When I'm not grooming my polo ponies or watching the help tidy my yacht, I find it relaxing to examine my finances. Oh, there was a time when I was like you. No servants, no exotic sports car collection, no top hat. But then I discovered Mint, a free financial management website.
At first glance, it might not appear much different than the online checking services offered by your personal bank. But astute first glances are what separate those of us who roll cigars with hundred dollar bills from those of you who roll cigarettes with strips of worn newspaper.
After entering your checking account credentials—note that Mint uses the same security measures as most banks, keeping your account secure—the site lists your check register and balance. It also allows you to enter each of your credit cards, and your mortgage, and your car loans and personal loans and student loans and credit lines and 401k and investment portfolios, among other accounts. It even lets you list PayPal. The result is an unfettered view of your financial status with intuitive charts and graphs.
But that is only a small part of Mint's magic. It analyzes your expenditures and breaks them down by category. (That is to say, when it sees McDonalds on your Visa, it automatically files it under Fast Food. When it sees La Truffe Sauvage, it files it under Dining. In this respect, it's also casting judgment on your palette.) It paints a complete portrait, to the penny, of your purchases across accounts and through time, and does so with no user involvement.
The upshot of this is an immediate means of financial self-evaluation that is always up to date. It allows the user to set financial goals based on accurate numbers, and make careful decisions about which corners to cut, and where. In a down economy, belt tightening is a way of life. Mint not only tells you where to tighten the belt, but handles the buckle for you, as well.
It is especially useful when used in conjunction with a pen-and-paper check register. Whenever an underhanded ATM fee or other nebulous service charge is deducted from your account, it fires an immediate email or text message alert, helping achieve that ever-elusive checkbook that's accurate to the penny. It also sends alerts for payments due and interest rate changes, and offers warnings whenever your account falls below a predefined threshold. In this respect, Mint takes the fear out of finances, and helps even the laziest or most fiscally clueless take charge of his or her account.
When I'm at the vacation house in Prague—or is it Paris? These days, it's hard to keep up with my sprawling real estate—I like the freedom that a web-based financial management suite brings. Since the dawn of personal computing, we've been tethered to desktop software and the possibility of crashed hard drives and data loss. Those days are no more. Microsoft Money? So last year. (No, really, it's last year; Microsoft has discontinued the program.) Quicken, too, has seen the light and released an online competitor for Mint, but does not allow data imports from the desktop version, removing its only potential edge.
On-the-go, Mint is accessible through an iPhone app. (I carry around my iPhone in my smoking jacket, when I don't feel like delegating telephone duties to my personal assistant.) The app is nicely featured, offering full account overviews, as well as cash flow and budget reports.
I didn't always wear a monocle or have a swimming pool filled with cash. But with Mint as my guide, I've been able to cope with the recession and make wise choices with my money. Now you'll have to excuse me. My helicopter is fueled and primed to get me to the airport where my private jet awaits. The coral reefs of Bora Bora aren't going to snorkel themselves.
Mint Software, Inc. (http://www.mint.com)
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