Financial toolbox

In response to two recent posts about my brother starting his post-college life, I have received a handful of emails from other recent college grads in the same position. Many questions centered around how to set up a budget and track spending, but some wanted more detail on how we decided where to open IRAs, and one even asked how I "figured all this finance stuff out" (trial and error, young grasshopper, trial and error). I thought it would be helpful to post the tools that I use to manage our finances and make financial decisions, and it would be doubly useful if I could get others to post their favorites too. 1. MS Money 2003 - For years I've used this software to track our finances by transaction. It's been especially useful for tracking our 0% balance transfers and our brokerage accounts. This particular version of the software has many shortcomings, but I haven't been compelled to upgrade. I'm slowly replacing it with tool #2, Yodlee. I received an email from my credit union's customer service rep that says they are actively working with Yodlee to make their site security compatible... so I'm officially no longer using MS Money! 2. Yodlee MoneyCenter - a very useful, very free, online tool that can track transactions and net worth with a single click. It has bill notification, bill payment, and dozens of other tools and features that make it well worth it's $0 price tag (and then some). 3. FatWallet Finance forum - this forum has a wealth of information on all thing financial... from how to negotiate a car deal to dealing with creditors. There is a thread dedicated to newbies that will get you up to speed quickly. 4. Dinkytown - Financial calculators galore. 5. MS Excel - If you don't know how to set up your own amortization (and reverse amortization) schedule, I highly recommend learning how to do that before making your next big financial decision. You can find hundreds of templates on-line, but knowing how to do it yourself can help you customize them to find the exact information you need. Excel is also a very good budgeting tool, it's easy to use, flexible, and most people already have it. I would love for people to comment with their own favorite tools. If you are a blogger, feel free to post it on your blog, and then comment with the URL. I will add your link to this post.