Mint.com Money Management Software Review

By Pinyo, on May 6, 2008

Money management is a tedious endeavor for many of us. It takes a significant amount of time and energy to keep track of expenses, come up with a balanced budget, and figure out ways to save money. Personally, I put my finances on autopilot and don’t worry about these things. However, I have been enjoying the greater level of financial clarity ever since I started using Mint.com.

Put Your Expense Tracking On Autopilot

It’s surprisingly easy to get started with Mint. The first major step is to add my financial accounts to the system — i.e., banking, credit card, brokerage, etc. When this is done, Mint.com downloads all the information, categorizes everything, and provides me with an up-to-date overview of my finances in one location — money management made easy!

The auto-categorize works well, but it occasionally needs some manual adjustments. This first step is a great way to understand my financial behavior. This is a good place to work on my largest expenses and see if anything could be reduced or eliminated.

By the way, I am still trying to figure out why my utilities won’t show up in Mint. I should probably post in their support forums, but haven’t got around to it yet.

Never Pay Another Late And Overdraft Fees Again

The second neat feature is the alerts function. I can set a variety of alerts to notify me via email or mobile when certain conditions are met. Some of the alerts include:

• Low Balance – This is a great way to avoid bouncing a check, which could result in numerous other fees — i.e., bounced check fee, late payment fee, finance charge, etc.
• Credit Card Bills – Send me warning ahead of payment due dates.
• Large Purchases – This is a great way to monitor my credit cards, especially for banks that don’t provide this feature for free.
• Over Budget – Send me reminders to keep my budget on track.

Find Better Deals To Save More And Earn More Money

Another great feature of Mint.com is the “Ways to Save” feature — although, ways to make the most of your money might be more accurate. Some of the “ways to save” include:

• Identify bank that offers higher interest rate
• Identify credit cards that offers lower interest rate and better credit card reward
• Identify lower cost service providers

Even if you are an expert at budgeting, Mint.com can still save you tons of time and offer ideas on how to save and make more money. If you haven’t try it already, just head over to Mint.com — it’s free.

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Pinyo is the brain behind Moolanomy personal finance blog and a few other web sites. If you like this article, please subscribe for free daily email updates.

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