Kakeibo, compared honestly

We make a kakeibo app, so treat the following with the appropriate suspicion and then read it anyway: two of the alternatives below are better than kakeibo at specific jobs, and both pages say which.

Ledger against ratioKakeibo vs the 50/30/20 ruleA practice with a monthly review against a fixed allocation you can adopt in thirty seconds. Includes a calculator that runs both on one income, and an honest verdict about when the rule is the better answer.Four methodsKakeibo vs YNAB, envelopes and cash stuffingSoftware that plans forward, physical cash that enforces limits, the social media version of both, and a 1904 ledger that teaches you your own spending. Where each one genuinely wins.

How we compare things here

Every method on these pages works for somebody, and none of them creates money. So the comparisons are written around a single question: which problem do you have. Not knowing where the money goes is a different problem from being ambushed by irregular bills, and it wants a different tool.

Where an alternative is genuinely better at something, we say so on the page rather than in a footnote. A comparison that concludes our own subject wins every category is an advertisement, and it is also useless to the person reading it.

If you would rather skip the reading and start with numbers, there are 6 calculators on one page, including the side by side allocator that runs kakeibo and 50/30/20 on the same income. The method itself is in what is kakeibo.

Whichever method you land on, the entries decide it

Kakeibo is the one that makes you write the month down and read it back. If that is the part you have been missing, the app is built around it.

Get the Kakeibo app freeiPhone and iPad · Free tier, no account needed

The Kakeibo app home screen showing net worth, accounts and the month's progress