It’s the end of February, which means most New Year’s Resolutions have already been forgotten by now. I’m actually not a huge fan of resolutions, I’m more a goal-oriented person. Most of my goals this year revolve around this website and my financial situation, though the two aren’t really related. I hope they might be some day, but that’s not the priority at the moment. The hardest part about getting your finances under control is watching where your money is going and how you’re spending it. Enter Mint.com.
Mint.com is a free budgeting and financial planning website that links directly with all of your accounts whether they’re a debit card from your bank, a credit card, or your 401K.
I had actually tried Mint in the past and hadn’t liked it, but I gave it another shot when I was trying to get a better handle on everything at the end of 2016, and it’s worked out super well. While it’s not a perfect system, and budgeting is still not my strong point, it’s a really easy way to get a snapshot of all of your finances in one place.
Screenshot from Mint.com.
Budgets: Mint lets you create budgets for your monthly expenses. You set an amount and it fills up the graph as it takes each transaction. Occasionally, you’ll notice really high spending somewhere there shouldn’t be but it usually has to do with them mislabeling the transaction instead of something you did. For some reason, mine likes to mark all Paypal transactions as Restaurants. This is my least favorite feature actually, because it doesn’t matter if I’ve already spent my gas budget for the month, I still need my car to run.
Bills: You can input all your bills into Mint, and it will email you a reminder a week before they’re due. Most of mine are on auto-pay, so it’s not like I’d miss the payment but it does help me make sure I don’t over-spend in case I forgot one.
Screenshot from Mint.com. Not real balances, obviously.
Accounts: This literally just displays all the accounts you have and what the balances are. You can list checking, savings, credit, 401Ks, loans, and even the value of property you own. Debts are shown as negative, and money in the bank is show as positive. At the bottom it displays your net worth, what you owe vs what you have. There’s also a neat little chart that displays your net worth by month so you can see how often you’re in the green or the red.
Screenshot from Mint.com.
Credit Score: Most credit cards also let you check your credit score every so often, but Mint lets you do it once a month. I like to check my credit score with two of my credit cards against what Mint says to make sure they’re about the same number. It also gives you suggestions of how you can improve your credit score.
Goals: My favorite thing about Mint is it lets you set goals. At the beginning of 2017 I made a goal to pay for our Disneyland trip with a target of $3,000. I attached it to my savings account and Mint told me how much I needed to put in each month to reach it on time. Right now, I have one set up for my emergency fund, and Mint helped me estimate how much of an emergency fund I actually need in addition to what I need to contribute per month.
Ways to Save: Mint gives you a suggestion of ways you can save money, either with a different credit card or various investments. This is how Mint makes its money for this free service, but it’s a lot less annoying than advertisements.
Mint is definitely not perfect, and it’s not an all in one solution to managing your money. It is a great way to start however, and I highly recommend taking the twenty minutes to link all your accounts. Even if you never log in again, at least you can see all your money in one place to determine if you’re on track with your finances.
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