I'm obsessed with our finances...
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Anonymous
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Ever since I pulled it all together on mint.com I'm obsessed with tracking our finances. It's so easy to see everything so I refresh all the time. Then I find myself thinking about finances at night too. I never used to as much. Now that I can see the big picture and all the details I think about all the ways that we frittered away money over the years... Anyone else do this too?
BTW, we just normal middle class folks... |
Anonymous
| I don't use mint.com or anything but I do track everything really really closely on excel charts and calendars.. |
Anonymous
| I do this too. I check Mint multiple times a day. I look at all my transactions, trying to figure out where all the money goes and what I should or shouldnt have purchased. |
Anonymous
| My husband does this on mint.com every single day. Me, just once in a while so I know what's going on. |
Anonymous
| I am kind of like this too. I check our online banking account everyday and track our spending down with each and every purchase. It makes me feel organized and in control. We are normal middle class folk too... |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| OP here... I sit and think about stupid expenses like years of subscriptions to services that we really didn't use (Angie's list or whatever), and where is that money. A few loans we made to people that were emotional and of course never got paid back. Not to mention thousands of beers or cups of coffee or my husband's 10 years of smoking... With mint now I can see every penny. Wish I had had this info and perspective a lot earlier. We're doing OK but if we had only done better! |
Anonymous
| Unclench, people. |
Anonymous
| looking for a way to track finances and haven't seen mint.com recommended. I take it everyone here loves it and it's the best? |
Anonymous
| I can't compare to anything else, but it's pretty user friendly. Tracks all transactions on debit, credit cards (linked to your bank accounts), plus your other investment/retirement/529 accounts, etc. You can add other info like your mortgage or other debt. Shows your net worth. You can set budgets and it reminds you when you go over. |
Anonymous
| I do this too. Check mint at least once a day. It's fun to be on top of it! |
Anonymous
| I LOVE mint.com. Even bought stock in Intuit. That's where the future is going! |
Anonymous
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I don't think there's a problem with it, OP. To be honest, you're probably also still in the "honeymoon" phase with mint.com (which I have heard from several people that it is great). It'll probably die down a bit with time.
I'm similar, I'm an accountant and have set up a home budget / joint account income statement / personal income statement. Sounds like a lot, but just basically one large spreadsheet with monthly in/outflows of cash. My wife jokes with me and says that I spend a lot of time with it (and that I'm a dork, which I can't argue), but I've calmed down with it over time. But it's nice, I can see exactly where we are on a monthly basis, and if something comes up, I have answers - if we can pay cash, if we need to put on credit, how long it would take to pay off, etc. Knowledge is power, and with the amount of problems that can come out of bad cash management, I don't really see there being much of a problem. Cheers! |
Anonymous
| Be sure to take advantage of the goal setting. Forget the day to day budget - the real obsession is how long it will take you to have your next million invested. |
Anonymous
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I'm obsessed too (and trying not to obsess about how much I wasted in my 20s highlighting my hair and buying lattes...) but I don't find Mint that useful. What do you all like about it? I have a spreadsheet that shows upcoming expenses and check our online bank accounts. I'm tempted by PNC's virtual wallet--does anyone use that? I'd hate to leave our credit union though.
Bad news is we only have $300 in variable spending account until Thursday and DH has monthly golf date this weekend. Good news is, I know that and all bills and savings are covered and a year ago it would be Thursday night before I'd realized we'd dipped into the savings account. We'll be dining in this weekend. But Mint users, tell me what you love. |