Budget & Mint.com
Personal financial management is difficult. It is hard to stay within a pre-determined budget, especially if you don’t make that much (income). I have a good idea as to what my income will be each month, because I work for the man. I try not to spend (expense) more than I make, thus achieving a positive net income. Don’t spend > than what you make is pretty easy to understand. That’s easy if you make a lot of money, where that never become an issue. But for many people, myself included. IT IS the issue. The first step is indentifying where /when the income arrives, and how much/when/where I spend money.
My needs /wants:
- Life/ Health/ Vision/ Dental Insurance
- Student loans
- Car/ Maintenance Insurance
- Cell phone plan
- Healthcare expense
- Gas
- Food and Groceries
- Rent Payment
MINT.com
It solves a lot of my guess work, and it turns into a financial game. You can see how much money, how much spending, ways to save money. There are nice graphs and charts that spell out pretty much everything. It works well for me because, I’m paperless. I use my credit card for everything, so there’s a transaction record. The only part that doesn’t work so well is that it sometimes has issues synching financial data from some of my accounts or it causes my accounts to lock out due to ‘security’ concerns. Then I have to call into that financial institution to get it unlock. But it’s FREE to use, and it’s ever so helpful, so what’s not to <3?
