Mint.com - a fresh way to save and watch your cash

Do you know how much money you’ve spent, altogether throughout the month of May so far? I know what I’ve spent- to the penny. $301.25 between my chequing and credit card accounts. I also know my net income from December through May and the exact amount I spent on lottery tickets in February (won $0.00). Now, I’m not one of those people who carry a little black book around with them, writing down every transaction they make- because I have other things to do and I’m not 83. My tight lock on how much I’m spending and how I’m spending it is owed 100% to mint.com

Mint.com is a website that connects all of one’s personal banking, lending and investing all through one interface. I first read about mint.com in Ramit Sethi’s book, “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” (which I would highly reccomend to anyone whose got financial goals). When I first started using mint.com, I realized that my saving over months was basically equal to my spending, in other words: I was completely irresponsible with my money.

The best part of mint.com in my opinion are the overviews of how you are spending. You can check out pie-charts of what you spent money on month by month, as well as budget for each month of the future and make long term financial goals. In other words: I once was financially lost, but now am found.

Mint.com also sends you personal emails, telling you when bills are due and when you are charged fees on accounts. It then calculates how much money you’ll be paying yearly on the fee that was charged- which was an eye-opening experience in itself for me. I just logged on to mint.com to see that I’ve spent over $500.00 in the last six months, a useful little info-nugget. If you do use cash more often, mint.com also gives the option to enter cash transactions manually

Ever since realizing that I’ve had to save, I’ve noticed a drastic difference in my bank accounts. Cutting out little things like fast food and other “want” spending have allowed me to save for my bucket-list that always seemed to get pushed off to the side before I discovered how beneficial and easy being a nerd with money is.

www.mint.com – do yourself a favour and check it out!

Thanks to CGehlen for the photo!