31 October 2007 1118 views 3 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

It’s amazing how technology has progressed and how its affecting our everyday lives. My parent’s method of money management was the old school “big pile of paper in a file” method. I use the word management loosely. Their method of tracking expenses were piling bills up and writing checks out on certain days of the month. The only way they kept track of their money was through whatever bank statements they receive in the mail. That method is becoming extinct because that is no longer efficient. Balances change on a daily basis, so you need an easier and faster way of tracking those changes to make sure you are not being hit with late fees, erroneous bank fees, overdraft fees, and even the fees associated with identity theft. We have more bills than ever, so we need a tool to make sure they are correct and paid on time. Online banking is a great start, but its not exactly fun logging in to 10 different financial institution’s websites to view your bank, credit card, or mortgage account all in different formats. Luckily for us, we have some great tools available to us that lets us manage our money efficiently and securely. The big name paid software are Microsoft Money and Quicken. Recently, a website called Mint.com came on the scene and offers a lot of great features for a great price, free.

Microsoft Money And Quicken

These are the common paid software options that many people use. They have been around for a while, and they are based on a double entry book keeping spreadsheet. These two programs are the most detailed and precise that I have used. Basically, you add all of your accounts with online access to this program by entering your user name and password for each financial institution. When you’re done setting it up, you’ll see a whole list of your accounts and their balances all on one page. You can track expenses easily with their nice looking pie chart that breaks down your expenses into different categories. There is also a billpay section where you can set up your bank account from which bills are paid from. You can then pay your bills directly from within the program. In Microsoft Money, there is a neat calender where you can write which bills are due on a certain date. Basically, what these programs offer is your entire financial situation all in one place. With one login, you are viewing all your accounts, paying bills and managing your expenses.

Mint.com

There is now a new kid on the block when it comes to money management software. Mint.com offers a lot of the features MS Money and Quicken offer for free. This is online based software where you login through their servers rather than a program on your system. They make money by recommending different financial products throughout the pages and in exchange earning a commission. Mint is still in their beta stage and will likely improve down the line.

After trying out Mint for a day, I found some good and bad things. In general, Mint offers a more simple solution than the paid programs. It’s more for people who want to see all their accounts on one page, and track their expenses easily without going into deep detail and managing every dime. I find that the interface is very appealing and easy on the eyes. It’s very user friendly. One thing they got the paid software beat on is the fact that your accounts are synchronized with Mint every evening. So your account balances are almost always up to date. With MS Money, I have to update my accounts every time I log in and it takes about five minutes. Mint also provide many innovative tools from within the interface, such as comparison charts:

What I did not like about Mint.com is the fact that they did not support brokerage accounts. I was really bummed because that causes a fundamental error in the software. My brokerage account takes up a large chunk of my accounts and it defeats the purpose of the software if I can’t see it from within the interface. Also, without the double entry system, it makes it hard to catch bank mistakes. But like I said, Mint is more for the everyday person who just needs a practical solution, while focusing on the big picture rather than the small details. If they address these issues in the future than the paid software will have a run for their money.

What’s The Best?

For a simple everyday solution that is easy to set up, give Mint a shot. It’s not that bad if this is your first money management program. For me, I’ve used Quicken before but recently switched to MS Money Plus Home and Business. I chose this because it allows me to manage my personal and business accounts all in one place, something that Mint can’t do. Well, I can sit here and write about all the great features these programs offer as well as the good and bad, but to find out which best suits you, you’ll have to see for yourself. I suggest you try Mint first since its free and its very user friendly. Then you can grow into MS Money or Quicken. They take some getting used to, but once you’re set up you’ll wonder why you never used these programs years ago.