Any updates about Mint.com?

[Ronnieboy]

I tried to bump an old Mint.com thread, but it was over 472 days old and wouldn't let me. I am curious as to who is still using it, if it is everything you need, what neat functions you have found out, etc.

I bought Quicken about 2 years ago to finally develop a REAL budget for DW and I. I got it loaded on the computer That's how far I got.

I hope we are in our final decade before ESR but we are only half-a$$ed budgeting for it.

I am thinking Mint.com might be the way to go for an update free way to get things done. Mostly automatic, secure, easy to use, and free!

 

[braumeister]

Since it's free, why not just take it for a trial run?

I've never used it (prefer Moneydance), but a number of posters here seem to like Mint.

 

[Ronnieboy]

Since it's free, why not just take it for a trial run?

I've never used it (prefer Moneydance), but a number of posters here seem to like Mint.

Yes, I guess I should just do that. Even though I am not necessarily worried about their security (feel that it is strong enough), for some reason I'm worried about getting everything set up then, if deciding not to continue using it, how to get the information erased?

 

[arky]

Instead of developing a "real" budget, why not try a different approach. Use the Quicken you bought, to just keep track of your spending habits. Assuming most (if not all) of your income makes it way through your checking account, it is fairly easy to set up a checking register in Quicken and then you can record (and categorize) all your spending. After a year or two you can look back (using the built in reporting function) to leap frog to a real budget if you so desire.

 

[urn2bfree]

I find MINT good, but far from perfect. It seems to duplicate things sometimes. Also it lately is counting transfers of money as spending...So if I move money from checking into an investment account, or a 529 or other account, it labels and counts that as monthly spending..it did not used to do that.

 

[NanoSour]

Been using Mint for 18 months and find it to be a great tool to keep track of my financial life. I use both the website and the app and like the fact that at the press of a button I can detect any usual account activity. You hope it won't happen, but I believe the sooner you find out about something the better it is.

Also, I'm impressed by all the accounts you can add to it. We have an old Teachers Retirement from the mid 90's that I was able to add to the account list in Mint. That could have been an easy one to forget about as it was quite small after only 1 year employment.

I find it convenient and recommend it.

 

[RonBoyd]

I, too, am a dyed-in-the-wool Moneydance advocate. I use Personal Capital to track my financial dealing.

You can track your investments by account, asset class or individual security. Know what you own and how it's performing. Pinpoint market movers and how your portfolio compares to major indices. Put yourself in the driver's seat when it comes to your investments. Only with Personal Capital.

Just how diversified are you? Find out with just one click. Discover where you're invested, from international stocks to bonds, from alternatives to cash. Find the exact percentage of each asset class within your portfolio.

This is a Free program unless/until you choose to "take advantage" of their advisory staff. (A choice that deserves consideration, BTW. Full disclosure: I have yet to take that option.)

 

[Covbro]

I've been using Quicken for about 20 years. I had great success with it. However, I recently start using Mint.com and I prefer it over Quicken. I like being able to monitor my accounts using my iPad and iPhone. I don't have to only use my desktop anymore. I now monitor my transactions everyday. I'm able to control overdrafts and to keep an eye on unauthorized transactions. Mint.com also helps me control my budget.

 

[wanaberetiree]

I've been using Quicken for about 20 years. I had great success with it. However, I recently start using Mint.com and I prefer it over Quicken. I like being able to monitor my accounts using my iPad and iPhone. I don't have to only use my desktop anymore. I now monitor my transactions everyday. I'm able to control overdrafts and to keep an eye on unauthorized transactions. Mint.com also helps me control my budget.

So, how do you track your investment like VG with Mint?

 

[wanaberetiree]

I, too, am a dyed-in-the-wool Moneydance advocate. I use Personal Capital to track my financial dealing.

How long have you been using Personal Capital? And how happy/confident are you about its security as you give them all user name and passwords?

 

[walkinwood]

Since you already have Quicken and are worried about your information floating unused in the webospehere...

why not just use it.

