budgeting
Latest
Kickstarter wants projects to be more transparent about their budget
Crowdfunding is great in theory, but many projects fail to meet their fundraising goals, end up asking for more money or fall apart entirely. In an attempt to help creators avoid those fates, Kickstarter is launching a new tool called Project Budget.
Fudget uncomplicates money management
Fudget, currently free in the App Store and available for both the iPhone and the iPad running iOS 7.0 or later, is built for simplicity. This isn't an app that's loaded with features. It's streamlined and focused on taking the complications out of managing your money. To be blunt, I thought I would hate this app. I need visuals like charts and graphs showing me how and where I'm spending my money –- or I thought I needed them. After only a few minutes of playing around with Fudget, I started to question how much value there is in those charts. To me, Fudget's less-is-more approach is a Zen-like take on managing your money. You start off by creating an individual "fudget" (budget). There's no limit as to how many fudgets you can make or what you use them for. Creating monthly or weekly fudgets is the obvious choice, and daily budgets can help you tighten your wallet even further. There are no pre-populated expenses or expense categories. Everything is entirely up to you. If you have more important things to spend your money on than paying your bills, no problem. Swipe to the left to delete or star an entry. Starred entries will recur on all subsequent fudgets. This is important if you're tracking monthly budgets. Where Fudget really shines is that it lets you get creative with how you track your money. Make the most of the app by budgeting for specific tasks. Manage your money for a vacation or business trip. Allocate a fudget for business lunches or dinners. Keep track of back to school expenses or Christmas shopping. If you are like me and you're really into Halloween, it's probably a good idea to create a fudget for that too. I may have given away my top secret Halloween costume, but at least you can see that, despite its limited features, the uses for this app are endless. It's a bit weird to say that Fudget takes the stress out of managing your money, but that's exactly what it does. It doesn't yell at you when you spend too much money on movie tickets and it doesn't monitor your spending patterns in fancy charts and graphs. It's not that those charts don't have their place, but if you already know how to be responsible with your money on a general basis, you probably don't need them. However, if you do require a more robust budget app, try something like Pocket Expense. In a sea of complicated personal finance apps, Fudget's no-fuss approach to money management is a welcome change.
The Daily Grind: Counting the accounts
With the global economy in rough shape, many people are looking towards their MMO accounts as a method of trimming back a little money every month. Even those of us here at Massively have had to cut back, with most of us only carrying a handful of accounts now as opposed to carrying a plethora. There again, we know we're by no means the exception so far as being MMO crazy and carrying multiple accounts. The question for this morning though, is just how many accounts is everyone still paying for, month after month? To that end, we've created the shiny new poll below to see where the Massively readers fall. Lot of accounts open? None? Somewhere in-between? If you have an answer that isn't listed, feel free to chime in! %Poll-28774%
Financial site Mint.com releases iPhone app
I've been using Mint.com (not to be confused with Shawn Inman's great Mint web stats tracker) to track my financial information for a while now. It's very nice -- completely free, and hooks right into your bank accounts, investments, or other financial accounts online (securely, of course -- they've got over 7,500 institutions in the system) to let you know what you're spending, when, and where. I'm lazy when it comes to budgets, but Mint will automatically make budgets for you based on what you spent the month before, so I can see if my groceries, bus fare, or, ahem, iPhone app budgets go over one month.And now they're released an iPhone app, so you can have access to all of that information on the go. It's pretty much a portable Mint -- you've got all of your usual account information, alerts are pushed off onto their own screen, so you can see at a glance where you're overspending, and you can flip through and see your expenses for the month, where your cash is going, and any budgets you've programmed into Mint. The app is quick and easy to use -- like Mint.com, but in the palm of your hand. It's free and on the App Store right now (though of course you have to set yourself up on their website first).One security issue: the app wisely recommends that if you don't have a passcode on your phone already, you put one on it, since your financial information will be available to anyone using your phone. The Mint.com folks also tell us that you can disable iPhone app access from their website, so even if you do lose your phone, you can keep unwanted users from reaching your information. But as with everything, there's a tradeoff of convenience and security -- while it's helpful to have this information anywhere you are, the flip side is that it's that much more likely to fall into the wrong hands.
Cha-Ching update brings fixes, 1.0 by April
Cha-Ching, Midnight Apps' handy Quicken-killer that takes the pain out of managing your money, has received a minor update to v0.5.2. While the notable changes like UI improvements, bug fixes and confirmation dialogs when deleting items aren't much to write home about, the third change from the emailed press release is what has me excited: "upgraded database in preparation for version 1.0." I spoke with Juan Alvarez, lead developer of Cha-Ching, about an ETA for 1.0, and it's apparently slated to land before the end of April with some rocking new features and changes. Cha-Ching itself has received a major overhaul in preparation for the big 1.0, so stay tuned for more details and some pre-release screenshots as soon as we can publish them.
