Pocketsmith Review and Giveaway

By Kelly Whalen (Staff Writer), on November 19, 2009

PocketSmith is an online personal finance management tool with some unique features. It features a calendar that allows you to add events, multiple calendars, and forecasts how much cash you will have over the next year. Like other personal finance or budgeting sites, you upload transactions to the site from various accounts and are able to see all your transactions in one place. Combining personal finance budgeting software with calendars and the forecast graph creates a unique view of your money. Instead of focusing on the past, PocketSmith allows you to focus on your future.

PocketSmith Review

Opening an Account

Opening an account is a simple process. You need a valid email address, your name, and a password. there are 3 levels of accounts: Free, $5/month, and $12/month. Unsure if you’ll like it? Try out the free version. For most people the $5/month option is the right fit. For info on what the various plans include, read more at PocketSmith.

Once signed into your account you will be able to view the “home” page. There are some directions on what to enter, and if you have trouble you can always click on help for FAQs or use the contact form for help. The process of setting up events and calendars was straightforward.

Highlights

The forecast graph: This allows you to see where your projected budget is going. It’s a great way to set a budget and see how quickly you can attain your goals by sticking to your projections. It’s instant gratification to see that number reach 5 or 6 digits.
Sharing calendars: Sharing your calendar with your spouse is an easy way to keep track of joint accounts. You can subscribe to calendars with a simple link that PocketSmith provides.It is possible to track donations, or an expense account.
Ease of use: While PocketSmith has a nice user interface, the beauty is in the ease of use. The ability to make expenses recurring over a month, or even a number of days made tracking bi-weekly pay easy.

PocketSmith Giveaway

3 lucky winners will receive the Premium Level Membership (valued at $60) to PocketSmith which includes:

Unlimited budget events
5 forecast calendars
12 months of forecast
8 transaction accounts
6 months transaction analysis
CSV and PDF analysis

Details

Must be over 18.
Must have valid email address.
Prize winners must send a reply email with their contact information within 48 hours of winners being announced (public announcement will be made via Moolanomy Fan Page on FaceBook).
Up to 3 chances to win per person, but a person can only win once.
3 winners will be chosen .
Deadline is December 11th midnight.

Three Ways To Enter

And do all three to triple your chance of winning!

1. Leave a comment with an answer to the following question

Why do you feel you would benefit from using PocketSmith?

Hint: It will be easier to answer this question if you try out the Free version first.

2. Follow @Moolanomy and @Pocketsmith on twitter and tweet about the contest using #PocketsmithGiveaway.

For example: “Enter to win a year long premium membership to @Pocketsmith via @Moolanomy http://bit.ly/4CpaVi #PocketSmithGiveaway”.

3. Become a fan of Moolanomy on Facebook.

Good luck! If you use PocketSmith currently, or have tried it, tell us what you think in the comments.

Disclaimer: The reviewer received a Premium membership that is good for one year for the purpose of this review.

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Kelly Whalen is a stay at home mom of 4 kids, who is on a mission to pay off all her consumer debt, and keep her home from falling into chaos. You can find her at The Centsible Life. You can also find her on twitter.

All posts by Kelly Whalen (Staff Writer)

9 Comments

devyn
November 19, 2009, 20:57

I have a similar, yet admittedly rough, way of tracking and forecasting my finances (eg, calendar-based). Having PocketSmith do most of the heavy lifting would make the chore of budgeting a lot less painful (and hopefully rewarding)!
Rick Vaughn
November 19, 2009, 22:18

Kelly,

I know it probably would not be in the best interest for your advertising dollars. However, some day if you could do a ranking of the budget sites out there I think that would be a interesting read. Just a thought.

I’m a big fan of Mint.com however I’ll check out pocketsmith. Thanks for the infomation.
Heidi McQuillan
November 20, 2009, 3:25

I have a free PocketSmith account but it’s just not quite enough for me to experience the full awesomeness of PocketSmith. I need more transaction accounts so that I can track ALL of my accounts instead of conveniently ignoring my credit card
Liz
November 21, 2009, 23:58

I’ve checked out pocketsmith, and think its planning and budgeting looks like it would be superior to Mint’s, but I’m not ready to outlay the money for a premium subscription just yet. Winning one, on the other hand, would be awesome. I need help with making my money work for me and really think Pocketsmith’s tools could help!
Michele
November 23, 2009, 0:48

I signed up for the free version of Pocketsmith. I also cannot seeing paying for this version, yet.

I have not had a chance to take a look at Pocketsmith yet, but I am trying to get my budget together and my spending under control.
Michele
November 23, 2009, 0:57

tweeted on Twitter
Michele
November 23, 2009, 0:57

became a fan on FB
R. Carter
November 24, 2009, 8:06

I’ve always struggled with making sure I pay my bills on time, sticking to my budget and remembering how much I have left to make other purchases. Calendar based budgeting is something I’ve always wanted. I’ve done rough paper in pen models but it’s never been all that I’ve wanted. With PocketSmith I don’t need to do much. I enter my forecasts and then just match my purchases. It’s get because it tells me how much I have left in each budgeted area. For me PocketSmith will allow me to regain control over my finances in an easy way that doesn’t require much!
Damilola
November 28, 2009, 18:22

I use Mint which helps me to set up a budget based on my spending from the last month. I feel the forecasting tool with PocketSmith will be a little more advanced since it will base the forecast on more than a month. Adam has spoken about this at his blog and it seems like a very good application so I would love to try it.

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