RetireJapan

I've been using Money Tree as an expense tracking app for a while now and I've been pretty satisfied with it. It has an English interface and it connects to all my Japanese bank accounts etc. I can also input work expenses and it reminds me when my credit cards are going to be paid. The problem is that I can't connect it to bank accounts and investments in my home country (Australia). Also, it doesn't have any budgeting capacity, it just records incoming and out going money. Can anyone recommend a better app?

I've been happily using Moneyforward for a while now, it connects to most of my Japanese stuff, but nothing abroad. I don't think there's going to be a service that links to both Japanese and abroad accounts. I handle my abroad expenses as a manual cash wallet.

I wonder if Money Tree is better than Moneyforward? I feel lazy to move at this point though, can only complain about the fact that it doesn't sync with my PayPay...

Never used this kind of app, but now I'm curious.
Since the app connects to your bank account(s), is there any possibility that the app could be hacked and someone gain access to your bank accounts?

I enter all my transactions manually, but I'm weird.

I use YNAB 4, which is great and only stores the data locally, or in Dropbox for sync between devices - but unfortunately isn't sold any more. The current version is subscription and cloud-based, so I can't recommend it.

A Spreadheet

Collect all receipts of everything you buy and enter manually
Cross reference with Credit Card Bill, and enter manually
Enter any Bank Direct Debits and Standing Orders
Put a Classifier next to each item

Food
Eating Out
Clothes
Utilities
Rent / Mortgage
Appliances
School
Kids
Necessities
Discretionary
Transport
Car - Maybe Sub Categories - Gas, Insurance - Parking

etc.. Adjust to your requirements, the more granular the more revealing... and the more useful for analysis in the future

Then you can filter and sum by category

You might find some nice Excel Budget Templates on the Internet.

https://www.google.com/search?q=excel+p ... e&ie=UTF-8

Tkydon wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 11:36 pm A Spreadheet

Me too, but not religiously. I would say 80% is on 2-3 credit cards, and then 10% direct bank withdrawal. The 5-10% cash isn't significant enough.

I have checked ongoing expenses every 6 months or so, but nothing really changes, so I feel there is little need to put much effort into it. Chase has some nice sorting options, but since I use both J and US cards it isn't that useful.

Excel has some nice budgeting templates if you have the recent version.

I started a spreadsheet many years ago, then switched to Gnucash from 2017:

https://gnucash.org/

It might look daunting, but here is a very good video covering the basics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqAaScYVeRQ

Gnucash supports multi currencies, too.

I use Money Tree for getting an overview of my accounts (Japanese Brokers, Ideco, Nisa etc). For my day to day budget i use Excel since I graduated from University - 17 years ago. Thanks to it, I think I have a pretty good habbit on how to kepp my finances under control and achieve saving targets. If I only would have invested at all/better during the 17 years...

I'm also using Excel, and I think doing it manually process helps me internalize the numbers mentally as well. Two simple spreadsheets (one for expense tracking, one for investments tracking) is all you need, and if you need a spiffy/colourful pie chart, Excel can do that too.

As for the apps, I've seen people spend eons deciding which app to use, link up several accounts only to realize that one or two are unlinkable, and then sort of peter out from using it after a few months because it's ultimately not comprehensive. Excel is just faster and easier.
Not to mention the security risks, but that's a seperate issue.

Gnucash looks great. Thanks for the tip!