Mint.com

[JDARNELL]

Just wanted to see if anyone uses Mint.com for their budgeting and spending tracking. Would be curious to hear the good and bad.

Tomcat98

 

[wanaberetiree]

I tried it and found that it's not even close to Quicken yet, so sticking with Q for now.

 

[Katsmeow]

I looked into it when I was trying to find something. I didn't feel all that comfortable with it from a security standpoint and didn't feel it was optimal for budgeting. I ended up going with You Need A Budget which has been great.

 

[JDARNELL]

I have a friend who has been using it since Sept. He gave me a quick tour. Security is a concern for me. However I wonder if it is any different than any online fm stuff people do? Quicken input is so overwhelming and after 15 yrs I am looking for something similar. I have mad a massive budgeting spreadsheet and it will work. Just looking for simpler as I don't want to spend all my ER time on data entry.

Tomcat98

 

[Cattusbabe]

I tried it. Did not like it. The security aspect is one thing but what was really annoying was the constant attempts to push products from financial companies that sponsor the site. Ain't nothing free.

 

[Coach]

I use mint.com and I like it. I also use Quicken, but I only update it monthly. I use mint.com to keep an eye on things between my Quicken sessions.

Coach

 

[Zathras]

I love it.
It is actually owned by the owners of Quicken.
I view the ads as the cost of it, since it is free otherwise.
It is simple, easy to use and very flexible. All the things i found lacking in Quicken.
However, I know some people really like Quicken. If you find Quicken simple, easy to use and flexible, Mint may not be for you?

 

[Walt34]

We've looked at it but were not comfortable with the online aspect. Still using Quicken and a spreadsheet for the day-to-day tracking.

 

[Onward]

A big reason I use personal finance software is to double check the statements I get from credit cards, banks, etc. I trust my own accounting at least as much as theirs. That means I have to (and want to) enter all transactions manually. A site or product that just parrots the records of my financial services vendors defeats the purpose for me. I've used Quicken for many years and, now that I need something completely portable, I use www.budgetpulse.com .

 

[Bimmerbill]

I use it and like it. It's sort of an after the fact thing tho. It will record your transactions after you make them.

Still, I like the trends and planning tabs. I've gotten a better understanding of where my $ goes.

I don't notice any ads on the internet anymore. I filter them out. Well, except for those dang ones that expand all the way out and force you to click "close" or "continue."

 

[mrgreenpants]

I tried it. Did not like it. The security aspect is one thing but what was really annoying was the constant attempts to push products from financial companies that sponsor the site. Ain't nothing free.

bingo^^

i tried it..ended of deleting it (and a test checking account) due to security concerns...

 

[Rustward]

Mint.com is probably as secure as Vanguard.com, IRS.gov, SSA.gov, or your BofA account. But, yes, it is one more place from which your information may be stolen.

Never been inside a system like Mint (known as single sign-on), but I imagine that Mint establishes a relationship with your financial providers (your cc companies, etc) that is identified not using your userid and password, but with a unique token known only to Mint and the other party, and information is requested using the token. Establishing the token has to be done with a protocol agreed to by both parties. This way, the only identifying information in the financial data is the token, which is known only to Mint and the cc company. The only time your personal data is really at risk is when the token is being established. The mint.com website says they are pretty serious about security: How Mint Personal Finance Management Protects Your Financial Safety - Financial Calculator | Mint.com Take a look.

I would not hesitate to use them for security reasons, but I like the manual Quicken entry method. Pay your money and take your pick.

 

[DeborahB]

Has anyone used Moneydance? moneydance.com - I don't use any of this for budgeting - I only use it to track my financial investments.

 

[winger]

I've used Quicken for at least 15 years, but I'm tired of the problems with Windows Vista. And, I'm not going to pay for a Windows 7 upgrade, when they sold me a POS operating system like Vista.

Anyway, I'm learning Ubuntu, and have made a small Vista partition on my HD to continue Vista- just for Quicken. I've got Mint up and working, and may abandon Vista and Quicken after I'm a little more comfortable with Ubuntu. Still, I have years of financial history in Quicken. But, I never look back much farther than a year.

