The Bottom Line
Score: 4.5 on a 1-5 scale.
Percent: 91%
Updated 03/23/2011
Pros
- Features are easy to use, yet fast and powerful.
- Flexible budgeting tool allows for experimenting with difference scenarios.
- Sends financial summaries and alerts via email or text message.
- Tax tools integrated with TurboTax.
- iPhone and Android apps, Best Mobile App Award
Cons
- Does not reconcile accounts.
- No running account balances in account registers.
- Does not support multiple currencies.
- Can't assign multiple savings goals to one account.
Description
- Email or SMS cell alerts for unusual account activity, when a bill is due, or an account has a low balance.
- Bank level data security policies for account aggregation.
- Financial reports are easily customized and provide information in easy-to-read pie charts and bar graphs for fast analysis.
- Can create spending and income categories on the fly, without leaving the feature you're using.
- Downloads from over 16,000 financial institutions.
- Mint handles automatically categorizing downloaded transactions very well.
- Easy to find, very useful help resources. Systems alerts let you know if updates are being held up.
- Can add value of home, car or other assets for accurate net worth.
- Mint.com is fun to use for managing a budget, bills and personal finance accounts.
Guide Review - Mint.com Personal Finance Software Review
Expense categories are automatically assigned to transactions--accurately, for the most part. Transactions are easily edited and creating transaction splits is easy as well. Optional tags can be assigned to transactions for more detailed financial reporting or a very refined budget.
Mint.com is easy to navigate, with top tabs for sections of the software: Overview, Transactions, Budgets, Goals, Trends (reports), Investments and Ways to Save.
Flexible Budget Tool
Budget for as many categories as you like, and use the "everything else" category if you don't want to budget for everything. To set up a budget, click on "create a budget", choose a category and an amount to budget for every month, once, or once every 2-12 months. The Budgets page also shows you budgeted income, spending and spending goals with how much money is left over.
Financial Goals
The Goals page is for setting up short-term to long-term savings goals, such as establishing an emergency fund or reducing debt. Goals are attached to one of your accounts for tracking. But, you can only have one savings goals per account, so if you save for multiple goals in one money market account or savings account, the Goals feature is not useful. Mint.com needs to allow for assigning multiple goals to one account in a future update.
Personal Finance Reports
A variety of simple but very customizable reports are available on the Trends page. View your spending by the current month or click on a past month on the tool at the top of the page to zoom in on past spending. Selectable report variables are last year, last month, and all time, with filters for category or merchant (payee) and comparisons to last month's spending, cities, states, and more. Graphs to Try is a nice feature that lets you discover reports that answer a question such as, "How is my net worth changing over time?".
Investments and Ways to Save
Mint's graphical investment reports are uncomplicated yet detailed enough to keep most people in touch with their portfolio. Reports for performance, value, asset allocation and comparison to market indices have selectable time-frames range from 1 day to the day you started tracking investments.
The Ways to Save page offers up deals on credit card and other financial account, a home loans analyzer and insurance products. These customized deals are relevant to your financial needs according to your activity in Mint.
Mint Works
No personal finance software will be perfect for everyone, but Mint.com will work for people of all ages and in just about any stage of life with a feature set and easy-of-use that is be hard to beat. Visit Mint.com
