Looking to do a better job of managing your finances? You might want to check out Mint.com. Mint is a FREE web-based platform that pulls all of your financial information into one secure location, so that you can always have a clear picture of where your money stands. The service connects to pretty much every U.S. banking financial institution with internet banking capability. That means you can import data from your bank, credit cards, loans, and retirement accounts in a snap.
There are way too many features to review them all here, but here are a few that stand out for me:
1. Mint tracks and automatically categorizes expenses. Ever notice how your bank statements display often hard-to-decipher abbreviations for debit and credit transactions? Well, Mint changes the transaction to plain English (e.g. “Target” instead of “POS TGT”), then files it under the proper category (e.g.”Shopping).
2. Mint has over 20 types of alerts, including bill reminders, over-budget warnings, and low-balance notifications. My personal favorites? The notice every time my credit card is hit with a finance charge (how’s that for motivation to get to a zero balance?) and the stern warnings for excessive spending in any one category (eat out one too many times, and Mint WILL let you know).
3. Mint calculates your average spending in any category to help you easily create a budget based on your usual spending habits. It also helps you plan ahead by showing how much you can save by cutting back in any one category. Talk about artificial intelligence.
You might be wondering how safe all of your confidential data is. Not to worry. Mint.com has instituted bank-grade security measures. So, you’re just as protected as you would be when logging into your checking or credit accounts. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think!
