges you had. These can really add up quickly. There is really no excuse for incurring these fees month after month, you're just giving your money away. A little planning on your cash withdrawals, and you can avoid these.

Your suggestion on watching out for ATM fees is an excellent one. I have an addition to it: we live 1/2 hour from our bank and further from any of their ATM machines. (We plan on changing banks soon, but it's hard to find one closer that has less fees.) For the meantime, we use direct point-of-sale transactions to get cash. For example, when we shop at the supermarket we use our ATM card and ask for $10 extra cash. Each store has a different limit on what they will give you in cash, so it takes some research and planning, but it pays off in the end since there is no fee for point-of-sale ATM transactions. Of course, this could be specific to our bank, but I think not. It's worth a try! And it works even better if you are out of state and there is no hope of finding your bank's ATM.
(Thanks to Daniel and Joanne Steinhart for this tip!!)

Overdraft Fees

So you forgot to deposit that check and were overdrawn. The bank is sure to charge you at least $15, and if they returned the check to the person you wrote the check to, many times that person will charge you as well, usually $20 or more. Now that little oversight cost you $35. Ouch. Solution: check to see if your bank offers overdraft protection. This is usually very cheap. It works like a credit card. If you are overdrawn, the bank puts money into your checking account and charges you interest on the money you borrowed from them. Some banks will automatically pay off the balance when your checking account has enough money in it, but others will require you to call and make the transfer from your checking account to the loan account. Sometimes the interest rate is high (18%), but paying 18% on $500 is only about 25 cents a day! So you get overdrawn and pay the loan back in 5 days it only costs you $1.25 rather than $35.

Other Fees

Check your statement. Do you pay a checking account fee each month? Fee for using a check card? Banks are really socking it to the customer these days. There are a lot of banks that have very few fees. Might be time to change banks.

Credit Cards

Carrying a Balance? Cut the Blooming Things Up!!

Cut up your plastics and pay off your balances. If your balances are too high to pay them off, instead of depositing money into a savings account, pay yourself by reducing the balance each month on your credit card accounts. If you receive offers for low APRs for 6 months or a year, "surf" the rates and call to effect a balance transfer (read the fine print, though). Revolving high credit card balances each month costs you hundreds of dollars each year ... dollars you could be using to go on a dream vacation, donate to a charity you love, or help out a family member or friend who is in need.
(Thanks to the anonymous user that supplied this tip!)

Pay on Time!!

Pay your credit card bills on time and in full. It sounds obvious, but many people do not pay on time, thus incurring a $10-$20 late charge. MANY people do not pay in full, thus incurring interest charges on the remaining amount. Companies like VISA and MasterCard already charge the seller about 5% on each purchase made with their card. If you think the seller eats the 5%, you're probably wrong. Many sales outfits pass on the 5% charge to you (i.e., "cash discounts"). Why should credit companies make more money by charging you interest on your bill when you already paid for the convenience when you bought the product?
(Thanks to Ben Allfree for this tip!)

Long Distance

Need some extra cash?

Whenever I recieve a solicitation by mail from a long distance company (other than my current provider), that includes a check as an inticement to switch services, I call my current service and ask them what they can do for me if I don't switch. They always give me some kind of credit, and have even matched the amount of the other companies uncashed check! Last year I recieved $70 in long distance credit, and the year before that $150!
(Thanks to "Wavey" for this tip!!!)

Miscellaneous

On-Line Coupons!

I have just recently figured out that even the $0.10 coupons can be a help when shopping for groceries. I go to a website called Nesteggz.com. You have to be a member which is "Free", and then you can start getting some coupons to print out on your printer which can be used at your local stores. I have recieved coupons so far in the amount of $5.oo and I just started this week. They even have samples you can get by answering surveys. I have recieved coupons for free stuff by doing this and believe me this helps tremendously. I think your readers will enjoy the site and pass on the information just like I will about this site for people who want to watch their money closer.

Thanks to Kimberly Clements