Introduction

[NOTE: This spreadsheet will NOT work with OpenOffice.]

[MAC USERS: This spreadsheet will NOT work with Numbers or Excel 2008 for Mac. It requires Excel 2004 for Mac.]

One of the most beneficial things I ever did for my finances was to embrace the concept of Freedom Accounts, as popularized by Mary Hunt.

It didn't take long for me to figure out that the Freedom Account concept is a tremendous idea. However, it absolutely begs for a spreadsheet to manage the numbers and subaccounts. To that end, being a Certified Computer Dork, I set about building one.

I came up with the Freedom Account spreadsheet you can find at my Excel page. It's free, fairly simple, and works okay ... if you don't mind 20+ page workbooks.

Really, though, I prefer my spreadsheets to be more compact. Let's face it — no one wants to click through sixteen pages of subaccounts. Plus, some automation is nice, too. The problem is that my knowledge of Excel's more esoteric functions, and of Visual Basic, are not so developed as to make this a reality.

Enter a gentleman — a New Yorker, as it turns out — who goes by the moniker of ExcelGeek.

As a fellow fan of Mary Hunt's and reader of Debtproof Living (formerly Cheapskate Monthly), ExcelGeek created his own Excel spreadsheet to handle his family's Freedom Account.

Big deal, you're thinking. Anybody can make a spreadsheet.

Yes. But not just anyone can make a spreadsheet like this:

With some 18 years of experience building spreadsheets professionally, ExcelGeek created a high-octane, Freedom-Account-tracking beast. A guy can learn a lot about spreadsheets in 18 years ... so you can only imagine how sweet his creation was. He shared it with family members and friends. Again and again, rave reviews poured in.

In July 2005, he stumbled upon It's Your Money. He emailed me, asking if I'd like to take his FA spreadsheet for a spin. He thought he had something worthwhile, and he wanted my opinion on it.

So I tried out his spreadsheet. And here's my opinion:

ExcelGeek's sleek and spiffy Freedom Account spreadsheet is everything I wished mine could be. It took about three seconds for me to dump my humongous, amateurish spreadsheet in favor of his much more compact and tricked-out version. The difference was enormous. I'm very happy that I made the switch!

Here's the story: I think this is a fantastic spreadsheet — probably the best I've ever seen, as far as accomplishing a specific task and doing it simply and intuitively. I really believe that my readers who use Excel to help them with their finances, and who are devoted to the Freedom Account concept, will find that this spreadsheet benefits them immediately.

Because ExcelGeek wished to offer his creation to the public, but wasn't terribly interested in building his own website to promote it, I agreed to offer his Freedom Account spreadsheet for sale via IYM and Paypal. The download is handled by E-junkie.

Disclosure: Cost of the spreadsheet is $11.95. From every purchase, $10 goes to ExcelGeek, and $1.95 (minus PayPal fees) goes to IYM.

If you're interested in more information about the spreadsheet, just head to the "FA Review Pages" box on the right, and read on!