GMR 125: Which App Is The Best - YNAB, EveryDollar, or Mint?

Over the past few episodes we’ve reviewed the most popular budgeting apps to see how well they align with our 4 Foundational Principles of a budget. In this episode of GMR, we provide you with a side by side comparison of YNAB, EveryDollar, and Mint, and make our final recommendation as to which one is best at helping you budget.

Show Notes

THE 4 FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF A BUDGET

  • Assign Every Dollar

    • Zero Based Budget - Spend on Purpose

  • Arrange Every Expense

    • 7 to 9 Main Categories (housing)

    • Plus subcategories (rent, electricity, insurance, taxes)

  • Allocate It Evenly

    • Surplus & Deficits rollover 

    • Looks ahead - Future Forecasting

    • Annual view, not monthly.

  • Adjust As Necessary

    • Tracking expenses often to ensure success.


Side by Side Comparison

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FINAL COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

  • A budget is supposed to be something that serves you well. 

  • Not including Excel, which is something you can build and customize to your exact needs, the 3 we’ve covered all attempt to do this. However, none of them do everything we need to have in a budget, which is understandable.

  • Based on our criteria of the 4 Foundational Principles of a Budget, we would give YNAB the highest marks and recommendations because it is the best at meeting these 4 Principles if you ignore their 4 Rules.

    • It is also the easiest to use, and it gives you the most control over building and managing your budget.

    • It is a budgeting only software and helps you do that well with great features and enough detail to help you have a full view of your money and where it’s going.

  • Every Dollar - Good app with many good features, but lacks the detail necessary to make it a great app. 

    • You can do most things but it requires extra work to implement.

    • It does not include individual transaction registers for each account, which can be problematic if you miss a transaction or miss-assign one because it will be hard to find the error.

  • Mint - Not a budget app really. It’s a thrown-in option that is limiting and not customizable and difficult to use.


Resources

Episode 120 - The 4 Foundational Principles of a Budget
Episode 121 - Reviewing the Yearly Budget Tool
Episode 122 - YNAB
Episode 123 - Every Dollar
Episode 124 - Mint

BudgetingLeo SaboBudgeting, Budgeting Apps, Budgeting Software, Money Management, Budgeting Your MoneyComment