 

[easysurfer]

I'm quite happy using a simple budget software called Budget Advisor ( Home Budget Software ). The program hasn't been updated in a few years and I wrote the author one time and he said there aren't plans to update it in the near feature.

Actually, that's what I like -- not too many changes, just simple and stable and meets my budgeting needs

 

[bobn23]

While I have signed up for mint.com, I only tried it after using American Express money manager. I was curious if it would build upon Amex's offering. I actually really like money manager, much more than mint with all it's advertisements and Amex displays a calendar that shows all the transactions in each day of the month. It is very slick and I log in all the time. I am closing in on FIRE within a few years and this gives me a very easy way to track my spending.

 

[REWahoo]

Whoa there bobn23! Registered on the forum Jan 2004 and this is your second post? You need to slow down this torrid pace...

 

[growing_older]

but I imagine that Mint establishes a relationship with your financial providers

Do you know that this is what they are doing, or is this supposition? I heard an interview with the founder quite a while ago and he claimed that they do not store any of your account info because they pass it to a "secure" third party who stores it. This doesn't sound like what you describe, but perhaps they have updated their systems since the early days.

 

[Rustward]

Do not know, it is supposition.

Never been inside a system like Mint (known as single sign-on), but I imagine that Mint establishes a relationship with your financial providers (your cc companies, etc) that is identified not using your userid and password, but with a unique token known only to Mint and the other party, and information is requested using the token.

I did work for a while in a bank that used single signon (four letter name beginning with M ending with A) whose primary product was affinity credit cards which was later acquired by another (rather large bank) beginning with B ending with A -- not talking about ticker symbols here, I don't know exactly how single signon is accomplished these days. But for something that is read-only like Mint says they are, the token would be a good way to go.

So the third party can do the token setup, and Mint can just use the token to request your info. If the information is intercepted by a "man in the middle" it is useless to the man in the middle because it contains no identifying information. The thing about these systems is there are zillions of ways to accomplish the same task. However there are standards and regulatory requirements.

Edit to add:
Sometimes my posts are on the technical side. Sorry. I am a technical person.

The main point I was trying to make in the original post is that if you are the CIO (or similar position) of a credit card company and an establishment like Mint.Com requests a b2b connection to you with the intention of downloading cardholder information (your customers' information) you are probably going to check them out pretty thoroughly to see that their security meets your standards.

 

[CoolChange]

Has anyone used Moneydance? moneydance.com - I don't use any of this for budgeting - I only use it to track my financial investments.

I have used Moneydance for several years to track spending and investments as well as to reconcile accounts. I have never really been a budgeter. I don't really like to spend money; so, I have never seen the need for myself.

While I have considered making the move to GnuCash (Free Accounting Software | GnuCash), I will probably just upgrade my Moneydance license at some point. (I really like the idea of using Open Source software; but, Moneydance is cross platform, easy to use, familiar (to me now), and doesn't force me into an upgrade. So, I will probably throw a few dollars at the Moneydance team in the near future.)

 

[DeborahB]

I have used Moneydance for several years to track spending and investments as well as to reconcile accounts. I have never really been a budgeter. I don't really like to spend money; so, I have never seen the need for myself.

While I have considered making the move to GnuCash (Free Accounting Software | GnuCash), I will probably just upgrade my Moneydance license at some point. (I really like the idea of using Open Source software; but, Moneydance is cross platform, easy to use, familiar (to me now), and doesn't force me into an upgrade. So, I will probably throw a few dollars at the Moneydance team in the near future.)

Thanks - I have been using MS Money to track my investment portfolio and they are stopping online updates so I either have to update manually or find another program...!

 

[CoolChange]

Thanks - I have been using MS Money to track my investment portfolio and they are stopping online updates so I either have to update manually or find another program...!

For what it is worth, I used both MS Money and Quicken before Moneydance. And, I like Moneydance better than either of the others.

