Use the first and only real budget software on the planet
There's nothing more comforting than knowing you have a comprehensive, easy to maintain plan for how you will be using your money
I’ve been using A Real Budget for just about 5 years. Before A Real Budget, I spent over 15 years managing spreadsheets, notebooks, and many other methods to organize my finances. A Real Budget changed everything.
It provides three key benefits:
Organization: I can manage my income, bills, and all other personal financial tasks with a single tool. I always know exactly where my finances stand.
Forward Looking Forecast: I always have a view of my next 12 months of finances. I can see if I’ll be saving or burning money each month which helps me make better decisions.
What If Scenarios: It’s easy to consider various decisions. Can we afford to go on a vacation next summer? What’s the impact of buying a new car?
I’d recommend A Real Budget to anyone who is serious about taking control of their finances. It’s a system that has worked for me for 5 years and I can’t imagine a world where I don’t have it to manage my family’s finances.
Describe the when and how much of your current household finances. A Real Budget uses your descriptions to build and then continuously maintain your twelve month budget for you.
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All types of incomes can be included in your budget.
- Paycheck amounts that do not vary, or vary slightly (watch video)
- Paychecks that are based on hours worked (watch video)
- Unpredictable amounts and frequency (watch video)
With a budget that consolidates all of your household finances into a twice monthly spending plan, you are not concerned with when paydays happen.
Controlling spending is the key to successful budgeting. Failure to control spending is the primary reason people get into trouble with their household finances.
You control spending by giving yourself a weekly allowance. You always have money in your pocket for day-to-day spending because you are never more than six days from having more cash to spend regardless of when paydays happen. (watch video)
A Real Budget schedules all of your bill payments for you. You pay your bills twice a month using the automatic checklist that organizes your payments into:
- Automatic payments
- Payments either made online (bill pay service) or with a credit card
- Manual payments such as by check
All types of bills can be included in your budget. For example:
- Monthly payments that are always the same (watch video)
- Monthly payments that vary slightly (watch video)
- Monthly payments that vary periodically (watch video)
- Yearly payments are always the same (watch video)
- Payments are unpredictable (watch video)
A Real Budget offers a 4-step method you can use to stay on top of your credit cards to:
- Avoid paying interest
- Identify and dispute fraudulent charges
- Always know how your charging activity is affecting your finances
- Simplify the reconciling of credit card statements
Automate your sinking funds to save up to buy something.
Use short-term savings to achieve your immediate goals:
- Emergency fund
- Periodic savings to pay large expenses that are predictable in both amount and frequency
- Ongoing savings to handle expected expenses for which the cost and frequency are unknown
Set aside money for long-term savings to reach a large future goal, like building wealth, as well as prepare for events, such as retirement.
Making ends meet with your 12-month budget is a matter of keeping your future net cash flow (income minus expenses) in the black. Should a future net cash flow be negative (red), you will have time to adjust your spending plan to keep it "in the black" before a future shortfall becomes today's problem.
Create custom payoff plans for:
- One debt using your choice of payment amount or number of payments
- Multiple debts using a debt snowball
- A credit card with a high balance using the automatic amortization feature
Play "what if?" to see the outcome of changes to your budget that you are considering before you commit. You can change your budget by making temporary "let's pretend" changes to anything.
With A Real Budget you manage the money that flows into and out of one checking account.
The checking account transaction register is maintained for you. The balancing of checking account statements is simplified to help you stay current on this monthly task.
A Real Budget has changed our lives for the better. We can now see exactly where our money is going at a glance and set funds aside every month without a complete lifestyle change.
We never had a manageable way to keep a handle on our finances and the impact of our choices. The picture that A Real Budget creates helps us to make well informed and objective decisions. Love it!
I really love the ability to forecast out to plan. Compared to what I was used to in terms of dwelling in the past of what was spent, I like the
future focus and
preplanning aspect of A Real Budget!
Having a complete picture of your household finances in one dynamic spreadsheet is amazing. You have a clear, year-long picture of where you are, where you're headed, and what's possible. That's the surefire cure for the anxiety, lack of sleep, wasted time and frustration that money can cause.
That's real financial peace of mind.
To find out, compare the awesome features of A Real Budget to the same-old ineffective, traditional, paycheck-by-paycheck budgeting offered by these alternatives.
