Mint v. YNAB: The Battle of the Best Budget Tool

[BuildingmyFIRE]

Hi everyone --

After an extended hiatus in which I lost my password and was too lazy to go figure it out -- I'm back!

Quick question on budgeting tools.  Which do you like better and why: Mint or YNAB (or budget tool #3).  Budget tool must be able to link with your accounts and must be usable by couples.  Full disclosure that I downloaded Mint and it had so many glitches just while trying to link it to my accounts I gave up.  I haven't downloaded YNAB yet because I read that it costs $5 per month, and I wanted to see if the cost was worth it. 

If there is another budget too that is just as good or better (bonus if its free or single purchase cost), please tell me.  I tried using Best Budget but it takes too much time to enter everything manually.

Thanks!

PS During my hiatus I paid off my student loans.  Yay!

[ToTheMoon]

PS During my hiatus I paid off my student loans.  Yay!

Nice work!

I have been a tried and true YNAB fan for years (since YNAB3.)  It *does* have a learning curve,  as it doesn't necessarily work the way you think it should, but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy.  The help section/videos are pretty decent and the forum members were extremely helpful & the friendliest people on the internet - not sure if this still holds true. . .

Now that we are years in and our finances are under control, I admit we use it more for tracking.  I don't mind the annual fee (I believe it's cheaper to pay annually rather than monthly) since it was literally the catalyst to our FIRE journey and I will continue to support it for years to come.

[Dr Kidstache]

YNAB.  Devotee for years (still use an old version though & manually enter my spending. Use Mint to get spending from credit cards/bank accounts to enter into YNAB).

[zygote]

I personally find YNAB more useful for budgeting and tracking spending, with the following caveats:

-The price has gone up and it's $7/month (billed annually at $84).
-Bank connectivity is an issue sometimes. It's due to the banks' security measures, not Mint or YNAB. I mean, I understand why the banks don't want third party companies accessing users' accounts. I try to enter everything manually as I spend, so if it takes a few days for the bank sync to go through it's not a big deal.

[frugalone]

YNAB has literally saved me thousands over the years by virtue of keeping me on top of my money.   YNAB all the way!

[Zikoris]

I haven't used YNAB because it costs money and seems like way too much trouble and ongoing effort. I've used Mint for about seven years, and it's been amazing. I love being able to layer graphs from previous time periods to compare. I've been thinking about simplifying my Mint even further by reducing to maybe five categories total (travel, housing, food, bills, other) and abandoning the subcategories, though we'll see.

[catccc]

I've been a YNAB user since late 2013, and I am definitely a fan.  I am using an old perpetual license and I really do not want an ongoing subscription based product.  I am hoping YNAB 4 continues to play nicely with iOS.  But I do want to look into using Mint as an alternative, in case YNAB 4 is no longer a viable option.

If anyone knows any resources on using mint to budget like one would in YNAB, I would be very interested.  I know Mint has a budgeting tool, but the little that I've seen of it just isn't what I'm expecting to see based on my YNAB experience.  Budgeting in Mint is one of those things I say I am going to figure out after I catch up on work, or after this vacation, or when this or that event passes... you know one of those things that is victim to perpetual procrastination due to lack of urgency.

Personal Capital, which I use for net worth tracking, also has a budgeting feature, but I really haven't gotten a chance to look into it.

[coffeefueled]

I've been a YNAB user for years starting back when I was still swimming in massive student loan debt and looking for every extra dollar. One of the great things about YNAB is that you can budget for specific long-term categories like yearly bills (insurance etc) or specific emergency funds like car repairs or pet vet stuff. It erased my money worries because I know I have money set aside specifically for issues that might come up along with being able to budget for monthly expenses. I'm now out of debt. YNAB really helped me see how MMM principles were working and where I could do better.

[nkt0]

Homemade spreadsheet FTW