Anyone use mint.com? It looks pretty nifty...

[Occamstazer]

A good friend of mine introduced me to mint and I'm totally drooling over all the budgeting doohickeys. It's a financial management thingy that lets you track where money goes, generate graphs, create a really tidy budget, etc. Basically hog heaven for an obsessive-compulsive nerd like me.
Friend works for Google and assures me that it is safe, which a search for independent reviews seems to confirm.

Anyone have any opinions/experiences?

 

[dacjohns]

No experience but it's nice to see you again.

 

[hoosier]

I don't know anything about it, but if it costs money, I would look for a free site.

 

[Occamstazer]

Nah, it's free, I'm just cautious about giving any site access to my financial info. I had a minor freak out when I sold some stuff on ebay and had to set up a Paypal. From what I've read, it's about as secure as anything online can be, but I figured I'd rustle up a couple more opinions.

And Dac, it's good to be back! The 12 hour days are killing me but I'm finally hitting enough of a groove to be able to piddle around online again.

 

[AnnaRaven]

I've been using Mint.com since 2009. They use the same software for security as the banks do. They're also owned these days by Intuit (the folks who do Quicken and TurboTax). So yeah, pretty safe.

They're having some (non-security-related) glitches right now due to having switched over their system a bit at the end of last month. So if you see things like duplicate accounts, or stuff, be aware of that.

It's especially helpful after you've got a period of time into it, and you can start to see TRENDS in your spending. It's also especially useful if you use a debit card or credit card for most of your expenditures (although it does allow you to add cash transactions now.)

Good luck with it and have fun. Warning, it can be addictive...

 

[Veggie PAK]

I think sites like that do it for free because they take the contents of your information that you enter, and analyze it for market trends. There is no way in this rat race competitive world that they just do it to be nice. They're gathering marketing data and selling it to the corporations. If you think that's not the case, how come they retain rights to the information when you sign up? (I hope people read the "Terms and Conditions of Use"!) That's just how it's done in my opinion. I would never use a site like that.

And they have the same security as the banks? Ask yourself: "How many banks have had their online security hacked into in the last year? How many millions of people have had their personal information compromised because of it?"

If you have a spreadsheet program in your computer, you can set it up yourself. I have a great one (uses Microsoft Excel 2007) that is a compilation of various methods of tracking expenditures. If I knew how to post it on here I would so people could either download it, or open it and use the format to build it in their own computer. That's what I did. The only thing you need to do to make it work is to be sure to get receipts for absolutely EVERYTHING! You would be amazed at the money you spend. The data is entered for each day for each month in each applicable category. That sounds like a lot but it isn't. I love it. But then, I love Excel. I even track my garden with it.

 

[k15n1]

Save your recipts and do it yourself. It's just adding and subtracting, right? And if you're not willing to make the effort to keep your recipts, it's unlikely you'll be able to stick to a budget.

 

[Veggie PAK]

Save your recipts and do it yourself. It's just adding and subtracting, right? And if you're not willing to make the effort to keep your recipts, it's unlikely you'll be able to stick to a budget.

Excellent point!