I wanted to start using a budgeting program to better organize my spending/ goals, and basically narrowed it down to 3 --YNAB, Actual and Quicken Simplifi.
I setup a self-hosted instance of Actual and was able to import my spending from my account by exporting from my bank and importing into the app, however this seemed like it might get tedious over time, so I decided to try YNAB.
So far this has been pretty straight forward. I’m still waiting for things to sync up with my linked accounts, but I like it so far. I would try Simplifi but there’s no trial period there; though the graphs and UI make it seem appealing.
Anyone here have any experience with Simplifi/ YNAB, and why might you chose one over the other?
I’ve previously used YNAB but all of these budgeting apps are fairly similar. I think YNAB does have two different ways to sync accounts vs some of the competitors where they use only one way to sync accounts which sometimes causes issues syncing or even with which accounts you can sync with.
Besides the above I would like to point out that YNAB runs a bit differently than a basic budgeting app. With YNAB you do have a budget but it forces you to assign every cent and then you have to do as planned (with flexibility of course) but I find others that they only provide a dashboard somewhat like an overview.
An example would be Mint. Had it for years, configured and it was synced with my accounts. I used this as a quick overview of how my accounts were looking vs an budgeting program to help get my finances sorted. Then I got YNAB and I’m not exactly sure why but paying off CCs and building a savings happened without having to force anything on my end.
Now you are you, I am myself. Give something a shot with honest effort. If you’re putting your best foot forward and getting help if you’re ever stuck or have a question, and it’s not working out in ~3 months, change it.
