Don't live paycheck to paycheck
Enjoy your money
Enjoy your money
Each payday first pay bills then give each remaining dollar a job
Keep track of every penny spent to keep budget on track
For online budgets, connect to accounts to collect transactions
When getting started, you describe the when and how much of your current household finances. A Real Budget builds and then continuously maintains your twelve month budget for you.
Making ends meet with your new budget is a matter of keeping your future net cash flow (income minus expenses) in the black. Should a future net cash flow be negative (red), you will have time to adjust your 12-month spending plan to keep it "in the black."
All types of incomes can be included in your budget.
- Paycheck amounts that do not vary, or vary slightly (video)
- Paychecks that are based on hours worked (video)
- Unpredictable amounts and frequency (video)
With a budget that consolidates all of your household finances into a twice monthly schedule, you are not concerned with when paydays happen.
Controlling spending is the key to successful budgeting. Failure to control spending is the primary reason people get into trouble with their household finances.
With a weekly allowance your spending is controlled and you always have money in your pocket for day-to-day spending. You are never more than six days from having more cash to spend regardless of when paydays happen. (video)
All types of bills can be included in your budget. For example:
- Monthly payments that are always the same (video)
- Monthly payments that vary slightly (video)
- Monthly payments that vary periodically (video)
- Yearly payments are always the same (video)
- Payments are unpredictable (video)
A Real Budget schedules all of your bill payments for you. You pay your bills twice a month using the automatic checklist that organizes your payments into:
- Automatic payments
- Payments either made online (bill pay service) or with a credit card
- Manual payments such as by check
A Real Budget offers an easy 4-step method you can use to stay on top of your credit cards to:
- Avoid paying interest
- Identify and dispute fraudulent charges
- Always know how your charging activity is affecting your finances
- Simplify the reconciling of credit card statements
Automate your sinking funds to save up to buy something.
Use short-term savings to achieve your immediate goals:
- Emergency fund
- Periodic savings to pay large expenses that are predictable in both amount and frequency
- Ongoing savings to handle expected expenses for which the cost and frequency are unknown
Set aside money for long-term savings to reach a large future goal, like building wealth, as well as prepare for events, such as retirement.
Create custom payoff plans for:
- One debt using your choice of payment amount or number of payments
- Multiple debts using a debt snowball
- A credit card with a high balance using the automatic amortization feature
Play "what if?" to see the outcome of changes to your budget that you are considering before you commit.
You can change your budget by making temporary "let's pretend" changes to anything.
You manage the money that flows into and out of one checking account. The transaction register is maintained for you.
The balancing of checking account statements in A Real Budget is simplified to help you stay current on this monthly task.
I can't imagine a world where I don't have A Real Budget to manage my family's finances.
I really love the ability to forecast out to plan. Compared to what I was used to in terms of dwelling in the past of what was spent, I like the
future focus and
preplanning aspect of A Real Budget!
A Real Budget has changed our lives for the better. We can now see exactly where our money is going at a glance and set funds aside every month without a complete lifestyle change.
We never had a manageable way to keep a handle on our finances and the impact of our choices. The picture that A Real Budget creates helps us to make well informed and objective decisions. Love it!
- Displaying your Budget, especially when it's expanded to show the underlying detail, requires more screen real estate than is available on small devices.
- A Real Budget has no need to be online. The program does not use any account numbers or passwords. Nor does this software connect with any online, finance related resources. Your private information is not exposed in any way to the Internet.
- You spend very little time with this software. Carrying it with you is unnecessary.
Put A Real Budget on your laptop, tablet or desktop where there's plenty of room to appreciate the view.
Having a complete picture of your household finances in one dynamic spreadsheet is amazing. You have a clear, year-long picture of where you are, where you're headed, and what's possible. That's financial peace of mind.
The anxiety, lack of sleep or failed relationships that you blame on money won't go away or get better until you get started with taking charge of your household finances with A Real Budget.
