Author Topic: Every Dollar  (Read 7497 times)

skinnyindy

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Every Dollar
« on: April 19, 2015, 12:26:48 PM »
Dave Ramsey has been bragging about how great his new budgeting system is.  I've briefly looked at it and am not impressed.  Does anyone here actively use it (it is free)?  And why does he claim that banks charge him a fee for sending banking info so he has to charge you if you upgrade to a higher level system that allows downloads of bank info?  I've never had to pay for that with YNAB and Quicken.  I understand making back your money but that is weird to me.  I feel like he doesn't always give the complete information about investing and now this. I listen to him on the radio because I don't know of any other person to listen to.  Any suggestions?

jengod

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Re: Every Dollar
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2015, 01:38:18 PM »
We are using it this month. Working very well so far.

We've never had a budget before, so we are seeing general benefits that you wouldn't get if you already did a proper budget, but the accountability to each other and the machine has already significantly decreased our irresponsible spending. Restaurants, for example, is coming in waaaay under budget, because we cook out of our pantry instead.

We also get a kick out of adding windfalls to the income section.

I do like how they sorted items into tiers and then report those categories in a pie chart. We wish we could rearrange the tiers so, say, medical appeared above lifestyle, but that's a minor complaint. There's also a slight toggling bug where it's hard to get our cursors to "let" us access the detail popup for any given budget line item, but it's otherwise very user-friendly.

The iPhone apps works very well for adding transactions on the go. We are not paying for Plus, and I think we'll keep it that way. We prefer to make the effort to enter them ourselves so we stay conscious of spending, and also so that transactions post on actual day of purchase, not when some bank machine finally posts the transaction after the weekend or whatever.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2015, 01:41:11 PM by jengod »

ChrisEE

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Re: Every Dollar
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2015, 02:32:09 PM »
If you're looking for something better to listen to I did this review of some podcasts which I have found very helpful. 

http://eatthefinancialelephant.com/how-to-earn-a-masters-degree-in-financial-independence/

If you are still in debt, I think that Ramsey is impressive for his ability to motivate people to get rid of it as quickly as possible.  Once you take control and do that, I think there are much better sources of info as his investing advice is downright lousy IMHO. 

Hope these help you.

EE


jsternitzky

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Re: Every Dollar
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2015, 03:38:57 PM »
And why does he claim that banks charge him a fee for sending banking info so he has to charge you if you upgrade to a higher level system that allows downloads of bank info?  I've never had to pay for that with YNAB and Quicken.

I used a little. I really do believe he has to pay for the banking service to transfer transaction but surely it is not $100/yr per person. That is astronomical. Mint does the same exact thing and if you can stand the dumb ads it is a money saver.

The everydollar app is one of the easiest budget apps. Almost as easy as taking a piece of paper and doing a written budget....

When Dave says that this program has been in development for years and has cost close to 3 million I think that is a little far fetched. Unless his developers needed to learn programming along the way.

someone with a moderate understanding of excel can make a product just  like that and you don't have to give your info to the Ramsey group for promotion purposes.

skinnyindy

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Re: Every Dollar
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2015, 06:39:22 PM »
Okay, I guess I understand the appeal.  People who haven't been using a budget would find it useful but I have used YNAB for a long time so find that better.  I got a little negative about Every Dollar because he kept making little remarks about how his was so much better then YNAB and other software but as I said before, the bank doesn't charge me or YNAB (as far as I know) to send the info to my budget.  But he is a good business man so he wants to make money somewhere.  Good luck to all those using Every Dollar, learn to budget the money so it doesn't slip through your fingers!  We don't have any debt except our mortgage so I am going beyond Dave Ramsey to get better planning and investment advice too.

Thank you for the podcast advice!  I love listening to podcasts I just didn't know where to find more! 

