Ep. 91 - Personal and Business Money Management Software

Are you looking for the best way to manage your money?  Rob has experimented with (6) different money management programs over the years and shares his experiences with all of them and what he is currently using to manage his business and personal finances.

He also dives into the subject of actually *needing* to account for busienss expenditures in the first place and contemplates what he might do if forced to do it all over again...

Why this topic?

My current 30-Day Goal - (1) Pomodoro Quicken each day

So...spoiler alert:  I use Quicken

Specifically Quicken Home, Business & Rental Property version on PC

This version is not available on a mac

Ties into my whole computing system that is a significant factor in my life as well

In the past I've used and/or experimented 

• Quicken
• Mint
• You Need a Budget (YNAB)
• Quickbooks (both Online and the installed desktop client)
• Freshbooks
• Xero

Why I returned to Quicken

• Functionality (especially PC version)
• Ease of recording / reporting (for taxes)
• Same program for both business AND personal
• Also the same program my father uses (but different version)

Should YOU have a separate business account?

I can't tell you that...

...but I can tell you why I have a separate business account..

Chasing other people's dreams

That's what they were doing

Recovered website has all these services I never did, just dreamed of and looked good

So...regarding business

Start doing business

Make money if that's your goal

Do something...

...and only incorporate or form an LLC if you have to

Otherwise you're just creating unnecessary work for yourself

There's no real need or cost benefit unless you've actually got some income to show for it

(in my humble opinion, and this is not financial advice)

If I was starting over, I'd not do anything with regard to an LLC unless I needed to.

Cash only with a simple paper ledger should be good enough to start

I've actually resorted to paper for what I'm doing 

Need to refine my business and start making money

I operate at a loss

Unsustainable

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This is Rob Kaiser and Thank you.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