Obviously, your milage may vary.

The convenience of sites like Mint.com are offset by single point of failure fears for me: If someone breaches security at my local bank, my online bank, or one of my brokers, it could be a headache. But, if someone breached a consolidated Mint.com type account and gained access to ALL of my financial accounts, we move from headache to migraine or worse.

Yes, same issue with having all my data in an app. on my PC; but, I keep the PC fairly physically secure and use strong passwords to encrypt the data files on it. And, I am trying to get better about regular system backups.

 

[DeborahB]

For what it is worth, I used both MS Money and Quicken before Moneydance. And, I like Moneydance better than either of the others.

Obviously, your milage may vary.

The convenience of sites like Mint.com are offset by single point of failure fears for me: If someone breaches security at my local bank, my online bank, or one of my brokers, it could be a headache. But, if someone breached a consolidated Mint.com type account and gained access to ALL of my financial accounts, we move from headache to migraine or worse.

Yes, same issue with having all my data in an app. on my PC; but, I keep the PC fairly physically secure and use strong passwords to encrypt the data files on it. And, I am trying to get better about regular system backups.

Thanks very much, that's very helpful info about Moneydance and also Quicken. The thing I like about Moneydance - which I haven't started using - is that it appears to use yahoo finance for the quotes. It doesn't attach to your investment or bank accounts. Please let me know if this is incorrect.

I do NOT like to keep my financial info online, for the same reason you stated - a single point of failure. I look at it online, I do transactions online... but for example MS Money does not have my account numbers plugged into it, and I just named the accounts in ways that made sense for me.

I don't need a budgeting tool but keeping track of my investments on a daily basis is pretty much a way of life for me. I enjoy it. So any tool where budgeting is the main feature isn't what I need.

I'm going to mess with Moneydance after I retire in a few weeks so if I need to do cleanup and so on, I have time. This assumes I will be less busy - which isn't likely but at least I can prioritize it if I need to.

 

[ESRwannabe]

Just wanted to see if anyone uses Mint.com for their budgeting and spending tracking. Would be curious to hear the good and bad.

Tomcat98

I have never tried it. It seems too risky to me. To track my expenses and investments I wrote my own software to automate the process.

At the end of every month I go to my bank and credit card websites and download the data. Then I run my program on it to parse it up, categorize the data, and add it all up. It spits the data out to a text file.

For my investments I edit a text file every time I buy or sell, and then run a program on it which spits out my AA, percentage costs/divs/yield, etc. That gets written to a text file also.

I like keeping my data in text files. No worries about it becoming unusable due to software discontinuation or the company going out of business and closing down their website where all your data is stored.

 

[CoolChange]

Thanks very much, that's very helpful info about Moneydance and also Quicken. The thing I like about Moneydance - which I haven't started using - is that it appears to use yahoo finance for the quotes. It doesn't attach to your investment or bank accounts. Please let me know if this is incorrect.

I believe this is true; although, I generally just update my values quarterly or semi-anually whenever I reconcile my PC to my online statements. Values for any non-public funds, etc. (such as those in many retirement accounts) have to entered manually. (At least, this is how it works on my very old copy of this software.) You may have to install an additional (free) plug-in to get the Yahoo! quotes.

I'm going to mess with Moneydance after I retire in a few weeks so if I need to do cleanup and so on, I have time. This assumes I will be less busy - which isn't likely but at least I can prioritize it if I need to.

You may run into some issues if you try to import a lot of history from other applications; but, I think you will encounter these issues with whatever you move to. Mine were actually fairly minor going to Moneydance. And, you can play with it for free for a while.

I like keeping my data in text files. No worries about it becoming unusable due to software discontinuation or the company going out of business and closing down their website where all your data is stored.

This was actually one of the reasons I moved to Moneydance initially. It keeps data in XML files which I could easily pull into a database, reformat as plain text, etc. Even though I have not actually done any of the analysis I had planned for this data, I do like keeping the option open for a future project.