http://www.mikefanelli.com/2008/11/envelope-budget-system/ Run Your Life Like a Business Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:15:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.mikefanelli.com/2008/11/envelope-budget-system/comment-page-1/#comment-73 Kiplinger’s Six Best Budgeting Sites : Mike Fanelli Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:59:26 +0000 http://www.mikefanelli.com/?p=99#comment-73 [...] All of these will be useful tools, but don’t get overwhelmed.  The key is to read each website and determine which is best for you.  I think the sites mentioned above are primarily free.  You can also try out pay sites/software such as Quicken, etc.  Once you read through each site and determine which fits your style best (and which you will use most frequently) pick one and stick to it.  Usually it takes months before you can master a budget and/or personal spending/saving plan.  Make sure you stick to it and see what works and what doesn’t.  Many people derive complex budgeting and saving techniques only to find that after two months they stop doing it because of its complexity.  Remember, keep it simple.  I have found mint.com to be helpful, but really I like making a budget monthly and at the end of each month downloading my bank account into Excel, sort and segregate between accounts, and compare budget to actual.  This doesn’t take much time, but is effective.  If you don’t feel that you are tracking your budget well enough, you may want to consider analyzing a budget to actual on a weekly basis or utilizing the envelope budget system. [...] [...] All of these will be useful tools, but don’t get overwhelmed.  The key is to read each website and determine which is best for you.  I think the sites mentioned above are primarily free.  You can also try out pay sites/software such as Quicken, etc.  Once you read through each site and determine which fits your style best (and which you will use most frequently) pick one and stick to it.  Usually it takes months before you can master a budget and/or personal spending/saving plan.  Make sure you stick to it and see what works and what doesn’t.  Many people derive complex budgeting and saving techniques only to find that after two months they stop doing it because of its complexity.  Remember, keep it simple.  I have found mint.com to be helpful, but really I like making a budget monthly and at the end of each month downloading my bank account into Excel, sort and segregate between accounts, and compare budget to actual.  This doesn’t take much time, but is effective.  If you don’t feel that you are tracking your budget well enough, you may want to consider analyzing a budget to actual on a weekly basis or utilizing the envelope budget system. [...]

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