Personal Money Management Tools
There are lots of tools available to help with your personal money management, wipe out debt, and create budgets. Most of them are useless and a waste of time and money. We need very few tools. What we really need is motivation and staying power. We can’t pay off debt with a software program, except in the broadest sense—the software can help us with the actual bill paying process, make our debt snowball calculations, and give us reports on our progress, but the software can’t make us set aside the money we need to pay those bills, work the extra hours we need to work to bring in extra money, or stop us from spending every last penny we make on frivolous goods and services that add little to our lives.
My philosophy regarding the tools of personal money management is simple. I do suggest and recommend that you use a computerized checkbook and make a budget with a spreadsheet program, because errors in math can sink you when you’re living close to the edge. Other than that, it’s all just a matter of what you want to do, and most of that a case of choosing the tools that help you enjoy and thrive on the entire process of getting out of debt, living at or below your means, and becoming financially sound.
