creanium.net

So I’ve actually been using Mint for the last 7 months, and I’m happy to report that I’m still using it. Not consistently every day or anything, but at least once a week I go in and check all my transactions. That’s remarkable considering all the times I tried to use Microsoft Money or Quicken (or even some of the lesser finance applications like Cha-Ching) and those forays lasted maybe 2-3 weeks before I got tired of using them and just quit.

What makes Mint different is the fact that it removes all the fat of Money or Quicken. The biggest difference between Mint and all the others is how they get their data. The others expect you to enter your transactions manually and then use the data the program downloads from your bank to reconcile those chargers; but Mint exclusively uses the data it gets from your bank.

So you log in to Mint, it downloads the latest transactions from your bank, then you go through and categorize your new income and expenses and that’s it.

You can set up a budget, and you can track all your expenses and see where your money goes. The beauty of Mint is its simplicity. It’s not bogged down by all the superfluous features of Quicken or Money. It gives you the basics of expense tracking, reporting, and budgeting, and that’s all I need.

(Oh, and it has what I consider to be the best user interface of any web application to date.)