What tools or software do you use?

[sjweyman]

I thought it would be useful for me and others to have a consolidated list of the better tools, software, and websites that people use as part of their personal finance management be it accounting, investing, mortgage, net worth, or anything else you can think of. Try to keep it to those tools that you find to be superiour or very useful in some way.

Please state specificly how and why you use the tool. If it is a website, please specify the specific tool(s) on that website you use and provide link(s). Please specify if the tool is free, free trial, subscription, or purchaseable. Please try to avoid listing things that others have already mentioned so the common ones like Google Finance that everyone knows about will be weeded out quickly.

I will try to make some sort of list here in the OP and update it now and then.

[AllWheelDrift]

MS Excel, for everything from a moderately complex spreadsheet for keeping track of the internal rate of return of my RRSP investments (using the XIRR function of the analysys toolpack) to quickly throwing some numbers into a new sheet to map out the month's expenses so I can figure out how much of a mortgage prepayment I can make when I get my paycheque.

[crackerjack]

It'll be interesting in what people say in answering your question..

I myself don't really use any tools. I'd like to share my way of managing my finances.

It's not really managing - but it works for me.

I receive all my bills electronically - through epost and various companies' websites.

When I receive a bill - I then go to my bank's web site and pay the bill from my chequing account (which always has an amount of $1,000). I then transfer the same amount of money as the bill from my savings account to chequing account (to maintain the $1,000 balance).

To see how much $$ I have - I simply add up my chequing and saving account balances and subtract the bills I have to pay.

I know there are more detailed ways of managing my money - but hey.. I don't want to know how much I've spend on gas, food, etc. All I would like to see is that the amount of money I have in my accounts get bigger.

Once I reach a certain threshold - I do a lump sum payment to my mortgage.

Cheers

[DanielCarrera]

* Google Finance to keep track of my stocks and now much they've gained/lost.

* GnuCash for personal accounting. I use it because it's free, it runs on various operating systems, and I am comfortable with the accounting equation. I don't like accounting software that tries to hide things or excessively separate assets+liabilities from income+expenses.

* A standard spreadsheet program for my budget, income statement and other calculations. I use OpenOffice Calc (http://openoffice.org) because it is free and cross-platform, but MS Excel would work just as well if you happen to run Microsoft Windows. My spreadsheet shows how much I spend per week and per month on each expense category, what percentage of my income I'm saving, etc. The spreadsheet tells me if each expense category is in budget or not, and how much extra or how much deficit I have.

[djino]

Like I've said in other threads on this topic.

ACEMONEY!!!

djino
"Cant go without it"

[duner]

+1 for any spreadsheet program

Personally, it's the free copy of mobile excel that came with my phone.

In one spreadsheet, I have All my accounts and all my outstanding balances, CC's, bills, mortgage, investments etc. I update the list daily based on online balances. With a quick look, I can get a complete picture of my financial situation. As long as you're handy with formulas, it's amazing what you can do with it.