I have been using it for 20+ years and it works well enough. Quicken allows you to download all your bank & credit card transactions, so all you have to do is categorize them. Q also remembers the category for past transactions, so it becomes more easy with time.

Work on your categories up front. Make them detailed enough, but don't go overboard. For example - do you care that your typical grocery store purchase has groceries, cleaning supplies, personal care products etc? If not, one category suffices. Same with utilities and other categories. But only you can decide what makes sense for you.

Monitoring your spending really helps keep to your goals. All the best.

 

[mattbaxx]

I keep hearing about how Quicken is unwieldy for the Mac. Used it years ago on a PC and liked it, but now question whether I should use it since we are now a Mac family. Have used Fidelity RIP for a couple of years and just recently joined Mint. So far it is proving useful, with the noted limitation of its budget categories. On the other hand, it is nice not having too many sub-categories. Sticking with Groceries, Restaurants, Utilities, Household, Gifts, Education, Auto, and a miscellaneous category works for us. I find too many details can sometimes obscure the facts I'm looking for.

I'll stick with Mint for now.

 

[marko]

I use Mint. Like it a lot but use it mostly for broad tracking/insights. Got it 'trained' to categorize most of my expenses. Downloaded to a pivot table is easy.

 

[grasshopper]

I find MINT good, but far from perfect. It seems to duplicate things sometimes. Also it lately is counting transfers of money as spending...So if I move money from checking into an investment account, or a 529 or other account, it labels and counts that as monthly spending..it did not used to do that.

In Quicken you can exclude transfers when making reports.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I use both quicken and mint, but mint is mostly just for keeping up with account balances and makes me feel better about my ability to check for fraudulent charges from my phone, tablet, and work computer.
I don't use the budgeting feature much at all.

 

[RonBoyd]

How long have you been using Personal Capital? And how happy/confident are you about its security as you give them all user name and passwords?

It has only been a few months (since October IIRC). Anyway, I have complete confidence in their security. The same company that provides it for PC does so for all banks and other financial services... including Mint. There was a thread (again IIRC) last summer that described the process and (again IIRC) Nords gave a pretty good description. I am "on the road" right now so can't do a proper search, sorry.

BTW, just having user name and password doesn't, by itself, give access to withdraw/transfer funds, there are some other steps involved. In other words, PC can read but not write. (I am on shaky grounds here so let's see where this goes.)

 

[NanoSour]

So, how do you track your investment like VG with Mint?

You simply add VG to the accounts list and provide your username/password and it will provide balances for all your VG accounts.

I've found that Mint can track any financial information that you can log onto individually. If you can log onto a bank, broker, 401K account, etc, mint can also get the information for you. I like having an up to the minute balance on my mortgage every time I click on the mint app.

 

[cwatson69]

I have been using Quicken for over 20 years now and have found the Windows version much easier to use. There are a few features that aren't available in the Mac version.

We switched to Mac computers back in 2007 and got the Mac version of Quicken - didn't like it so we switched back to Quicken for Windows. I now run Parallels desktop to be able to run Windows and the Windows version of Quicken. I really like the capability of being able to download all of my transactions for the credit cards, investments, etc. As stated earlier with all of this, you can categorize everything, and then see after a year where all your money is going.

 

[RonBoyd]

I should mention that one of the nice things about Personal Capital is that I get an e-mail every morning listing all the transactions in all my accounts -- checking, credit cards, buys/sells/dividends, etc. Then, on Saturday morning, I get an e-mail with a overview for the week -- variance in Net Worth, for instance. I can, of course, login at anytime and get this (and more) information.

I still use Moneydance for all of the detail. I haven't found a substitute for that other than just not tracking. Moneydance is, however, a manual operation while PC does not require hands-on.

 

[hakuna matata]

I like Mint for about 3 years now--overall I like it. The only issue I have had with it is some duplication of account. For example I have some accounts with Wacovia and I included them, but I also have some with Wells Fargo, and since Wacovia and WF are now together it started counting them twice. So I had to go into one of the accounts on Mint and basically not count it.

