Do you continue to procrastinate on putting a budget together because it just seems too daunting or boring? Or is it just taking up too much time? You know if you want to accumulate more wealth you need to pull the bills and bank statements out and start crunching numbers. Or you can use personal finance software that will download your bank and credit card activity and do all the work for you in a snap.

Mvelopes has been the leading online personal budgeting software program, but why are people still using it when there are free programs like Mint.com now available?

First let’s break down the difference between Mvelopes and all the other personal finance software. Mvelopes is for the most part a budgeting system. The gist of this program is it takes the old school budgeting approach of allocating your money to specific spending “envelopes” in order to be disciplined.

For example, you can have an envelope for your mortgage, car, food, and utilities. Then you allocate your money according to the envelopes before you spend it. That way you know ahead of time how much money you need to cover all of your expenses before you go on a spending spree and end up not having enough money to cover your bills at the end of the month.

In a nutshell that’s what Mvelopes does for you. Is an electronic organization and allocation of your money before you have a chance to spend it.

Other personal finance programs are much more robust and cover all aspects of your personal finances, where Mvelopes pretty much just helps you allocate your funds and will pay bills for you.

What are the Benefits of Mvelopes?

• Mvelopes does a good job of helping you allocate your money and build a budget better than any other personal finance software. The others are much better at analyzing what you have already spent.
• Helps you put extra money towards paying down your debts.
• Very easy to use, where I have found programs like Quicken to be a bit overwhelming with too many features and a higher learning curve.
• Automatically downloads your transactions from your bank and credit cards, so there’s no manual number crunching.
• You can set up automatic bill pay.
• Access anywhere since it is an online program.

The only disadvantage with Mvelopes is the service fee. Where other software programs charge are a one-time fee, up-front purchase, Mvelopes charges you a subscription fee to use their online service. They do claim, though, that they will find hidden expenses and help you save money so that the service fee will pay for itself.

Bottom line, if your goal is to pay down debt, Mvelopes is an easy to use system with a clean interface that can get you up and running in minutes. They do offer a 30-day trial, so give it a shot. Or go pick up some envelopes and start budgeting.

Millionaire Money Habit: Budgeting and managing your expenses is the first step in accumulating wealth. If you don’t have the time to set and manage a budget, or you have difficulty getting yourself to sit down and do the legwork, try a personal finance program like Mvelopes that will do the work for you.