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.

I embarked on an Internet search for a bag that would maybe have a pocket for the iPad (not a laptop sized pocket) and storage for my other stuff but in a size smaller than a typical laptop bag. Let me tell you there is no information on bags like this available today on the Internet. Even sites like bags.com require you to look at the pictures of the bag to figure out if it will do what you want.  After looking around and being completely unable to gage size, I decided to physically (GASP) go shopping old school style.

I ended up going to a Mori luggage store in person and searching for a bag that will work. I ended up on the Patagonia Daily Grind. This bag is about $70 which is half what most similar bags cost and it has space for everything I would bring on a short trip. It even has a nice flat pocket inside with a velcro closure that will nicely hold my iPad and keep it separate from the other items in my bag. I have a trip in 5 days and I will let you know how this bag works out and I will post some pics.  I have to say it looks like this is going to improve my comfort when travelling.  Just the lack of a heavy laptop will be a big improvement.