The YNAB Debt Snowball Software

The Debt Snowball is Dave Ramsey’s preferred method for working out of debt. If you are interested in finding out more about the Debt Snowball you can check out another post I wrote about snowballing your way out of debt.

If you already know all about the Debt Snowball and are just looking for a tool to help you then I think I have found a good one…

YNAB budgeting software

YNAB is a simple budgeting software program that is a good tool for helping establish a budget.

But it is extra beneficial for people doing the Debt Snowball, because included with the purchase of the budgeting software is Debt Snowball software. You can drop in all of your debts and it will take care of the rest – showing you which ones to pay next, how much to pay, and how long until you are debt free!!

Other YNAB features

I am starting to like YNAB more and more, because every time I go back to their site they are offering more features with the software. They are now also including (with any software purchase):

A Mortgage Analyzer which shows you how much faster you’ll pay off your house under different scenarios.
A Retirement Planner which helps to guide you in making investment decisions that will help you meet your personal goals. It does “what-if” scenarios from multiple angles, evaluate different investment options, and helps you make an educated decision on how much and where you should be investing for retirement.
An Income Tax Forecaster which estimates your taxes, including capital gains (both short and long-term), self-employment tax, exemption/child credit/itemized deduction phaseouts, and more.

My personal opinion of YNAB

If you are good with Excel, you could probably create your own budgeting tool in Excel that would help you manage your budget. That said, YNAB is a good alternative to doing that if you can afford to spend $19.

It is a simple software program that helps people manage their budgets. It is not nearly as sophisticated as Microsoft Money or Quicken. It focuses on what it does best: managing a budget. Quicken and Money have more bells and whistles, but don’t help organize budgets as well as YNAB.

So, that said here is my suggestion…

If you don’t want to spend any money:

Use Excel or if you don’t have it, use Google Docs and build a budgeting spreadsheet yourself.

If you can afford $20-$40 and are looking simple budgeting and Debt Snowball software:

I would go with YNAB and use their included Debt Snowball Software.

If you can afford $50-$70 and are looking for a thorough and more detailed view of your financial situation:

I would use Microsoft Moneyor Quicken. From my experience, they both have about all the same features and are normally priced in the same ballpark.