Ynab

colsten

WOW. Sounds as if they have reached a critical mass of users, so they can start milking them for regular payments. Mind you, it's probably still really good value for money.

bobobski

$5 a month. I can't find the GBP payment option. Just started the free trial and actually worried about my finances when yesterday I thought they were rock solid! A couple of months of getting back ahead of the credit card and we'll be golden. I'd already got it down from c. £800 per month to c. £500 per month and hoping I can get it under £500 this month

Dandytf

bobobski wrote: »

Ahhhh the new YNAB launched today is a monthly payment for the life of the product, not a lump sum. Presumably that's why I can't find reference to a free copy. YNAB 4 will only be supported for one more year.

Theres an update today, though users are advising to remove the old version then download latest version. Cant be bothered tonight, running existing version.

Lomcevak

colsten wrote: »

WOW. Sounds as if they have reached a critical mass of users, so they can start milking them for regular payments. Mind you, it's probably still really good value for money.

For me it was superb value in getting my finances sorted out because the whole methodology works really well for me, and i'm in a far better place now because of it. But as a long-term user since v3, whenever that was, who still relies on it day to day i'm very unimpressed with the latest move - i'm not going for the monthly subscription thing, and the new web version seems very limited compared to the desktop version.

Will stick with v4 until it reaches full end of life or someone else develops an alternative.

getmore4less

MS Money is probably still the best tool out there as long as you don't want instant on-line app access to the data.

Once budgeting properly you don't need that instant access and once set up it is easy and quick to keep it upto date on a regular basis.
With auto fill for all regular payments you can automate much of it and just adjust the variable amounts and dates.

Loads of extra tools built in for analysis forecasting and planning.

Indout96

Did look at it when everyone was talking about it a couple of years ago but could not find anything it did that my excel spread sheet did not already do so did not bother.
We don't owe anything to anyone and already live on last months wages - Alvin Hall was preaching this in the 80's
My workbook runs for 12 months (Jan-Jan) and I just reset it for the next year.

bowlhead99

bobobski wrote: »

Ahhhh the new YNAB launched today is a monthly payment for the life of the product, not a lump sum. Presumably that's why I can't find reference to a free copy. YNAB 4 will only be supported for one more year.

A few thoughts -

As others mentioned, that standalone piece of software would still exist on your PC in a year's time or ten years' time and the removal of support for the old model doesn't mean you're forced to stop using it. The number of people here still using MS Money is an example. Even when you end up on Windows 15 or whatever, you could still run the YNAB3 or YNAB4 software in a bubble on a virtual desktop running XP or Windows 7 or 8. And you can still export data in QIF or CSV format to move into a new system of your choice, so you won't lose the important stuff.

That said, YNAB is designed more for the modern world than MS Money and its full ecosystem includes Dropbox synchronisation, Android/iOS app. If you don't keep paying monthly subs to keep the system intact and supported, you won't keep up with the functionality. So if you've never used YNAB before now, and don't like the subscription model, there's no point trying to get involved for just a year.

YNAB's new model seems to pick up themes from their competition that their fans previously disliked. The 'paying monthly forever' is something that a lot of people don't like and the whole concept of 'storing my info in the cloud' is something that some will shy away from - preferring one fixed file on their home computer and a backup in a safe physical or online location that doesn't interact with you unless you go and get it. But I guess we can't fault progress and their business model makes sense.

$50 or ~£30 a year is hardly going to break the bank, particularly as for most people it could help them save some multiple of that.. and with a month free trial plus a couple of monthly $5 subscriptions you'd have spent an entire quarter evaluating it and only be out $10 if you didn't really get on with it.

Personally, I used Moneydance (a standalone piece of software) and it was really good for tracking and tagging everything across multiple bank accounts (including some in foreign currencies), credit card and share accounts. I used it for a year or two and it was quite useful/enlightening - but around the time I changed laptops and reinstalled it, realised I had a good handle on my finances and haven't updated it for ages.

While Moneydance is good for seeing how much money you have and where it is and what it's being spent on, so you can plan, it doesn't feel like a dedicated 'budgeting' tool. Whereas something like YNAB or Everydollar or Goodbudget are clearly set up to manage your spending against targets or envelopes/buckets of money for particular purposes. Quite what you plan to use it for will drive what suits your needs best. These days I just use some spreadsheets to tie together the statement info from my own banks and my own plans. But then, I'm quite good with spreadsheets.

If you want something that's proper software rather than excel, but without the whizzy cloud stuff and phone apps etc, and you don't want to spend any money on it, you could try http://www.gnucash.org . Basically free personal / small business accounting software - which means there's a learning curve if you're not an accountant, but it would keep track of stuff properly and keeping it up to date will help to instill some financial discipline, which is generally the end goal of personal finance software. But if you just want to swipe to enter an amount into a pretty box on a smartphone app from time to time, you're not the target market.

N1AK

bobobski wrote: »

My thinking entirely. It's, what, £40 or so to buy it as a one off cost... But unless it's going to save me £40 fairly quickly the whole thing seems very anti MSE...

Depending on circumstances and the changes YNAB helped you make then £40 could be about as MSE as possible I don't use YNAB. I was already using different finance management software when I first heard of it.

If you can find a different, cheaper way of gaining and maintaining the financial control that you desire then clearly buying it would be inefficient; if you can't then if you think it could help then something that costs £40 wouldn't be a bad investment.

N1AK

bowlhead99 wrote: »

While Moneydance is good for seeing how much money you have and where it is and what it's being spent on, so you can plan, it doesn't feel like a dedicated 'budgeting' tool.

It isn't a 'dedicated' budgeting tool, but it includes dedicated budgeting functionality that works perfectly well. I love Moneydance though I tend not to recommend it as most people don't want (and even fewer need) to track all there transactions/accounts.

If you're looking to get a handle on spending then something more straightforward and focused would be a better bet.

cloud_dog

Unsure if YNAB has some 'qualities' you are particularly after Bobobski but why not just download the free Microsoft Money version(s), either 2005 UK or the last Sunset version.

There are some reports that the 2005 UK version requires a 'tweek' to run under Windows 10.