I have read all the hype and after being seriously frustrated by other finance packages, I decided to try mint.com. I should start by admitting that I am lazy with my finances and it costs me dearly. It is difficult to keep up with the way I spend because I choose to remain in the dark because it is easier than admitting you don’t have enough money to do something you want to do. This is a horrid way to live and at odd times in my life, I have had extreme control over my finances and that led to easy living. Wanting to get my hands back around my finances had me trying Excel and Quicken.
All the financial software packages out there have one major flaw: You have to enter everything you spend and you have to match it to your bank and credit card statements. Anything incorrectly entered will cost you in time to go back through all your transactions looking for the spot where you screwed up. It is something that requires daily attention and with most people using debit cards instead of checks, you may have way more small transactions that you would have used cash for before. Quicken will download from all your financial institutions, but you are still left with reconciliation issues every time you download.
Enter Mint.com. Mint is different in that it does not ask you to reconcile anything. It downloads all your transactions from all your financial institutions and credit cards and displays them to you in one convenient place. This has the great effect of putting you in a position to see all your accounts and more importantly, every penny you spend in one location. Mint basically aggregates the data from all your financial institutions and creates a nice one stop shop for budgeting and net worth.
I have been using Mint for a short time now and I think it is the future for me. The best part is if I don’t login to check my accounts while I am traveling, Mint works in the background keeping track of every penny. I can be lazy about managing my finances and simultaneously keep track of my budget and where every penny is going (including money spent on my credit cards). Each time you login, Mint is up to date with the latest transactions in all your accounts.
Mint is free but advertiser supported. I have noticed they are often pushing credit cards and other items related to personal finance within the screens I am using for my personal stuff. If they offered a paid version without advertisements I think I would go that way. For now, I am happy to put up with advertising to get such a neat service.
