I’m looking for a good app for iPad that will allow me to make budgets and keep a better track of my finances in an easy and fun way.
I have been using the Danish app Spiir for some time. It integrates with my bank in Denmark, but I don’t really find it useful, so I’m ready for alternatives.
Any suggestions? 
You Need a Budget. It takes a bit to learn but worth it!
I’ve been using Mint. I am not a huge fan of it.
YNAB — Agreed! It took awhile for me to get the hang of it, too. Their customer support is superb; it took me 2 months to get it down - they extended my subscription by that month too. Philosophy is to only spend what you have. By spend, it’s a fluid term in that every dollar has a “job.” That job could be an expense or a savings.
Nick True on Youtube does weekly videos and they continue to be really helpful. That’s who I learned most from & by listening to YNAB podcasts. I did best by starting at the beginning.
YNAB site offers free courses too that you get to see how it works in live action!
Type finance into search to see past discussions.
It really depends on how much detail you want to track. YNAB is great, but it’s web based now. Good if you want a lot of download from banks and investment accounts. If you would like no subscription, data on your devices only, consider Finances 2. I use it on Mac and iOS. Developer is responsive for help an explanations.
YNAB or Banktivity seem like the proper choices if they do indeed offer support for Danish banks.
There is also a Danish app called Spiir, which have support for Danish banks, but they don’t have an iPad app…
Also, I’m not totally convinced of a finance app like YNAB that charges a lot of money in subscription. That sort of defeats the purpose…
YNAB…no questions asked. It is more than just a budgeting app…it is a budgeting SYSTEM that once learned (not difficult) and applied to your family’s finances will change the way you mange your money forever!
I wish I would have found this much earlier in my life!
The company’s (extremely true) tagline is, “You’ve never budgeted like this!”
YNAB’s fee is actually very low! $50/year is just over $4/month. And using their system I have saved several THOUSAND dollars over a few years. It is absolutely worth every penny and then some!
I find it interesting that several user reviews as well as even some financial experts find that it takes some time to learn to use YNAB.
It must really depend on how a person thinks. I found it to be very intuitive and the workflow immediately was perfectly clear to me, but I know this isn’t the case for everyone.
Regardless of an individual’s personal experience, I believe this application and the underlying methodology of budget management are so well designed that it is worth ANY amount of effort it may take a person to learn it.
I am not exaggerating at all by saying that YNAB has changed my financial life for the better more than I ever imagined possible!
I now have no debt and don’t even care what interest rates my credit cards have - I NEVER pay even one cent in interest any more. I carry very comfortable balances in both my checking and savings accounts and am able to build my emergency savings and retirements accounts, as well as saving for a home, all within the context of the financial plan I have created within my budget. I just do my best to follow the plan and keep deviations to a minimum and the rest seems to happen almost effortlessly.
YNAB is the most flexible budget system I have ever tried…and that flexibility is the key to allowing me to be very successful using it.
I can not recommend this application highly enough! I’m not a person who writes many reviews or recommends products to others, but this one has had such a profound impact on my life that I feel compelled to share my experience with others!
I’m glad you like it! It’s definitely helping us get a handle on things, too! I guess one of the harder things for me to work with was the multiple savings accounts, but maybe having money in each categorized the same.
I think YNAB got a lot easier when I consolidated down to just one checking and one savings account (where before I had multiple savings accounts for different purposes). Once I got that taken care of, the rest has been pretty easy! I love the convenience of inputting transactions from the road, too!
In my experience, every personal finance program I have ever used is more complicated as you add more accounts to it.
Keeping track of the appropriate transfers between accounts can get complicated when a lot of accounts are involved.
Right now I am finding it more complex than I wish it were to keep all five of our credit card accounts accurate. Since I have opted for manual data entry (it helps me be more focused on what is actually being spent), I have to be careful when I am entering data from my receipts to make sure I have entered in the proper register. This is an easy area to make a mistake, however it is generally pretty easy to find when reconciling my statements.
But when you have to actually transfer money between Checking A and Savings C or Savings B and Savings D, etc things can really get messed up if you don’t use the proper accounts.
Then to add to that confusion, in YMAB you need to follow those dollars around in your budget as well. For example, if Savings C is a new car fund and Savings B is an emergency fund, you need to repurpose those dollars in the budget after making the account transfer.
I find it a lot easier to just use one savings account and assign my savings dollars their individual jobs in the budget rather than trying to keep track of a bunch of different account. The exception is if I want to put some of my savings account dollars in a CD. However, even then the jobs are still in the budget. I only have the additional CD account(s) for a better interest rate on longer term funds such as a new home fund.
My approach is to not worry about what account the money’s in; I only pay attention to the budget line. As long as I know how much is in the line, I don’t really care where the money lives. (I do, of course, make sure there’s enough in checking to cover immediate expenses!)
But I’ll admit my financial life isn’t terribly complicated.
Personally, I do the same - other than credit cards where we have four accounts that we use regularly and one additional card that is only used as needed for veterinary expenses (generally, once a year).
Otherwise we have one checking and one savings. When my balance eventually becomes a bit too high in savings, we will probably put some of the cash in a CD.
But none of our accounts are dedicated to any particular job. That function is handled exclusively by the budget!
Jesse Meecham, the founder of YNAB, always says that an account is simply a “container” that holds your money but does not recommend using them to create separate jobs for your money,