MONEY: USE MINT
Get MINT.
I can’t recall who introduced me to this website (I think it was VT), but I can’t thank them enough.
Mint.com is a FREE money management website service that makes staying on top of your expenses, credit cards, bank account, and all assets fast and easy. Automatic updates, phone message alerts, bill payment reminders, email notifications and weekly email account updates, all for FREE and it’s incredibly easy to set up and use.
It is SAFE. The site does not store your account numbers, and even if someone managed to get your passwords, they would simply see all the money you owe, they would not see your account numbers. No money moves through the site. (Does anyone want my VISA balance? Don’t rob me, I’m not rich enough.)
Mint.com has been named the best online personal finance tool by Money Magazine, PC Magazine, and is PC World’s Editor’s Choice…In five minutes or less, you’ll see where you’re spending your money, understand how your investments are performing, and set up realistic budgets. Set up email and SMS alerts and you’ll be automatically updated whenever there’s an important change in your finances. Only Mint.com finds you personalized ways to save money, using patent-pending software which analyzes your current spending. The typical Mint.com user finds $1,000 in savings in their first visit.
Set up your budget and see where your money goes with easy to follow graphs. You can also compare your spending to that of other people in your area, or nationwide. You can tag expenses by category, and Mint will automatically list them and account them for you. You can download Excel spreadsheets of all general expenses or by category, and this will make your year-end accounting a breeze.
Since I got MINT there hasn’t been a day I haven’t used it. I love being able to see EVERY SINGLE financial asset and debit and bill due date listed on one page. No shuffling different accounts, no pesky stacks of paper. And every day my balances and expenditures are automatically updated. Every bank or credit card purchase listed and tagged by category. I’ve yet to see MINT make a mistake. If something isn’t categorized, no worries. I just hit a button, and it’s tagged and properly listed, and I can program MINT to tag every purchase from a particular vendor via that category, or as a one-time listing.
MINT also has a handy blog with lots of useful info.
Remember, this service is 100% FREE. There’s no catch.
Try it.
c
April 7th, 2009 at 10:58 am
I don’t remember if I introduced you to Mint or not… hrm. Perhaps I need more coffee in order to remember.
The iPhone-using crowd should also download and install Mint’s companion application, so you can have the wonderfulness of live updating when you’re not at your computer. I use it to tell just how far I am over or under budget when I see a new shiny thing I just have to have.
It is indeed teh awesomeness, and I can’t recommend it enough.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:43 am
When I first heard about it, I thought it must be some kind of scam. I spent a good deal of time doing some research first, and decided to give it a go. Now I don’t know what I would do without it. It is awesome! After about a month, I was emailing everyone I knew urging them to use it.
And I have spent a not inconsiderable amount of dough buying accounting software I could never seem to get to work, so I never used it. Mint is easier to use than any program I have paid for.
April 7th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
BTW, simplest thing for me to do with cash transactions: I just download the Excell spreadsheet every month and write in my cash transactions at the bottom. Easiest way to stay on top of them, since MINT can’t. Since I have very few cash transactions, it’s not a problem to just add them in myself.
And for newbies: It can take a few minutes for transactions to upload. It may look like the system isn’t working. If you make changes to tags, or your budget doesn’t update with the new info immediately, just sign out and come back in one minute. Your transactions will be there. I thought I was doing something wrong when I changed tags for some purchases and they didn’t show up in my budget graph.