topic Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app? in SmorgasBoard

Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

Saphra — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 15:53:21 GMT

Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Is anyone here using the Mint personal finance app? I'm interested in your thoughts on it. Is it helping you stay on target? Is it helping you get your scores up? Anyone had any issues with it being unsafe or anything?

Thanks all!

-Saph

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

907grown — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 06:51:08 GMT

I downloaded the app, set it up, tried it, it's not for me, but I see its a nice program. I listen to Clark Howard all the time and he speaks quite highly of it. from what I understand it is completely secure.... Good luck!

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

ksantangelo23 — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 13:16:56 GMT

Yes! I love the website, and the Android/iOS app is great.

It helps me boost my score only in the way that I don't accidentally let a card report a balance, but I primarily love it for the ability to track and manage every penny.

As far as safety, everything on Mint.com is read-only. Even if someone did manage to get a hold of your Mint login, its no more dangerous than someone finding a paper receipt of a transaction you got from a store.

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

BootStraps — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 13:59:08 GMT

I use Mint and I liked it enough that I got my 21 year old son to start using it.

I like the constant feedback on my spending patterns and the notifications about fees that might otherwise be missed. It helped me to decide to close a savings account that I was paying more fees for than I was getting interest.

I use the app primarily for quick reference and monitoring for unusual charges on my accounts.

The one annoyance that I have found is that if they accidently classify an account incorrectly- like lebelling a credit card as a checking account- it's impossible to fix and will (of course) throw the overall numbers off. Still useful for the trends, budgets and reminders though.

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

Burned2manybridgesB4 — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 17:26:46 GMT

@Saphra wrote:
Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Is anyone here using the Mint personal finance app? I'm interested in your thoughts on it. Is it helping you stay on target? Is it helping you get your scores up? Anyone had any issues with it being unsafe or anything?

Thanks all!

-Saph

Depending on the accounts, I've used mint, and check.me in tandem. Surprisingly, mint will allow the paypal extra MC to log (even though most GEMB cards are not allowed). Keeps me on my payment schedules.

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 08:11:04 GMT

I'm not really a fan of the app but I do use the full website version and I like it.

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

baller4life — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 02:19:33 GMT

I use Manilla! It's awesome!! And I'm able to sync all my accounts to keep up with balances and due dates. It's a lifesaver!

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

Revelate — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 05:18:29 GMT

Slightly old thread, but how does Mint et al. differ from the functions that USAA and others are offering for tracking one's spending and accounts? Think DCU has something similar, not sure if the big banks offer it or not as I haven't really gone looking into their services.

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 21:54:01 GMT

It differs because it keeps all accounts in one place cc, checking, saving, investment ect. It also reminds you of credit card bills and updates you on utilization and also various other tips.

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

Repo-ed — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 13:27:21 GMT

I use Mint (to track networth) in conjuntion with "You Need a Budget" aka YNAB (since it's horrible for wealth/investment tracking) and REALLY like this combo

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

darkfrosty — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 18:11:36 GMT

with YNAB you need to manally enter everything?

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

Revelate — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 18:26:25 GMT

@Repo-ed wrote:
I use Mint (to track networth) in conjuntion with "You Need a Budget" aka YNAB (since it's horrible for wealth/investment tracking) and REALLY like this combo

Out of curiosity what asset classes do you have which complicate it? I pretty much have the bulk of my assets at Fidelity (besides an old Roth IRA which sadly I can't contribute to at Schwab) and I have to admit I'm not that diversified from a wealth perspective, but are you using multiple different investment vehicles which muddies the picture?

Re: Anyone using Mint personal finance app?

toothgrind3r — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 17:12:01 GMT

@darkfrosty wrote:
with YNAB you need to manally enter everything?

I think that's kind of the point, and the main difference between stuff like YNAB and stuff like Mint.

With Mint, you can link all your accounts to automatically pull all your transactions and then catagorize those transactions, sure. And at the end of the month you can look back and see "wow, spent too much money on eating out".

But with YNAB, at least what I am taking away from it, is it MAKES me look at my money before I spend it. It makes me budget my money before I spend it. It makes me think about my money before I spend it. And I LIKE that a lot. Sure, it's more work...but seeing where my money went after the fact (Mint) doesn't really help me.

Yeah, Mint has a budgeting tool, but again, it allows me to spend that money without checking to see if I can in fact spend that money. It's all too after-the-fact for me.

YNAB is a lot of work at first, IMO, but once you get the flow of it all, I think it's genius. And the iPhone/Androip companion app makes logging tansactions on the go super easy.

YNAB = look at your money before you spend it.

Mint = look at your money after you spent it.