Wendy Boswell stays
on top of Web search and social media trends at About.com. You can catch up with her via Twitter.
If you’ve been looking for a simple way to track your spending, make a budget, or follow
your investments – without splashing out any dough – then
online finance managers might be just up your alley. Let’s take a look at Mint and Rudder, two very similar money management sites that give you the tools to manage
your hard-earned cash.
Getting Started with Mint
Getting started with Mint couldn’t be easier: you’ll just need to hand over the
username and password to your financial institution (you can reassure yourself with Mint’s privacy policy, along with a
detailed FAQ of security issues).
It’s easy to add accounts to your Mint dashboard, and thousands of financial institutions
are available from which to choose from. In less than five minutes total, I was looking at an
extremely detailed (yet manageable) analysis of three of my accounts, along with transaction
information, spending trends, saving suggestions, and more.
Mint Your Money
Those of us who are financial software-phobic will love Mint’s simple yet comprehensive
financial habits breakdown. There’s nothing you have to dig through a manual to understand
here – it’s all pretty basic. For instance:
Overview: This is your main dashboard where you can see a quick snapshot of what
your money’s been doing: recent account activity, budget trends, any alerts, etc.
Spending Trends: This gives you a pie chart o’spending; you can dig down
within each category to see what your spending looks like. This is Quicken without the hassle.
Transactions: You can get a quick overview of all your accounts at once here,
filter them by individual account, search via transaction type or just type in a search term
(i.e., “Costco”).
Ways to Save: Mint pays the bills with sponsored offers on the “Ways to
Save” page; this is also where you’ll be offered potential moneysaving deals, such as
a higher interest rate for your savings account.
Mint Alerts: The most convenient tool that Mint offers is email or SMS alerts
that can warn you if you’re going over your credit limit, about to incur some fees, getting
a bit low in your account, and a lot more. This is an amazingly simple yet super awesome way to
stay on top of your finances.
Mobile Access: You can access your entire Mint profile from the convenience of a
Web-enabled phone or mobile device. For instance, if you text “Bal” (balance) to
“MyMint” (696468), you’ll get instant balance reports for any account
you’ve added to your Mint dashboard – and as we’re heading into
the holiday season, this comes in especially handy.
Credit Management: Mint also offers a credit management program that scans for
better interest rates and fees in addition to information on how to lower your current credit
card debt – again, all for free.
Investment Management: You can manage all your investments –
401K, brokerage accounts, etc. – in one easy portal with Mint (rather than
logging into one out of the way site after another). Also, since Mint automatically updates your
investment information, you can stay on top of exactly what’s going on, rather than relying
on an annual update.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
· You don’t have to balance anything; it’s all done for you.
· Read-only connection to bank accounts according to privacy policy.
· Excellent credit card management program; scans for better interest rates and fees and
gives you information on how to lower your current debt.
· Easy to set up alerts
· Free!
Cons:
· You can’t import from any other financial software (such as Quicken), and you
can’t take Mint data anywhere else.
· Mint also trusts your bank or other financial institution to be completely right, there
are no inherent checks and balances.
· Good for keeping track, but shouldn’t be the only thing you use - always go to the
source.
· Can’t be used offline.
Getting Started with Rudder
Rudder initially is not as easy to set up as Mint. The process is similar: pick your financial
institution, hand over your username and password (read the privacy policy), and wait for your information to be
extrapolated. However, this initial step alone took nearly five minutes –
compared to about thirty seconds for Mint, and everything at Rudder must be entered manually.
Yes, that’s right – manually.
Once you’ve added in your data, Rudder will identify your recurring bills and expenses. You
also have to add in your income, which unless you work a straight paycheck to paycheck kind of
job is not the most intuitive way to track your revenue.
However, Rudder’s not necessarily about the nitty-gritty details (and this is where a lot
of people might say “thanks, but no thanks”). Rudder likes to focus on your big
fiscal picture via broad stroke financial widgets that track this activity, such as:
Spend Meter: a simple way to tell if you’re spending beyond your means,
but it won’t give you exact dollar amounts.
Savings Widget: A simple way to track your savings.
Bill Tracker: See if there’s anything upcoming that needs to be paid.
Rudder also offers emails (daily, weekly, monthly) to give you your account overview without
actually having to log in to your account – you can get these via your
Web-enabled phone or mobile device.
Pros:
· Easy to use
· Good for overall tracking
· Email-based; manage your finances via your inbox
Cons:
· Requires a manual setup
· Not good for specific money management
Rudder is definitely a simple, no-clutter tool for tracking your finances...emphasis on simple.
If you’re looking for a big picture sort of tool that gives you an overall view of your
money, then Rudder might be a good pick.
Mint vs. Rudder: The Bottom Line
Many of us have a nagging feeling in the back of our minds that we’re just not doing enough
to manage our money, so we purchase expensive financial management software packages that end up
sitting unused on the shelf. Both Mint and Rudder aim to solve this problem, providing free,
simple, yet powerful money management tools that anyone can use, no matter what their level of
financial expertise.
However, Rudder, while somewhat useful, only provides a core overview of your finances and is
tedious to initially get going. In addition, there’s not much in the way of actually
teaching you to manage your money more efficiently; it’s a tool aimed at showing you what
you have left in your account, and that’s pretty much it.
On the other hand, Mint is simple to set up and gives you a detailed yet completely
understandable money analysis, with tools that can quickly help you become more financially
savvy. Credit, investments, budgets – all of these are concepts that many of
us tend to avoid, but Mint makes them accessible using our own accounts as a springboard to a
healthier financial outlook. While Rudder is a good tool to get you going in the quest for fiscal
improvement, Mint is a better long-term choice.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, bns124
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