Tuesday Tip: Mint.com - Budgeting Made Easy

Have you been putting off a budget because it seems too difficult or complicated? When I started doing a budget, I used a spreadsheet and entered everything manually. It was so time consuming, especially entering all receipts, and I knew there had to be a better way. That's when I discovered Mint.com. It has made doing a budget super fast and easy, and the best part is that the cost is FREE!

Getting started is easy! Once you create an account, add your online accounts for all of your finances including bank accounts, credit card accounts, retirement accounts, mortgage accounts, investment accounts, etc.

I've been asked if I felt my information is safe and secure, and the short answer is yes. This is a product owned by Intuit - the creators of Turbo Tax, Quickbooks, and Quicken. I have been using Turbo Tax to file my taxes for over a decade, and have never had a problem with any of my sensitive information being compromised. 

One of the biggest advantages of Mint is the convenience of being able to sign in to one place and be able to see what is happening with all of my financial accounts! This screenshot gives you an idea of what the software looks like when you open it up (this is an older version, so the interface is slightly different now, but not much). This first page is an overview of your financial status.

Next is the Transactions tab. This is what makes doing the budget so easy. All transactions are pulled from your accounts, so there is no entering receipts manually! Under "Category" you use the drop-down menu to choose which budget it goes under. As you set categories, Mint is "smart" and starts marking transactions for you, based on your history. It's so easy, and only takes a few minutes to update each month. Time is no longer an excuse to not have a current budget!

Which brings me to the next important tab: Budgets. Here is where you budget how much income you should receive, then set spending budgets. Helpful Tip: You want your spending budgets to equal much less than your income! It will take a few months of tracking spending to get an idea of what your monthly budgets should be. Give yourself some time to get used to the software, and to find out where your money is going. Once you are able to set your monthly budgets, try hard to stay within them. One feature I like is doing roll-over budgets for things like gas and food; if you spend less one month, you have extra to spend the next month without changing your monthly budget amount. It's also nice to be able to go back and view how much you spent in certain categories for an entire year. This can be helpful when filing taxes; I can quickly find my charitable contributions, etc.

The last feature I want to go over is setting goals. I used this when I very first joined Mint to build an emergency fund. As you can see, you can choose a goal or create a custom goal. For example: when you save for an emergency, you tell them which account you want it to be in; then, whatever extra money you have after your budgets, they consider that money saved for your emergency fund and tell you how close you are getting to meeting your goal. It's great! They will also help you pay off debt, and have calculators to determine how much to budget to get them paid off by a certain time.

FYI: Mint also has an App for your phone! For me, it isn't as easy to set budgets, or change categories as the desktop version; however, I do like to use it to look at the overview, or check transactions once in a while.

If you are looking for an easy way to get started on a budget, give Mint.com a try! You won't regret knowing where your money is going, and it will help you change the way you spend. Good Luck!