The amount of time I spend online can only be classified as unhealthy. While the oncoming bout of scurvy is sure to put a cramp in my style, one of the upsides is coming across random sites and services that I think might be useful to fellow Hiffers. I’ve been using one such site for almost two years now and frankly, it rocks. Long story short, if you’re not using Mint.com, you’re missing out.
If you’re anything like me, you have tons of financial institution sites that you can log into. Banks, online savings accounts, credit cards, retirement services, student loans, investments. The only thing harder than logging into each of them every day is trying to figure out how to match my clothes in the morning. Navy blue and neon pink go together, right?
Enter Mint.com. It’s a site that allows you to access all of your financial information in one place. When I log in, it also logs into all of my accounts and updates my balances as well as recent activity. Worried about security? They use 128-bit SSL encryption, which in Nerd Language means the same stuff that banks use when you pay bills online or buy something from Amazon.
Seeing how much money you have in all your accounts only scratches the surface of what the site does. One feature is setting up budgets. Take me: I have a serious addiction to iTunes. Be it music, TV shows, iPhone apps – it doesn’t matter. Having them only clicks away is dangerous enough, but when everything is only $1 here and $2 there, it’s easy to lose track of how much I’m really spending each month. So what I do is tell Mint.com that I only want to spend $20 a month on iTunes and then it’ll not only start monitoring it for me, but send me an alert when I’m getting close to my limit.
I could delve into a million other little features they have (iPhone app, credit card & investment suggestions based on your spending habits, etc.) but by now I’d simply suggest checking out the site. Even if you’re still skittish, just have a look around. It’s a phenomenal service and most important, it’s free!