Are you looking for the best way to manage your money? Well, I've experimented with six different money management programs over the years. And on this chilly morning, I'm gonna share with you what I use to manage my business and personal finances. And I'll also share some thoughts with you on whether or not you may actually need to account for business expenditures in the first place. A little cart before the horse, or vice versa, in my own experience. Well, actually no. Exactly that. So let's get right into it on this 91st episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. This is a show focused on building the lives of our dreams. My name is Rob Kaiser and I am your host on this Thursday, February 4th, 2021. Yeah, it's a crisp nine degrees, but it's also beautiful out because it's about sunrise right now. We've got a clear morning, very beautiful sunrise, snow on the ground, snapped a couple pictures. I will share them in the telegram group, and for some incentive to join and see the beautiful sunset here at York Meadow Farm, go to your internet browser to t.me slash all around growth and join us on Telegram. Or if you've got the Telegram Messenger app on your phone, search the groups for All Around Growth. Alright, so today's Joe topic is personal and business money management software. Okay, and what we are going to do, give me one second. Okay, so why this topic? Well, my current 30-day goal is to spend one Pomodoro each day working within Quicken. And because my best focused time is in the mornings, I've been trying to do that in the mornings. And well, so spoiler alert, I use Quicken, specifically Quicken home business and rental property. And that version is only available on PC, not Mac at this time. And the decision to use this particular software ties into a whole complex computing system and a deliberate living system, if you will, that is integrated and fits well with my entire life. So in the past, I have used Quicken Mint You Need a Budget, QuickBooks, both the online and the installed desktop client version, which are which are different from one another. I have also used Fresh Books. And I have tinkered around with and experimented with a program called Zero XE R O. And so let's get into why I returned to Quicken. And in a nutshell, all right, let's turn this down. Let's hit the road, shall we? Now, in a nutshell, I returned to Quicken because of its functionality, especially on a PC. The ease of recording and reporting, you know, recording transactions and reporting of said transactions, especially when it comes to tax time. Uh the fact that I can use the same program for personal as well as business transactions. And you may or may not be interested in doing that, but it works for me, and I have some reasons why, and I I will touch on some of those reasons why I no longer separate like I once did. And that will also tie into some brief dialogue about why you may or may not actually need to actually go through all the processes of having a business in the first place. Um and and but more on that later. So the last thing that that helped me make this decision is that this is the same program that my father uses. And we are all getting older in life, and there may come a time where I am going to need to look into or help manage uh the books, you know, with his finances and the farm and things like that. So, you know, we'll see what the future has in store, but that is not the ultimate deciding factor for me, but it was a contributing factor, and I've already got experience with the program from the past and had been using it on a Mac, anyways, but decided the ultimate um turning point for me was the fact that the version that I wanted to use was not available on the Mac for some reason. So, anyways, um here's I guess like let me touch on some of my experiences with those other programs. Um, I began using Quicken many, many years ago, way back in the day, and I never really did it consistently. I've never used any of these programs consistently up until recently, okay? And let me see if I can friends, it's cold. Something's rattling around back here. Sorry for the background noise. Um but Mint is an online program that I believe Quicken or Intuit the Parent Company bought several years ago. It's largely an online program, I believe. And it's you know, it works, it it integrates really well with a lot of online banking. And if you do that and are largely using um a credit card, it is it is a very good program to use. And I think what I'm gonna need to do is check the cap of my truck, make sure that all the fittings and everything is seated properly. Sometimes they loosen up, and you know what would be bad, my friends, if I was driving along and poof, there goes the cap. I mean, I joke, but I I'm I'm sure that's a thing somewhere. Florida man, maybe. I don't know. Um anyways, I'm not even entirely sure that's outside the truck. It may be inside. I was spooling around in here the other day. Uh again, bear with me. My apologies for the unfiltered and unedited podcast. It is what it is. Now, in addition to mint, I've also used you need a budget, and that was at the time I used it, a program that you installed on your computer or PC or Mac, sorry. And it was nice enough, but again, like I just had bad financial behaviors, and I'll touch more on that in a second. Now I've used QuickBooks both online and the installed desktop client. I use QuickBooks uh at work, the the wholesale and manufacturing edition, and then we have the other software program that I helped write and create that is a third-party software program that integrates with that, so that Quick and then basically becomes a backdoor program and we inter that interfaces with the program that we use on a daily basis. And uh QuickBooks is a very um you know capable program, it's uh widely used by a number of companies and historically has been for many years. Now I've also dabbled with fresh books a little bit, which is a nice QuickBooks alternative, kind of hip, kind of cool, online based. I again that was something I experimented with, and due to inconsistencies with my own the basically the inconsistencies with the management of my life, I stopped using it much like Xero. So I know people that are using both FreshBooks and Zero. I'm there are a number of reviews on all of them. I didn't link to any of them in the show notes because I simply I didn't want to, this isn't a review of these programs necessarily. I'm simply sharing my own experience with them like I do with most of the show. It's me talking about my own experiences with regard to personal growth and development focused on seven categories that I set goals on routinely, and those all of this consists of and comprises something that we refer to as all around growth. So I think whatever program you use, it's the behavior that is behind it. You know, Dave Ramsey says in Financial Peace University that what we do and and the success that we have is largely based on 80% behavior and 20% head knowledge. Our problems with money and our debt stems from behavior patterns that get us stuck in this routine where we don't know anything other than the current reality that we're in, and in a sense, we've been programmed or conditioned to believe that we must accept the current reality for what it is, but but there are options, and the this isn't just a decision on you know what software to choose to run your business or manage your life, your personal finances rather. It's it's it's more that it's more what are you gonna do to manage your life? You know, software is just one component of the actual behavior change that's taking place, and you know, that kind of segues into should you have a separate business account and should you be doing all these things separately? I I don't know. I mean, I can't I can't I can't answer that question for you, but if I had to, I can only explain why I have a separate business account. And the long and short of it is I formed this account, my my my business account, I formed the LLC six years ago, and the driving factors be at that time where that's what people were doing, that's what that guy did. You know, he was using QuickBooks QuickBooks Online, so I was using, so I used QuickBooks Online, I was paying for a subscription. I was, you know, we paid a lot of money to have a website built, logo developed, and all the shit, right? That's what it was. Shit. You know, I just recovered the website actually because I burned out and let that go dormant. Luckily, I was able to recover the domain name, and now I'm able to tie it all back together with some with some people and uh that have been so gracious enough to help me, but you know, regarding business, if if if it you know what's your goal? Is it making money, developing and establishing connections and networking within the community? A combination of both. Well, with regard to business, just start doing business. I mean, you know, do what you have to do to achieve your goal. And if it's making money, then start making money, you know, and then form an LLC because you may start doing something and decide that that's not what you want to do. And if you're gonna spend some money and you know, like do all this shit, I mean, that's my that's just my opinion. And and none of this is financial advice. I don't really see any cost benefit or or any gain that that you could have in tax savings and stuff if you're not really generating income. I mean, there are, but it you can only operate at a loss for so long before everything you're doing is you know kind of called into question for the basically taking advantage of the system. Now we want to take advantage of the system, but only within the confines of the system, and one of the ways to do that is to run a business, and that means running a business, not doing what I did, which was chasing other people's dreams, and and just you know, not being true to myself, and most of all, I think that it can all be done without debt, and as far as business principles are concerned, my default is Dave Ramsey's entree leadership, which I am in the process of reading, and thus far, until I find something superior to that, the way in which I will be operating a business will be largely structured around those principles, much like how I am living life, is beginning to be structured around the principles of Financial Peace University. So, there you go. Start doing business with a simple paper ledger. I think that's good enough to start with cash. Uh, I've gone back to my business ventures, tracking them in a simple legal pad, and also spending cash and not going too overboard about what I'm doing and how until summertime when I actually start moving product or at least doing some market research to determine if there is a market for the delicious kombucha that I make. I sure hope so, but I don't know. Um this will be, you know, just another attempt at some kind of venture within York Meadow Farm because I tried the market farming and I failed at that attempt with that venture in the manner in which I was doing it. That's okay. It wasn't for me at that time. But it's not to say that we aren't market farming now on the property. We are.