Personal Finance and excel or any other software

[brett701]

I'm new to the forum. Thanks for your help in advance.

I am out of college and i am engaged. My fiance and i both have college loans. She has a job that pays 44k a year and i will have a job that pays 44k(not necessarily a salary, but 22 an hour which is about 44k a year. Also i don't have benefits).

I am trying to get everything straightened out and organize for the future so that i have a clear plan of where i want to go and how long it will take me. If i want to be successful i can't have my finances disorganized.

I don't know how much i have out in loans. somewhere from 12k-30k. Please excuse my ignorance, but my dad signed me up for loans when i was early in college and i was very immature. I am now just immature. thats an improvement.

Anyways. We are getting engaged in the summer and i was trying to plan a few things. I was trying to create a budget. My intentions are to figure out where i stand financially so that i can eventually purchase a franchise.

First i must purchase a house or find a place to live. I am currently living in my parents house with my fiance, but would like to purchase a home.


I was wanting to get this all going in excel, but i can't figure out how to start. I am pretty good at excel in doing formulas and stuff like that. Id like to get this setup with the proper software so that i can minimize work in the future and i don't have to transfer data. By this i mean should i be using quicken or quickbooks or microsoft money or something like that. I was hoping i could be directed or given some advice on how to get going and do this properly for the 2 of us. Thanks immensely for your help.

 

[Ronika]

First of all you probably want to figure out how much you have in loans, your monthly payments, interest etc. You will need to identify the financial institutions and/or government department and call them up/email them and ask them for the most recent statements.
Given the variety of financial software out there, it is probably easier to keep track of your finances and budgets using these as they help you with the setup process.
Quicken is good as is Mint, which will also integrate with your bank accounts etc. if you live in the US or Canada.
Hope this helps.

 

[brett701]

First of all you probably want to figure out how much you have in loans, your monthly payments, interest etc. You will need to identify the financial institutions and/or government department and call them up/email them and ask them for the most recent statements.
Given the variety of financial software out there, it is probably easier to keep track of your finances and budgets using these as they help you with the setup process.
Quicken is good as is Mint, which will also integrate with your bank accounts etc. if you live in the US or Canada.
Hope this helps.

I've been working on this stuff a bit and i have my bank account automated into quicken(just bought it) and i'm working on putting the loans in properly.

Hey thanks so much for the response. i am planning on purchasing a home or a duplex and rent out the other half. I would strongly like to get an FHA loan so that i dont have to put a large down payment. it doesnt make much sense to me to rent bc/ i feel like money is going down the drain.

We both are debt free in terms of credit cards. we bot hhave student loans.

She has 28,000 in loans at 6% and 3000 @5%.

i have 3500 at 6.8% , 2750 @4.5% , [email protected]% , 1562 @6.8% and 11741 at 2.875%

She has a car payment of 200 a month and i have my car paid off.

She makes 43k a year and i will be making 44-66k a year.

It seems as if its the common thing for people to worry about purchasing the home together before they are married, but weve been dating for over 8 years and living together for most of them. Because of that id like to purchase the home before we are married so that we can have everything situated. I've made her wait long enough for nice stuff . I have health insurance for 200 a month and when we get married i will join hers.

id like to get an FHA loan for a home. We both have about 8k in cash in our banks, but do not want to spend it on a down payment for a home and prefer to keep it in bank just in case. By the time we are ready to purchase a home we will both have more money. Marriage date is aug 20 just to let u know the timeframe.

Thanks again.