Best Free Money-Management Software – Mint

Posted on 23. Jun, 2009 by Holly in Free Software, Ways to Save Money

Are you struggling to save money and monitor your spending? I was – until I found Mint.

Mint is without a doubt the absolute best money-management software I have ever used in my life. And, I have tried so many programs – I’ve purchased Quicken, Mvelopes and other popular budgeting tools. It was all a waste of time and effort – requiring me to manually input the money spent and try to figure out how to analyze all the data. I am not very good at handling all of it – and avoidance was my first choice – until I found Mint. I’d like to say that I am not an affiliate for the company and this recommendation is because I am grateful for such an incredible time and money-saving software program.

Take the Work Out of Managing Your Money

Mint is the most useful software program for money-management that I have ever come across. It takes all the work out of managing your money – leaving you with an easy way to balance the bills and follow a budget that suits you best.

All of Your Accounts in One Place – Even Paypal

One of the most incredible features is that Mint allows you to manage all of your accounts in one place. I added my bank accounts, my Paypal account, and my stocks from Scottrade. Once your accounts are integrated into Mint, they are being updated daily (or hourly) with your spending and earnings. Not only that, they are automatically categorized for you. For example, if I go shopping at Walmart and use my debit card – Mint will automatically categorize that into the Shopping: Walmart category. I didn’t need to manually create it – it was already there. All the categories are already there – and if you want to place certain purchases in a new category – you can alter it and make mass changes with the click of a button. It lets you see exactly what you’re spending your money on – and how you can save and cut costs. You also have budgeting tools that are simple to use.

Take Mint with you on your iPhone

I recently purchased an iPhone – and if you don’t have one – they are currently priced at $99 only. If you have an iPhone you can download the Mint application that allows you to take your Mint stats with you on the go. If you’re out and about and are tempted to buy that new thing you want – you may want to know your balances and if you’re over budget for the month. With this iPhone application, you can view all your account balances and your budget – on-the-go. Download the iPhone application for Mint here.

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Tags: finance software, free budget software, Free Software, mint, money mangement

14 Responses to “Best Free Money-Management Software – Mint”

Jenna

23. Jun, 2009

This is definitely a post I needed! I have such a hard time managing money. I am unorganized and always overwhelmed when it comes to finances. I do the bills in my house…my husband is the spender, and I am the practical one, go figure. lol
I am going to try the program…how do you input your purchases?…Does it track your expenses directly from the credit cards and ATM card when you use them? Im a little confused. If that’s the case, I am sold! Thanks!

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- Holly
  
  23. Jun, 2009
  
  Jenna it is so amazing because it does everything for you and you never need to input anything. It will change the way I do taxes this year for sure.
Dustin

23. Jun, 2009

I have been “using” Mint now for a little over a year. I say “using” in quotes because I really don’t check it out all that often…my wife does most of our bill paying and whatnot. But…I do have a couple of suggestions for users.

1) Yes, Mint will pull the data from your credit card and bank accounts, but it is making assumptions about what those purchases are. It will be more accurate if you check it out from time to time to see if that $5 charge at the gas station was really for gas or if it was because you needed to run in and grab some something from the convenience store.

2) If you are using this on your iPhone, make sure you are using auto-lock and passcode lock (the shorter the lockout time, the more secure). You can even take it a step further and add “Erase Data” which will erase everything on your iPhone after 10 failed passcode attempts. It might sound extreme – especially since it doesn’t appear that the iPhone app holds anything but transaction data, but we’re talking personal information such as income and spending habits. If you lost your phone, would you want the finder to have access to all that data?

Other than that…this is a cool program. It’s web accessible and portable with an iPhone app. You can pretty much check your balances and transactions at any time and with the way it monitors where your money goes, you know where you stand on your budget!

Reply to this comment
- Holly
  
  23. Jun, 2009
  
  Thanks for the great advice Dustin – definitely important to protect the bank account information on the iPhone.
Davin-The Viral Sanctuary

23. Jun, 2009

Wow! Is that ever something I need. I’ve got to be the absolute worst when it comes to managing money.

As with Jenna’s statement….maybe it’s cause I’m a man..not that practical….I don’t know! But I do know, I’m one that is all for avoidance..probably cause I just don’t have a clue how to do it properly.

I’m definitely going to have a look at this…it’s something I’ve been avoiding for way to long…it’s usually on that…”one of these days lists”…

Thanx Holly!

Reply to this comment
- Holly
  
  23. Jun, 2009
  
  I am also horrible with managing money Davin! I am so sorry it’s not available outside of the USA – I had no idea.
Normal Joe

23. Jun, 2009

Definitely looks like a nice little application, I’m gonna have to check it out and see what’s good with it.

thanks.

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Davin-The Viral Sanctuary

23. Jun, 2009

Awww…bummer…it’s not available for Canadians…figures! Oh well, hopefully soon….

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Irish Tom

23. Jun, 2009

Hi Holly
Once again you have found a fantastic service. I have been in and done a bit of “poking around” and it seems secure and professional.
I do all the banking at home on line and this would sure help things, especially letting my wife see what she is spending LOL.
I am always a bit cautious giving my log in details to a third party, so I will remain cautious until I get used to the system. Remarkable.
Thank you again
Tom

PPS again..How can I put my photo on this site. I am lost!!

Reply to this comment
Holly

24. Jun, 2009

Hi Tom!
I hope you enjoy the software – let me know how you like it ok! And I am so sorry for not telling you this sooner – as I know you have asked and I forgot where you are supposed to do this…but you should upload an image (Gravatar) here: http://en.gravatar.com/ and when you post on blogs online your photo will automatically show up next to your comments. It’s a globally recognized photo service – so once you signup for free and upload the image and some details – you’re good to go!

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Deneil Merritt

24. Jun, 2009

Looks like something that will come in handy for me and my girlfriend. She always seem to spend a little too much.

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Tom

24. Jun, 2009

Thanks so much Holly.
I will follow up on this today.

On another subject, I just seen the most remarkle You-Tube video which will move you all to tears.
It is about a young guy (your age Holly) called Nick Vujick who does not have any limbs. He is so full of life and visits schools etc to to give hope to others. Go to his site at
http://www.LifeWithoutLimbs.org It is fasinating.
I talked to my wife Cheryl who manages a large medical practice and suggested if the video was run looped all day, she wouldn’t have so many complaining patients.

I think this is one site we need to promote, especially in our field of Internet Marketers, to show no matter how tough life is at our end, there are heros out there like Nick.
Have a great day
Tom

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Anna

25. Jun, 2009

Davin, Quicken online is very similar. Not sure if that one might be available in Canada. It does pull the data from your Bank Account and Paypal accounts etc, and automatically file expenditures according to categories you set. It gives pie graphs to show you where you are spending your money as well Also, for US citizens at least, it is integrated with Turbo Tax. So when it is time to do your taxes, you just important all of your data from Quicken Online to Turbo Tax and it is all categorized.

Turbo Tax also helps you calculate your taxes, creates a tax return for you based on your answers to its questions, and makes it very simple to do so.

Mint might be better – I should try it. Sometimes I had issues with Quicken Online but I am not sure if it was my internet connection or not. Mint definitely sounds interesting! But hopefully there are alternatives for Canadians.

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Bill Vlasak

27. Jun, 2009

I for one only like to shop when I have extra money and I don’t manage my money well.When I was away from home for days at a time for years I let my wife do the finances and she still is very good at it.She could make use of such a program like mint ,nonetheless ,instead of more complex accounting software on the computer but she will only ,thus far ,use the computer sparingly ,unlike me.

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