Online Money Management

In today's tech-savvy environment, there are more options than ever for online money management.

For quite a few years now we've been able to access bank accounts and pay bills online. We can check our credit card accounts, mortgage balances, make payments, and even apply for all kinds of credit. So why not do personal budgeting and track spending online as well?

It's not for everyone; your personal budgeting style has a lot to do with which online system you like best, or whether you even decide it's an option you want to explore.

As we've discussed elsewhere on Home Budget Help.com, you may prefer to stick to paper and pencil and use manual envelope budgeting to keep your spending under control.

You may be perfectly happy with your Quicken program or homemade Excel spreadsheets.

But, if you're like a lot of folks and manage your finances on the internet, you now have several great options for managing your budget online.

Some of the benefits of managing your money online are:

• Manage your money from any computer, at any time
• Download and track transactions from your accounts automatically
• Service tracks your budget for you
• E-mail, text, cell phone and Twitter alerts are usually available

Below are some of the more popular online money management services.

Please note that some of these online money management sites are free; some are not.

Goodbudget Review

4.5 piggybanks

This is our personal choice when it comes to managing our personal budgeting. We use the website and the app (iPhone). We think it combines the best of both worlds: envelope budgeting, and online money management. We love computers and we're tech savvy, so it really fits our style.

And best of all...it's free (2 devices, 10 regular envelopes, 10 more envelopes, 1 account, 1 year of history)!

If you want more advanced features, such as account tracking, extra envelopes and checkbook balancing for up to 5 devies, you'll have to pay a small fee ($45 per year or $5 per month). I recommend starting out with the free version and then upgrading if you need more.

(I manage my consulting business accounts using desktop Quicken Deluxe.)

Goodbudget offers real-time management of virtual "envelopes". Your envelopes are "filled" each payday, with cash allocated to each. As you spend money (transactions from your checking, savings, investment and credit card accounts), your envelopes are "emptied". Of course you can make transfers to other envelopes. **NEW**--Goodbudget has just introduced savings goals. For now, it's only available via the website, but I expect it'll soon reach the app.

goodbudget.com

mvelopes.com

mint.com

pearbudget.com

neoBudget.com