Free Personal Finance Software

Free and online

Money management and personal finance is vastly improved with the use of specialized software. The advantage of online free personal finance software is that you do not need to go out and buy it. By being online, most up-to-date version is always available at the website for your use. Moreover, storage space is offered for free to keep your financial statements accessible from anywhere. For most people a major concern is ensuring complete control over the flow of their hard earned money. Free online personal finance softwares helps track this flow, where the money is being used and whether it can be saved.

Some options

There are several free personal finance software available for use at the moment: Cashbox 0.50 for Mac, Ace Money Lite 3.17, PearBudget Free Spreadsheet, GnuCash, Buddi 3.0, PL Cash 2.1, Financial Fate Personal Financial Planning Software, ClearCheckbook, Mint and MySpendingPlan. We review a few of them at our article for general personal finance software.

Software security

What is one important factor to consider in looking at free personal finance software? In our opinion it is the question of security. Almost all of the listed products claim to use strong encryption and most do not require you to enter a bank account number. Instead a special member number is used for identifying the user. However the main security risk is if you use a public computer and you forget to logout of the online software, a malicious user can steal your details. The best software should log people out automatically after a set time period. Ask the company whether they provide this feature.

Other features

The other features you should also look for include but are not limited to the following: bill tracking, payment/balance, account management (saving, credit card and deposit), the sale or purchase of stocks or mutual funds, e-mail alerts for due bills etc. Keep constantly vigilant for hidden charges, although a lot of them are driven by advertising financial products. Some of the free personal finance software providers even ask for an optional donation. As you learn how to use the programs, consider the speed of the server and level of user-friendliness of the interface. A few questions you should ask: is there online tech support support or a help desk. Additionally, are there downloads needed for using the program on your computer. Is the site compatible with your computer and preferred operating system? There are a lot of issues to consider when looking for free personal finance software.

Other considerations

Worth considering is how your information displayed to you? Some present the data and information in familiar spreadsheets, whereas others in side-by-side displays. Unfortunately, some also require you to download additional plug-ins to view information clearly. Also consider whether the free personal finance software allows you to set saving goals. These goals can assist you in planning for the future and your budgets. All these issues are valid points of contention before settling into the learning curve of the free personal finance software.