Money Management Tools

Sometime in 2007, I went looking for some money management tools. I’ve been using a spreadsheet to track my networth as well as other investments. Since I was sort of a passive investor in 2007, without much changes in transactions, I found using Open Office Calc sufficient for my needs most of the time. Open Office Calc is the equivalent to MS Excel. It is free open source software that you can download as an Office replacement suite. More and more people are using Open Source software as the quality gets better and as a way to reduce cost.

I’ve been wanting to use a better personal finance software to track my cashflow and networth for sometime. Having looked at several options including online money management tools, I decided to give Money Manager Ex a shot. I can’t remember how I stumbled across it. Having looked at the reviews I decided to give it a try.

After installing Money Manager Ex, it took me about 35 minutes to get the hang of using the software. That includes putting in some actual financial data and hunting for my multiple bank accounts and credit card statements. The software allows you to do

• maintain checking, credit card, savings, stock investment accounts
• budgeting
• track fixed assets with depreciation or appreciation
• reminders for recurring bills and deposits
• one click reporting
• cash flow forecasting
• graphs, pie charts.

When I first entered data into MME, I was quite surprised at the amount of money I have in separate accounts. I’ve always thought the amount is not significant due to the fact I use credit cards a lot. So there is always money I need to allocate to pay them off when the due date arrives.

The software allows you to set repeating transactions. One nifty feature if you invest in stocks in certain countries like the US, you can even set the where the stock prices are updated automatically.

Having used this software for a few weeks, I still haven’t use all its features yet. But I really recommend anyone who wants to get out of debt, those aiming for financial freedom to use a proper personal finance software. Such software to a certain extent forces you to make the necessary updates, at least once a week or bi weekly in order that your finances tallies up.

Using a spreadsheet, I was not that diligent to update it regularly. Give it a shot.

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