Check On It

Minty?

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Given the current U.S. economy, women are searching high and low for new and better ways to get a handle on their personal finances. I, for one, seem to always find myself at the ATM wondering “where does it all go?” I can’t be bothered to track every cent — but may need to enlist some assistance somewhere/somehow because in this day and age, every penny counts.

While researching the best money management tools on the market, I must admit that I felt slightly overwhelmed by the mere thought of traditional financial software. I’m a creative spirit and it seems as though numbers & budgets are not my friends! 

After a pretty brief search, I stumbled upon an awesome alternative, Mint.com. The (seemingly) quick and easy-to-use website was created by Aaron Patzer and helps you keep track of your daily transactions.

Set up your Mint.com account and in five minutes or less, you’ll see where you’re spending your money, understand how your investments are performing, and set up realistic budgets. Set up email and text message alerts and you’ll be automatically updated whenever there’s an important change in your finances. According to Mint.com, their typical user finds $1,000 in savings in their first visit. Sounds good to me! 

I plan to start an account and give Mint.com a spin this week. Until I can speak from personal experience, following is PC.com’s three-part review:

 

BOTTOM LINE

Mint.com is a useful, intelligent, and free financial Web service that’s simple to set up and tracks your monetary life with little intervention on your part. If you can get over the uneasiness about giving banking and credit-card account log-in credentials to a third-party site, you’ll find the site quite handy.

PROS

Free, easy way to stay on top of your finances. Mostly autonomous. Logs transactions. Sets up budgets. Sends alerts. Creates spending trend charts. Finds ways to save you money.

CONS

Giving a third party sensitive financial info may make you uncomfortable. Can’t change dates on transactions, which may throw off budgets.

* For my iPhone lovers, Mint.com even has an application that provides you with up to the minute updates:

To visit Mint.com and see if this is the money management option for you, click here.

As a New York City storyteller, filmmaker, digital content creator, and PR strategist, Renae Bluitt created "In Her Shoes" to empower and enlighten women committed to realizing their dreams.

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