Budget Yourself with mint.com
If at the end of each month, you find yourself wondering where your money went, or if you are wondering how your credit card bill got to be so big, or if you aren’t satisfied with the way your money is being distributed on pay-day then it is likely that you need to gain more awareness on where your money is going.
I’ve been using mint for many years. Before mint, I used to use spreadsheets or write my expenses down somewhere on a piece of paper (and that doesn’t take long to get messy and confusing – causing us sometimes to give up on budgeting over all).
Mint.com allows you to connect all your bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages, loans, investment accounts – all in one place. Everyday, it goes in and downloads all the transactions you have made and automatically groups them into the customized categories you create such as groceries, fast food, mortgage payments, phone bills, etc. And, it even reminds you when certain bills are due so that you never miss a payment! It also automatically creates beautiful charts to show you how you spent your money on a weekly or monthly basis – and emails you with notifications.
Of course, it’s not all “automatic” – you have to spend some time training the tool to know what each expense is, and you have to monitor to make sure everything is getting categorized correctly. But it does take a lot of the work off your plate.
You can go in at any given time and see how much you have spent and where you have spent it. On top of that, you can create budgets and track your specific budgets for food, gas, and cell phone bills. It really helps to simplify one of the most important areas of your life: your finances.
It is a great tool to explore. If it looks scary, you can always book a free consultation and I or someone from my team would be happy to help you setup your account!
