Tip From the Bank: Mint.com

Now that you have decided to pwn your debt, you need to figure out how! Mint.com is a great tool to help you do just that! My husband and I have been using it for almost 2 years; we love it and it has been quintessential for helping us reach our goals of debtlessness! My husband's brother initially showed it to us to help with budgeting as we start out. Since then we have shared it with anyone who will listen.

Why Mint.com?

1. Easily tracks your spending.

• This alone would have made me use Mint.com, I frequently do not have time, or would rather spend my time elsewhere, to track all of my transactions and totals, for the weeks and months, not to mention keeping track of it all and orderly enough to read for years.
• Sometimes we don't see the enormity of what we are spending money on until it is totaled in front of us on the screen. You will be able to see where you can (shopping, eating out, bills) and where you can't (rent, bills, insurance) limit or cut your spending. Even things you may think you need, you find you are spending too much money on for its worth (examples for us: cable, smart phones, new car, house, some insurances).

2.   Automatically calculates your budget.

• Custom your budget categories. Create dozens to be specific or, like we do, create only a few categories so we can cut down on increasing overall monthly budget. (We started with more categories than we do now to be specific but realized that doing that created a larger budget than we desired. We encompassed several categories into one with a small but reasonable size.
• Custom your budget amounts. When you first start budgeting, you may need to monitor your financial activities before you can set up a useful and feasible budget. Since Mint counts all your transactions, you won't forget any purchases as you might with manual budgeting.
• Mint shows you immediately how much over or under in each budget category. This will help you make better decisions throughout the weeks, months, and years. We (I, always) usually overestimate how much money we have left to spend, and regrettably spend money when we shouldn't.

3.  Easily tracks debts and goals to payoff.

• Add any student loans, other loans, and/or credit cards to your accounts. Add a goal to payoff these debts. One of my favorite features because you can see your transactions and debts interacting. The way you spend, as shown in your budgets, directly affects your goals to debt payoff. Spend too much in a budget category and can't afford to make a debt payment, and actually see how your goal date is extended. Having this tool to physically see your debts decrease or increase according to your spending has been essential for extra motivation, especially when the end date comes closer and closer.

Outsider review of Mint.com: http://investorjunkie.com/54/mint-com-review/