Recommend a software tool for personal expense budgeting and investment tracking

[WhenIsItTime]

Thanks for all replies. I have worked in Actg/Finance my entire career so competent in Excel, but was hoping for a solution with consolidation, trending and reporting capability built in.

I'm in a good financial position and still working so don't operate by a budget now, but do look carefully at expenses annually. Nearing RE, looking forward to filling the work void in my life partially by tracking my own finances to ensure I behave in the early years.

Please keep the suggestions and perspectives coming!

[explanade]

I use Bankivity, only available for Mac, to do investment tracking. It lets you download and import OFX and QFX files manually without any subscription.

Also have a Google Sheets spreadsheet with heavy use of the GoogleFinance function, which pulls all kinds of live price data.

Then a simple spreadsheet to track spending, with as many different categories as I want. No budget per se, the spending totals show where my budget is during the year.

[tmm99]

I used this spreadsheet (downloaded) years ago, and I modified it to suit my needs later on and I still use the spreadsheet in a modified form. I make a pivot table of the irregular expenses to see where I am at on the spending by category throughout the year. I also use Mint (I have all my accounts linked there) to verify my spendings by month and by year and my NW. I use Personal Capital to look at the performance of my stocks at Fidelity.

https://pearbudget.com/PearBudget.xls

I also have an expsense tracker app (Spending Tracker 2.7.4) on my iPhone and enter all my variable spendings (grocery, living expenses, eating out, entertainment, etc) there every day or every few days (tallied by week) and add the numbers into my spreadsheet every few weeks.

This sounds like a lot, but I developed this system several years ago and it's been working fine. My budget for my variable spendings are by week, and that (by week) seems to work best for me.

[tmm99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmm99 I used this spreadsheet (downloaded) years ago, and I modified it to suit my needs later on and I still use the spreadsheet in a modified form. I make a pivot table of the irregular expenses to see where I am at on the spending by category throughout the year. I also use Mint (I have all my accounts linked there) to verify my spendings by month and by year and my NW. I use Personal Capital to look at the performance of my stocks at Fidelity. https://pearbudget.com/PearBudget.xls I also have an expsense tracker app (Spending Tracker 2.7.4) on my iPhone and enter all my variable spendings (grocery, living expenses, eating out, entertainment, etc) there every day or every few days (tallied by week) and add the numbers into my spreadsheet every few weeks. This sounds like a lot, but I developed this system several years ago and it's been working fine. My budget for my variable spendings are by week, and that (by week) seems to work best for me.

And oh, I forgot to say... I used the template here to list up all my stock holdings (US and Canada both) and dividends, etc. Very nifty.
https://www.tawcan.com/step-step-gui...olio-template/

[DisneyDreamer]

I like Personal Capital for portfolio tracking (ignore all of their sales calls and online pitches) and Mint for budgets and cash flow.

[albireo13]

I want analyze my expenses, not create a budget. I have several budget spreadsheets I've made.
I've just downloaded the entire years 2018 transactions from our checking account. This is where the money flows through. It's a big xml file. I want to go through it, assign categories and see where all the money went.

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by albireo13 I want analyze my expenses, not create a budget. I have several budget spreadsheets I've made. I've just downloaded the entire years 2018 transactions from our checking account. This is where the money flows through. It's a big xml file. I want to go through it, assign categories and see where all the money went.

We do similar, in Excel. The data download is in Excel (CSV) format. XML is another format, and any spreadsheet program can use the data. You'll need to add your category somewhere in the downloaded table. Then you can filter/analyze as much as you wish.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by albireo13 Hi, I am new at excel and would love to see an example of your expense spreadsheets. Any good examples out there? I've put together a basic budget but, now want to analyze our spending over 2018. I just downloaded the data from our bank, BoA.

FWIW, these are the categories that I use:

		Monthly					Annual
		Required	Essential	Optional	Total		Required	Essential	Optional	Total
Housing	Mortgage
Housing	Home Insurance
Housing	Property Taxes
Housing	Propane
Housing	Firewood
Housing	Electricity
Housing	Snowplowing
Housing	Maintenance and repairs
Household	Food and groceries
Household	Gardening
Household	Spending money
Household	Clothing
Household	Gifts
Household	Donations
Transportation	Maintenance and repairs
Transportation	License fees
Transportation	Gasoline
Transportation	Car insurance
Transportation	Boat insurance
Transportation	Jet-ski insurance
Transportation	Snowmobile insurance
Personal and Health Care	Doctors
Personal and Health Care	Dentists
Personal and Health Care	Prescription Drugs
Communications	Telephone
Communications	Mobile Phone
Communications	Television
Communications	Internet
Personal Insurance	Long Term Care Insurance
Personal Insurance	Health Insurance
Personal Insurance	Health Insurance Subsidy
Personal Insurance	Dental Insurance
Personal Insurance	Umbrella Insurance
Recreation and entertainment	Travel
Recreation and entertainment	Sewing
Recreation and entertainment	Skiing
Recreation and entertainment	Snowmobiling
Recreation and entertainment	Golfing
Recreation and entertainment	Hockey
Recreation and entertainment	Movies
Recreation and entertainment	Dining Out
Miscellaneous	Miscellaneous
Total		-	-	-	-		-	-	-	-
Total excluding mortgage		-	-	-	-		-	-	-	-

[albireo13]

Yes, the download is a CSV file. I sucked it into Excel and converted it into XMLS actually.

[WhenIsItTime]

Thanks for the two spreadsheet templates tmm99.

[WhenIsItTime]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 We do similar, in Excel. The data download is in Excel (CSV) format. XML is another format, and any spreadsheet program can use the data. You'll need to add your category somewhere in the downloaded table. Then you can filter/analyze as much as you wish.

I do this today on an annual basis today. Thanks for sharing your approach.

[WhenIsItTime]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski FWIW, these are the categories that I use:     Monthly         Annual           Required Essential Optional Total   Required Essential     Recreation and entertainment Travel                   Recreation and entertainment Sewing                   Recreation and entertainment Skiing                   Recreation and entertainment Snowmobiling                   Recreation and entertainment Golfing                   Recreation and entertainment Hockey                   Recreation and entertainment Movies                   Recreation and entertainment Dining Out

I really like these categories!!