Stacking Pennies . . .

Typically, I track my daily spending in an excel sheet. I use Yodlee to view my net worth and to verify my excel tracking. I update my net worth monthly in NetworthIQ. So when I heard about the new personal finance tool, Mint, I wondered what it could do for me that my other tools weren't.

I decided to find out. The first thing I noticed is that the website had a striking interface. It was quite aesthetically pleasing and very clean. I easily added all my accounts, but was surprised to realize that I couldn't include my 401k or Roth. As I became more familiar with what the site was trying to do--help you analyze your spending--I can see why they don't include it. But I'm still disappointed they don't! After it loaded my data, I could see all of my transactions for the past 2 months.
I think some of the "shopping" was groceries (Target). The "No Category" stuff was ATM transactions, and in the future, I'd want to note exactly where that cash went. It is pretty neat, even though Yodlee has an uglier version of the same chart. Also, I could click on these categories, and they would be broken down into even more well defined categories. I wish it included a piece for savings, but it seems like it only tracks what you spend.

Honestly, I am not yet overly impressed with Mint so far. It is sort of like Yodlee, but with a cleaner interface and less features. I am going to continue using it, and perhaps as it matures, it will grow into something more useful to me. (It is still in beta, and they have promised to rol out more features over the next few months. )

Typically, I track my daily spending in an excel sheet. I use Yodlee to view my net worth and to verify my excel tracking. I update my net worth monthly in NetworthIQ. So when I heard about the new personal finance tool, Mint, I wondered what it could do for me that my other tools weren't.

I decided to find out. The first thing I noticed is that the website had a striking interface. It was quite aesthetically pleasing and very clean. I easily added all my accounts, but was surprised to realize that I couldn't include my 401k or Roth. As I became more familiar with what the site was trying to do--help you analyze your spending--I can see why they don't include it. But I'm still disappointed they don't! After it loaded my data, I could see all of my transactions for the past 2 months.
I think some of the "shopping" was groceries (Target). The "No Category" stuff was ATM transactions, and in the future, I'd want to note exactly where that cash went. It is pretty neat, even though Yodlee has an uglier version of the same chart. Also, I could click on these categories, and they would be broken down into even more well defined categories. I wish it included a piece for savings, but it seems like it only tracks what you spend.

Honestly, I am not yet overly impressed with Mint so far. It is sort of like Yodlee, but with a cleaner interface and less features. I am going to continue using it, and perhaps as it matures, it will grow into something more useful to me. (It is still in beta, and they have promised to rol out more features over the next few months. )

Typically, I track my daily spending in an excel sheet. I use Yodlee to view my net worth and to verify my excel tracking. I update my net worth monthly in NetworthIQ. So when I heard about the new personal finance tool, Mint, I wondered what it could do for me that my other tools weren't.

I decided to find out. The first thing I noticed is that the website had a striking interface. It was quite aesthetically pleasing and very clean. I easily added all my accounts, but was surprised to realize that I couldn't include my 401k or Roth. As I became more familiar with what the site was trying to do--help you analyze your spending--I can see why they don't include it. But I'm still disappointed they don't! After it loaded my data, I could see all of my transactions for the past 2 months.
I think some of the "shopping" was groceries (Target). The "No Category" stuff was ATM transactions, and in the future, I'd want to note exactly where that cash went. It is pretty neat, even though Yodlee has an uglier version of the same chart. Also, I could click on these categories, and they would be broken down into even more well defined categories. I wish it included a piece for savings, but it seems like it only tracks what you spend.

Honestly, I am not yet overly impressed with Mint so far. It is sort of like Yodlee, but with a cleaner interface and less features. I am going to continue using it, and perhaps as it matures, it will grow into something more useful to me. (It is still in beta, and they have promised to rol out more features over the next few months. )

Typically, I track my daily spending in an excel sheet. I use Yodlee to view my net worth and to verify my excel tracking. I update my net worth monthly in NetworthIQ. So when I heard about the new personal finance tool, Mint, I wondered what it could do for me that my other tools weren't.

I decided to find out. The first thing I noticed is that the website had a striking interface. It was quite aesthetically pleasing and very clean. I easily added all my accounts, but was surprised to realize that I couldn't include my 401k or Roth. As I became more familiar with what the site was trying to do--help you analyze your spending--I can see why they don't include it. But I'm still disappointed they don't! After it loaded my data, I could see all of my transactions for the past 2 months.
I think some of the "shopping" was groceries (Target). The "No Category" stuff was ATM transactions, and in the future, I'd want to note exactly where that cash went. It is pretty neat, even though Yodlee has an uglier version of the same chart. Also, I could click on these categories, and they would be broken down into even more well defined categories. I wish it included a piece for savings, but it seems like it only tracks what you spend.

Honestly, I am not yet overly impressed with Mint so far. It is sort of like Yodlee, but with a cleaner interface and less features. I am going to continue using it, and perhaps as it matures, it will grow into something more useful to me. (It is still in beta, and they have promised to rol out more features over the next few months. )