MrsPete

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Re: Every Dollar
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2015, 06:11:36 AM »
Dave Ramsey has a good system, a good product -- but, like all products, it's not right for every consumer.  His product is aimed at people who have been using NO budget.  It's for people who've always "flown by the seat of their pants", spent as they pleased at the moment, not really realized that organization and goal setting can reap positive financial rewards.  He helps those first-time budgeters analyze their spending and create categories.  He suggests tools and constructs for those who have had none in the past. 

His product doesn't appeal to most people on this board because most of us figured out all his "basics" on our own, but it doesn't mean it isn't right for a whole lot of other people.  These things come more easily to some of us than to others. 

DrJD

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Re: Every Dollar
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2015, 03:53:08 AM »
Okay, I guess I understand the appeal.  People who haven't been using a budget would find it useful but I have used YNAB for a long time so find that better.  I got a little negative about Every Dollar because he kept making little remarks about how his was so much better then YNAB and other software but as I said before, the bank doesn't charge me or YNAB (as far as I know) to send the info to my budget.  But he is a good business man so he wants to make money somewhere.  Good luck to all those using Every Dollar, learn to budget the money so it doesn't slip through your fingers!  We don't have any debt except our mortgage so I am going beyond Dave Ramsey to get better planning and investment advice too.

Thank you for the podcast advice!  I love listening to podcasts I just didn't know where to find more!

Just to clarify, there is no option to have bank account information "sent" to your budget in YNAB.  It is possible for you to manually download the information from your bank and then import it, but that is different.  So, I have no idea what banks charge for that service, but I guarantee its not $9.99 a month!

Alno

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Re: Every Dollar
« Reply #7 on: November 04, 2016, 04:03:51 AM »
I have no opinion on Everydollar but YNAB is not a free service.

dess1313

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Re: Every Dollar
« Reply #8 on: November 04, 2016, 05:57:47 AM »
Okay, I guess I understand the appeal.  People who haven't been using a budget would find it useful but I have used YNAB for a long time so find that better.  I got a little negative about Every Dollar because he kept making little remarks about how his was so much better then YNAB and other software but as I said before, the bank doesn't charge me or YNAB (as far as I know) to send the info to my budget.  But he is a good business man so he wants to make money somewhere.  Good luck to all those using Every Dollar, learn to budget the money so it doesn't slip through your fingers!  We don't have any debt except our mortgage so I am going beyond Dave Ramsey to get better planning and investment advice too.

Thank you for the podcast advice!  I love listening to podcasts I just didn't know where to find more!

Just to clarify, there is no option to have bank account information "sent" to your budget in YNAB.  It is possible for you to manually download the information from your bank and then import it, but that is different.  So, I have no idea what banks charge for that service, but I guarantee its not $9.99 a month!


actually in new YNAB you can import your banking information for many banks in canada and the usa.  i tell it the bank, and the details and it will check every time i log in for new transaction.  you can also choose to manually do transactions if you want.  I really like it.  used to do excel sheets but the small things were getting out of control.  They have a free one month trial, and its $5 a month afterwards.  its definitely worth it.  There is a discount if you do a year sign up its $50 instead of 60

Proud Foot

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Re: Every Dollar
« Reply #9 on: November 04, 2016, 08:39:12 AM »
Dave Ramsey has been bragging about how great his new budgeting system is.  I've briefly looked at it and am not impressed.  Does anyone here actively use it (it is free)?  And why does he claim that banks charge him a fee for sending banking info so he has to charge you if you upgrade to a higher level system that allows downloads of bank info?  I've never had to pay for that with YNAB and Quicken.

I have never used YNAB so I don't know about it, but Quicken is not free.  When you purchase it the price includes the cost to be able to connect your bank accounts to download the information.  This is also why they stop supporting and require you to upgrade to keep the connection after a certain number of years.

As far as Every Dollar, I looked at it but I have been satisfied with using Quicken and did not see anything with EveryDollar that I thought was better.

catccc

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Re: Every Dollar
« Reply #10 on: November 04, 2016, 09:47:01 AM »
I'm a classic ynab user and very happy with it.  New ynab, like others have mentioned, does do direct import.  But I kind of like that classic ynab doesn't...

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!