Electronics
Budgeting websites
Introduction
We reviewed 4 Kiwi-made budgeting websites and came away impressed.
Budgeting's not much fun at the best of times, so we were looking for sites that were easy to use, set clear goals, identified whether you were on track - and were enjoyable to use.
Our volunteers looked at the following sites:
- sorted.org.nz
- cashcontrol.co.nz
- whostolemymoney.com
- pocketsmith.com
Each site tackles the issue of budgeting slightly differently and each reviewer had their favourite.
What we did
We requested volunteers to "test" budgeting websites - and the response of near-deafening-silence said it all. No one likes thinking about budgeting, even in these difficult times. It’s about as appealing as the dentist lecturing you about flossing. But our volunteers found the four locally developed sites surprisingly enjoyable.
We also discovered there were as many budgeting "types" as there were volunteers. Each website tackles the issue of budgeting slightly differently and each reviewer had their favourite. We'd recommend any of the four sites, depending on what sort of budgeter you are and how new you are to the game.
We were looking for online tools that:
- made it easy to set financial goals
- showed you clearly what you earn and spend now
- identified whether you were on track to achieve your financial goals – and how to get back on track if you weren’t.
The sites certainly did this. What we didn’t expect was how easy the sites were to use. In some cases they could be cleverly integrated with your online banking. They gave good analysis of what you’re doing now and you came away feeling encouraged.
Sally, one of our reviewers, said: “I feel much more positive about my finances after doing this exercise, yet I was expecting to feel the opposite.”
sorted.org.nz
Website: sorted.org.nz
What it does
Sorted is the Retirement Commission’s site and, unlike the other websites, it’s not a specialised budgeting-only space. So the budgeting tools can’t be personalised as much as those on the other websites – for example, the expense categories are pre-set.
Who it suits
Sorted is comprehensive and we believe it’s the best place to decide what financial goals you want to aim for. Kate, another of our reviewers, said: “This website is great to look at when you first start thinking about budgets and goals. It helps formulate your thinking about goals, prompts you to think of all your expenses with a very thorough series of budget sheets and gives you lots of ‘what if’ calculators to help you work out what you want to do.”
If you don’t want to spend anything on budgeting tools, we think Sorted will be fine.
Smart bit
Rather than relying on you manually loading what you spend, Sorted allows you to incorporate downloaded online bank statements. It’s an easy process and you don’t have any issues about the security of your online banking (see “What to avoid”).
However … few of our reviewers could find this feature. It’s buried as a “cashflow calculator”. By contrast the clever way whostolemymoney.com and pocketsmith.com handle online banking was one reason Kate said “at that point [detailing your expenditure] you probably want to move on to one of these other sites”.
Cost
Sorted is free.
cashcontrol.co.nz
Website: cashcontrol.co.nz
What it does
Cash Control has practical and intuitive ways of looking at your expenses, breaking them down into “weekly” expenses and big-ticket items. The process of recording your income and setting future spending amounts is easy. And the budget relates to you – because you decide what income and spending categories to use.
Throughout the year you manually load what you spend on big-ticket expenses and the website has useful summary tools that warn when you’re straying too far from your spending and savings plan.
Who it suits
We think this is a great website if you’re new to budgeting. It would really suit teenagers getting their first job or people who’ve never tried budgeting – and also people who have struggled and failed with budgets.
Smart bit
What everybody liked was the way it went beyond just giving you information. It provided a practical plan for achieving your goals. For example, it recommends you take out cash to pay for regular expenses and pay for big items with automatic payments through a separate account. You’re told when and how to do this – and you get email prompts to remind you what you should be doing. There are also follow-up emails to see how you’re getting on.
Cost
Cash Control costs a dollar a week (including regular email contact with a budget coach).
whostolemymoney.com
Website: whostolemymoney.com
What it does
This is a dedicated budgeting website. You define your spending categories, download your past transaction data, tag it with your expense categories and compare what you actually spent with what you planned to do. The data analysis is processed quickly.
Who it suits
Who Stole My Money was popular with our reviewers. Nigel said it was the website he was most likely to use – it seemed suited to people who mainly used bank cards and online banking rather than cash.
Smart bit
The illustrated analysis of your spending is easy to understand and you can see when your spending is going off track. One reviewer reported the interactive online help was “fantastic”.
The only difficulty seemed to be incorporating more than one financial goal within the budget. Kate got around this by setting up expense categories for each of her goals (having first used Sorted to work out what she needed to put aside). Scott solved it by using the site’s interactive online help to find an answer.
Cost
The site has a significant amount of free content. It charges $49.95 a year for full access.
pocketsmith.com
Website: pocketsmith.com
What it does
PocketSmith was in pre-release stage when we reviewed it. Some of the features had not been finalised at the time of our review, although we liked what we saw. PocketSmith is similar to Who Stole My Money – but it differs from it and the other websites in that it’s based on a simple calendar and has a focus on forecasting.
You can look at a summary of your planned and actual spending over any period and analyse it in different ways. Sally said she found the layout and graphics encouraging. Kate loved the calendar and the ability to set multiple goals.
Who it suits
Some reviewers found this website tricky at first – but the more experienced and finance-geeky budgeters were enthusiastic. Several reviewers thought it was the website most able to double as a small business tool.
Smart bit
The calendar is extremely smart. Loading your planned spending and income into the calendar is easy; downloads of bank statements feed into the calendar as well. You’re told what day you’ll achieve your goals and you can easily see how this is affected by different spending plans.
However … this appears to be the only website where the data you load in (for example, what you spent on groceries rather than personal data) may be aggregated in a non-personally identifiable way with data from other users and supplied to third parties such as advertisers or research companies. The company doesn’t currently do this, but the privacy policy gives it the right to do so. If anonymous data aggregation bothers you, ask about the privacy policy before you commit to any online budget website.
Cost
The company told us that while access to the full version would be under $10 a month, there would always be a free cut-down version.
What to avoid
We limited our review to websites that didn’t require your online banking logins and passwords. If you give out these details, you break the terms of your contract with your bank and will have no comeback if you’re later a victim of online banking fraud.
There are plenty of innocent-looking online budgeting websites that require you to give login details. Two popular websites in the US – www.mint.com and www.justthrive.com – look great, are free, and give you online access to accounts at several New Zealand banks. For example, justthrive.com lists ANZ, ASB and Westpac as banks whose accounts they can load and analyse for you.
When we spoke to these banks they confirmed what we expected – they have no association with these websites and advise their customers to avoid using them.
Report by Susan Guthrie.