Free Personal Finance Solution – Mint.com
Having been a user of both Quicken and Microsoft Money to manage our family finances and overall financial picture, I was frustrated by the constant need to shell out more money if I wanted the “new and improved” edition.
A year ago last fall, a computer magazine suggested Mint.com to replace such software, so I checked it out.
Here are the perks that caught my attention:
- 100% free…my favorite price
Updates automatically done every night
Extremely simple to use
Integrated with every institution where we have our cash/investments
Ability to build budgets like Quicken/Money
Spending comparisons…like Quicken/Money
Very secure
My information stays with me, not on a computer that can crash/needs replacing, which means having to figure out how to transfer the information to my new computer
Did I mention it’s free?
Having used it, I will hopefully never have to purchase the traditional software again. I have been very impressed thus far, without a single complaint. Why is it free you ask? My take is they have partnered with various financial institutions to suggest potential savings for any of your bills, savings accounts, credit cards, and mortgages. I don’t mind this, and even checked out to see if we could get a better deal on our phone service, cable, etc. just to make sure we weren’t paying too much (fortunately, we weren’t). That is quite frankly the only con, but I consider it a plus as that type of advertising revenue should keep this site continually improving for the years to come.
If you are concerned over sharing your account info online, consider this:
Which is safer, a computer with security software you can’t tell when it’s up-to-date or a website who is using a number of different security companies to ensure the information stays secure?If your computer crashes, where is your data?
With online services, they remain on their servers, so you pick up your new computer and login…it’s that simple. It’s worth checking out, as I have found I will often have good intentions of using/doing something such as managing our finances, but it can fall to procrastination if the tool being used isn’t simple and makes my life easier/more efficient.