Mint

I was checking out Mint.com, partly to see how good it was and partly to check out the UI. The interface is nice and easy to use. The product itself seems great at first (if you are a Quicken user, like me, you initially still prefer Quicken but not at the price difference). Then you check out some of the details and you realize that Mint needs some good QA.

One recent example. I logged on to Mint and immediately saw an alert:

This month you spent $700 on gas. Normally you spend $50.

I like that Mint tries to analyze your spending to help you save money. But remember, I live in Brooklyn. I drive twice a month. I don’t spend $700 a year on gas. It turns out that the nearest bank to me (half a block) is Marathon Bank. Apparently Mint thinks this is a gas station (there are, after all, Marathon gas stations). I withdrew $700 this month at that ATM.

So Mint is nice, but clearly not perfect.

But my weekly Mint email had the following tip:

Three Principles of Personal Finance

Personal finance is simple.

1. Spend less than you earn.
2. Make the money you have work for you.
3. Be prepared for the unexpected.

That’s really it. It’s not that complicated.

If you don’t have Quicken or Microsoft Money and don’t want to spend any money on personal finance software, check out Mint. It’s not perfect, but it is free and it’s pretty good.