Are You Tracking Your Budget, Cash Flow, and Net Worth? [Dumb Little Man] “Tracking your net worth on some sort of regular schedule is a must for anyone serious about decreasing debt and increasing wealth.”

11 moves to supercharge your finances [Smart Spending] “11 steps you can take to easily improve your finances in the coming year.”

The Damage of Card Rewards [NY Times] “It’s possible that the poor pay subsidies to finance the rewards of the affluent.”

How Poker Can Make You a Better Investor “Learn to avoid emotional traps by playing a little Texas hold ’em.”

The Future of Plastic: 5 Credit Trends for 2010 [Smart Money] “If 2009 was the year of hammering out credit-card reform, 2010 will be the year consumers feel the effects of those changes.”

— FREE MONEY FINANCE

Comments

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1. @rww there's a new UK personal finance site in beta called @MoneyDashboard http://www.moneydashboard.com/

    Posted by: Steven Renwick |
   January 7, 2010 12:22 PM

2. Also don't forget freeagent http://www.freeagentcentral.com/ – it's great for the self employed in the UK, with built in invoice tracking and self-assessment.

   Posted by: Andy B |
   January 7, 2010 2:21 PM

3. I have used mint off and on. I love how the design and user interface, but I wish it would work with the bank that holds my checking account. Perhaps i'll try out some of your other suggestions. Thanks for the info!

   JG
   loanpointusa

   Posted by: Joe |
   January 7, 2010 2:35 PM

4. I've been very happy with Xpenser. I can setup a budget and record expenses with email and sms (it also does twitter and im and a few other things). The main thing for me is ease of use so I stick with it, and this is the only one simple enough to stay with.

   Posted by: Paula |
   January 7, 2010 3:33 PM

5. For those looking for a more proactive approach to managing finances and budgeting (versus the reactive reporting approach supported by most tools), check out the Easy Envelope Budget Aid, built natively for Android and the mobile Web. It's based on the envelope budgeting approach of setting aside cash for particular expenses–in advance–and then spending out of those categories on a declining balance basis. Stop before you run out of your balance as opposed to find out after-thefact that you overspent.

   EEBA lets you check your envelope balances and record transactions at point of sale allowing you to carry your virtual “envelopes” with you.

   We're in open Beta right now, website at www.eebacanhelp.com

   Posted by: Chi-Ming @ EEBA |
   January 7, 2010 5:27 PM

6. Where is Mint's mobile site? I've never seen it.

    Posted by: Sivan |
   January 7, 2010 6:08 PM

7. There is also Serbian money management web application Slamarica . It's oriented not just for Serbia, but for all Adriatic region. There's more info on Digg http://digg.com/business_finance/Serbian_No_1_money_management_home_finance_web_application

    Posted by: Nemanja Djordjevic |
   January 9, 2010 1:04 AM

8. Thanks for this article. I'm looking forward to the rest. I find it interesting that http://moneycenter.yodlee.com doesn't show up more often in personal finance software reviews. It's free as well, and is quite feature rich. Part of the problem is Yodlee doesn't do that much to market the consumer side. (For good reason, they give it away.

    Posted by: Philip Eoute |
   January 9, 2010 9:54 PM

9. @Chi-Ming thanks for telling us about EEBA. I'm definitely trying that out!

    Posted by: Philip Eoute |
   January 9, 2010 9:55 PM

10. @Philip, you're welcome. We're iterating quickly, so let us know what you think!

    Posted by: Chi-Ming @ EEBA |
    January 9, 2010 11:01 PM

11. I just love Mint… simple and easy to use… user friendly.. what can I say! Thumb up!

    Posted by: RichDadWisdom |
    January 10, 2010 6:46 AM

12. But with any of the above: (1) can you manually add accounts not on their automated list; (2) multiple currency feature; (3) mobile/iPhone app?

    I've tried Mint and Wesabe. Mint is US-only. Wesabe has dreadful import (all tags/categories are lost) and doesn't believe in account reconciliation (”Why would want that feature?” was their reply; perhaps b/c it's the oldest accounting feature in the book and I don't trust a bank's statement.)

    I'm with MoneyWell (which uses envelope accounting), and is serving me well enough. But everyone's been waiting well over a year for a promised iPhone app.

    I would pay handsomely for any online financial programme that satisfied all 3 feature requests above.

    Posted by: Mr Ulster |
    January 11, 2010 6:22 AM

13. In the uk theres http://www.inniaccounts.co.uk, but it's more for contractors

    Posted by: Toby |
    January 11, 2010 11:47 PM

14. I started using Mint but quickly realized that its sponsors and partners, the big banks, don't want you to use cash. Most of these “free” sites to manage your money encourage one thing – card use. Whether it's credit cards or debit cards, they make using and tracking them easy, and using and tracking cash difficult. This is because the banks all make money on card transactions, whether they are debit or credit based. They make no money on cash transactions. One of the best ways to save money and control spending is by using cash, and none of these services encourage that, by their design.

    Posted by: B |
    January 13, 2010 11:54 AM

15. Interesting article – what is the revenue model for sites like Mint, Kublax, MoneyStrands if the resource is free?

    Posted by: Ciaran O'Reilly |
    January 14, 2010 7:05 AM

16. Mvelopes also offers online personal finance management. It isn't free but I like the envelope based budgeting which forces you to cut down on spending. It also offers mobile access so you can track your spending while you're out shopping.

    Posted by: Valerie @ Finance Software Store |
    January 14, 2010 5:28 PM

17. I wonder how Cloud computing will influence online financial transactions. I am waiting to see what security issues evolve first.

    Posted by: Stop Home Foreclosure |
    January 18, 2010 5:53 PM

18. Does anyone have any recommendations for Australia?

    Posted by: Marksin |
    January 21, 2010 2:07 PM

19. How do users of these web-based financial programs feel about having their financial data available to these companies and the problematic privacy issues?

    Posted by: Jeff |
    January 23, 2010 3:38 PM

20. Yes, but does Mint allow you to export all your data (including tags/categories) so that you could port it into another program? As far as I can tell, it doesn't. I have several years of data built up using Quicken for Mac. This represents not only a lot of work on my part, but an important resource for understanding my spending patterns (not to mention for calculating capital gains/losses on stock transactions come tax time). I've gotten sick of Quicken's sucky user interface (and the fact that it doesn't run natively on an Intel/Leopard mac) and I'm going to switch either to iBank or Moneywell (haven't decided yet). These are both desktop programs. iBank already has an iPhone app that synchronizes with the desktop version, and Moneywell is building one. Importing all of my old data from Quicken into either of these programs will be a piece of cake, as will exporting from these programs should I change my mind later. They also talk with my bank, just as Mint does. With my data synchronized to my iPod touch, I'll have continuous access to it, all without losing control over it. The problem with Mint is that once you start spending time customizing your data, adding tags, etc, you can't leave the Mint interface without losing your work. I'm not going to use any platform that attempts to hold me hostage like that.

    Posted by: Sarah |
    January 24, 2010 11:33 AM

21. In the UK we've been developing the new one on lovemoney.com – be good to know what you think of that too. https://www.lovemoney.com/onlinebanking/

     Posted by: emma davies |
    January 29, 2010 3:31 AM

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