I had a great Net Worth when I was counting them twice! But once you get it all set up it seems to go smoothly. Once in awhile I have some issue or another with a bank or credit union on passwords, or they do a new security measure and you have to go in and allow access for Mint again. But all in all it hasn't been too big of a hassle.

 

[M Paquette]

You simply add VG to the accounts list and provide your username/password and it will provide balances for all your VG accounts.
.

Because handing one's investment account name and password to someplace on the Internet will never be a problem.

They do claim to use AES-128 encryption for storage, but that is decrypted each time they query VG for your balances. That makes Mint a prime target for a snoop or man-in-the-middle attack (a way to defeat the SSL encrypted connection between Vanguard and Mint).

Check your bank or brokerage's terms and conditions regarding password security before providing account information to a third party. You may find that this act invalidates any guarantees that the bank or brokerage makes regarding liability for your account being hacked.

I don't use Mint or similar services. I find the tradeoff of convenience for risk to be unacceptable to me, personally.

 

[RonBoyd]

In my search to validate my earlier statement about Personal Capital's security (the answer may have to wait until I return to Denver and dig out my notes), I did come across this article that was influential in my decision (yeah, I was skittish also):

Personal Capital Review – Free Online Financial & Portfolio Management

Personal Capital vs. Mint






Mint.com is the most popular online money management tool, and several people have asked me how the two services compare. They are similar in that they both give users the ability to track their income, expenses, investments, and net worth. However, Mint.com is more geared toward budgeting and managing spending. Personal Capital also does has cash management features, but also gives investors much more insight into their investment portfolio. Here are some more differences:

• Mint.com: Primarily focused on budgeting and tracking spending.
• Mint.com: Not much insight into investments, including asset allocation, expense ratios, and alerts
• Mint.com: lots of upsells for different financial products and services.
• Personal Capital: Investor focused; tools are geared toward tracking investments and balancing your portfolio.
• Personal Capital:Receive alerts when your portfolio falls out of balance.
• Personal Capital: Ability to hire a financial planner to help you with your investments.
• Personal Capital: Track your investments and net worth in real time.

My Verdict – Coolest Investment Tool on the Market

I’m a self-admitted financial geek. I read and write about personal finance on a daily basis, and I try out as many tools as I can. I my opinion, this is the biggest game changer in the financial industry since Mint.com launched. And that is high praise. As I mentioned earlier, this is a tool I am comfortable recommending to family and friends, and I think it can change how many people manage their investments. I’m all-in on Personal Capital.

I guess, I need to make perfectly clear that I am not trying to be a spokes-person for Personal Capital... any decision you personally take in regards to joining up should be at your own risk (jeopardy). Particularly if you believe I have some special insight.

 

[caninelover]

I've used mint.com for a few years now. Overall I like it but it can be a bit buggy...accounts not always updating, duplicating transactions, etc. But, I like being able to look at all my account balances. I also like the bill reminder tool, as I use it to remind me of when some of my irregular expenses (eg insurancee premiums) are coming due. I also use the budgeting tools to keep my spending in check. Like I said, overall, I do like it.

 

[ejw93]

Been using Mint for 2+ years now and am happy with the product.

Only glitch I have seen is that when you refi a mortgage, it has a tendency to wipe out the old mortgage, as if it never existed (and was never a drain on your Net Worth).

So I manually type in my mortgage balance from an amortization spreadsheet on the 1st of every month.

Other than that, Mint is tracking EVERYTHING we spend/earn and is pretty much hands-off.

 

[wanaberetiree]

Check your bank or brokerage's terms and conditions regarding password security before providing account information to a third party. You may find that this act invalidates any guarantees that the bank or brokerage makes regarding liability for your account being hacked.

Can you actually give a example(s)/name(s) of a bank or brokerage with such conditions regarding passwords?

I think it's a very interesting and important issue.