Buckets

Finding the perfect financial planner or personal budgeting app may turn out to be a far more challenging task than one might think, especially if you take into account the sheer number of such apps out there as well as their inherited complexity.

If you're currently in the market for a friendly, no-nonsense financial planner, then you should definitely give Buckets a chance to prove its worth, as it sports an almost-close-to-perfect balance between features and user-accessibility.

Getting started with this Electron-based utility only requires a small portion of your time and attention thanks to its straightforward installer.

Once launched, you are greeted by a reasonably straightforward, non-impressive GUI with a typical menu bar on the upper part of the main window and side panel on the left.

To get things rolling, start off by adding one or multiple accounts and click the "more" button (the button with the three dots on it) to set the specific balance. Alternatively, you can also import data from OFX and QFX files and, even simpler, directly from your bank. However, it's worth noting that this last method only works if your bank supports the SimpleFIN service.

Follow through by setting up your buckets which are basically categories that help you count your money. Add all your financial goals and expenses and categorize them into groups. You can add new buckets manually or use the super-useful bucket template. It's worth noting that there are five types of bucket types: plain old bucket, recurring expenses, and three goal-based buckets (Save X by Y date, Save X by depositing Z/mo, and Save Z/mo until the Y Date).

As expected, once you entered the data, the app automatically calculates all the required expenses according to the type of chosen bucket. If you're wondering what's the Rain section about, then do note that it's a clear representation of the amount of money you have in real life that hasn't been yet categorized.

To conclude, Buckets is an interesting, cross-platform app that's aimed at both Windows and Mac day-to-day users who are looking for an efficient and hassle-free solution for managing their financial situation. It provides a set of easy to use tools, packaged within a convenient GUI.

In case you prefer a visual-based learning method, you can check out the official tutorials on the app's YouTube channel. A set of official tutorials can be found on the app's YouTube channel.