
I've followed the growth of his business over the past decade, and have enjoyed spending time with him at various PF gatherings (including the first-ever chautauqua in Ecuador). “I was taking a spreadsheet course at the time,” he told me in a 2014 interview, “and I thought spreadsheets seemed like a great way to build a budget.” From those humble beginnings, YNAB grew into the robust software that exists today. He was worried about making ends meet, so he decided to create a budget. He was about to be married but still had three years of school left. YNAB) started as a simple spreadsheet that Jesse Mecham built while he was still in college. I'll cover the other three options later this week. Today I'm going to review my experience with You Need a Budget. Rather than try every available app, I elected to take a look at four that seemed like good fits for me: Quicken, You Need a Budget, Personal Capital, and Mint.

Lately, however, there's been a boom in personal-finance tools. In the olden days, there weren't many options. As I prepare to track my spending in 2017, I have to decide which tool to use.
