Manage your money like a pro? – Adam Jardine
About a year and a half ago, I went on a mission to find a new money management software program. Up to this point, we had been using Simply Accounting and I felt that with each new version they make, it became more and more complicated. Money is important to everyone, and saving money is even better.
I came across mint.com, which claimed to be free, secure, and quick. I signed up for their account, entered my bank account, credit card, mortgage, stocks, and other information, and it automatically captured my transactions and categorized each one. As I was double checking my transactions, I was amazed to see how accurate it was. It knew The Snooty Fox was a restaurant, and knew Adica Massage Clinic was for Health Spending. In the beginning it wasn’t 100% accurate, I’ll admit, but as I continued to use it, it was smart enough to look back at past transactions to capture the correct category.
Moreover, it automatically grabs your fresh transactions daily – and I honestly spend less than 10 minutes monthly updating books. At any time with mint.com, you can log in and review your monthly spending and adjust your budget accordingly. They will even send you an e-mail if you’re close to going over certain budgets you set.
As it states, it is 100% free. Mint does push some “suggestions” at you to improve your finances, such as “This credit card has a lower rate than the one you’re paying” or “You’re paying too much for banking fees so you should move to this bank.” However, it’s no more annoying than Facebook ads, so I can easily overlook it.
Overall, a year and a half later, Mint has lived up to the free, secure and quick features and I highly recommend looking at this for your personal finances. As the old saying goes, “If you don’t track it – you can’t manage it” and I promise you that’s the truth.