I want to like you, Mint. I really do.
I do really like Mint, in theory. It’s personal finance software. It’s free. It has some budgeting features and gives you some visibility around where your money is and where your money goes. But it’s not all crazy complicated like Quicken.
It’s pretty. It’s very pretty to look at.
They just announced a private beta in which they’re adding 401(k), IRA, brokerage, and mutual fund accounts. Which is nice and all. But for me, that stuff is secondary to my checking and savings account. They already include investment accounts from my credit union, but not checking and savings (or student loans, mortgages, etc.). How can I have an even remotely accurate assessment of my overall financial picture if I can’t see the cash I have on hand?
Maybe that’s the difference between how I manage my money and how someone who has more money manages theirs. Maybe your cash on hand is relatively inconsequential. But for me, with that credit card debt, and the fact that I pay cash for everything (or if I charge it, I’ll only do it to get the frequent flyer miles and I’ll only do it if I know I have the cash to pay off that charge immediately, and I do pay it off immediately) it is critical to know how much cash I have in the bank.
And I already have my 401(k) plugged in, because it’s through a bank that they already include.
They automatically load and categorize the expenses you charge to your credit cards (and I presume to your debit card, if you have access to your checking/savings). But what if you spend cash or write checks for things? That’s a whole lot of missing expenses, so that makes the budgeting feature pretty useless.
There’s a feature called SpendSpace in which you can (anonymously) compare your spending to others based on various demographics. But again, that depends on having an accurate picture of what you’re actually spending.
They suggest opportunities to save money by letting you know which credit card company of the day is offering a special balance transfer or interest rate deal. If you’re in the market for that sort of thing, that’s great, too. They bring the info to you, much like your friendly neighborhood postal worker does. But those, of course, are subject to a whole bunch of Ifs so you may not actually qualify for jackshit.
It also doesn’t include my car or school loans.
So all Mint does for me right now is give me a really pretty-looking picture of my total credit card debt. Which I already track obsessively and for which I visit each card’s website pretty regularly anyway. Mostly useless.
It is really pretty, though.
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3 Responses to “I want to like you, Mint. I really do.”
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May 5th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Have you tried Yodlee? It’s the service that provides account updates to Mint, but it seems to have more accounts available. It’s not as pretty, but I’ve been updating both while I see which I like best. I also use MS Money, which so far, is better for my needs.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I’d heard of it in relation to Mint, but I didn’t realize you could sign up directly with Yodlee. I’ll try it.
(It’s not as pretty, but I guess I’ll manage.)
May 5th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Yodlee doesn’t have my credit union’s savings/checking, either. It does have their investment accounts and 401(k) (same as Mint).
Dang.
Ooh, but it does have my car loan. In beta. So there’s no actual data in there, but it sees my account.
I can’t decide if this is really cool or kind of scary.