Author Topic: People feel judged by Mint  (Read 6190 times)

rugorak

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People feel judged by Mint
« on: November 08, 2017, 11:08:32 AM »
http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/08/pf/mint-judging-me/index.html

As a long time Mint user I am perplexed by people's response. It is sending alerts based on the budget *YOU SET*. And it isn't like a real person is sending you reminders. It is an automated system. And getting turned off for "you may want to look at that."? The whole damn point is to look at your spending! Seriously these people need a facepunch!

ixtap

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2017, 11:29:13 AM »
No judgement is being made, it is just a reminder.

At the same time, some of the suggestions are good: remind someone before they go over, rather than after. If you beat your daily goal, you could get a "You are on track to save an extra $X this month!" reminder.

jinga nation

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2017, 11:31:10 AM »
<rant>

Fuck Mint. Fuck em now, fuck em good, fuck em forever.
It was an awesome product until Intuit purchased them, and then endless upsells within the site.
No fucking way am I giving those testicle garglers my data. Bloody well fix them damn Quicken products!

</rant>

vertkurt

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2017, 11:39:18 AM »
I use Personal capital instead and like how its set up for quick access to my spending habits. I've heard good things about mint, but have never tried it. Whats wrong with Intuit?

WootWoot

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2017, 11:40:46 AM »
I don't have a problem with them. My only issue has been that my credit union is rather slow on syncing with Mint. I generally ignore the reminders b/c I'm well aware of what I'm doing--I check Mint almost every day.

rugorak

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2017, 11:30:12 AM »
My main point was people feeling judged by an app when it crosses thresholds they themselves set. To me it is like saying you feel judged by your thermostat because you feel cold. It just seems so stupid.

Travis

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #6 on: November 09, 2017, 12:09:12 PM »
I'm sure on the other end of the spectrum there are or would be folks complaining that the budgeting software they paid good money for didn't do enough to keep them on budget. Why else would they buy it?!

Million2000

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2017, 02:26:16 PM »
I thought the article, while somewhat kvetchy did bring up a good point-Mint seems to warn you about over spending but not when you near the edge of your budget. I use Mint everyday and find their "alerts" worthless. While many of the people quoted were just complaining about being told about their own behavior, from a practical perspective I think they're right, Mint alerts are actually not helping where they're meant to.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #8 on: November 09, 2017, 02:47:12 PM »
"Feeling judged" is a phrase people use when someone (or, in the case of Mint, some software) calls them on their bullshit when they would rather pretend it doesn't exist. By "judged", they mean "punished unreasonably, arbitrarily, and unfairly by someone who has no authority to do so".

Often, you see people use fitness trackers, hire personal coaches or tutors, and do all kinds of things to make sure they stay on track, but in reality they are sabotaging themselves because they want that next cookie more than they want visible abs or a smaller pants size. A person who is serious about a goal welcomes feedback and correction (even if it feels negative) from a qualified person because it improves their progress toward the goal. A person who is NOT serious about the process, but who wants to appear as though he or she is, will blame the person or electronic device for providing the feedback. It's like getting angry at a bathroom scale because you don't like the number you see on it... a mature person will recognize that if anger is warranted at all (and it may not be), it should probably be directed at the person responsible for the bad decision making that led to the bad result. An immature person will blame the tool.

The thing is, when a person programs Mint software or hires a personal trainer, he or she does give that person or software the authority to make corrections. The feedback that occurs is therefore NOT unreasonable, arbitrary, or unfair because the person receiving the feedback consented to be "judged", sought out a person or software package that is qualified to provide the necessary feedback to identify actions that are out of step with their own stated goals, and generally paid for the privilege!

Indexer

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #9 on: November 09, 2017, 06:26:16 PM »
Analogy: Setting a goal to lose 5 pounds, failing, and then writing an article that your scale is judging you.

ACyclist

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #10 on: November 09, 2017, 08:15:50 PM »
I love mint.  It lead me to better choices.  It also lead me to Marketwatch, which then lead me to you people.
Marketwatch is meh, but it led me here. So, that is a good thing.

chrisgermany

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #11 on: November 10, 2017, 12:58:24 AM »
It is easy to shoot the messenger for the message....

boyerbt

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #12 on: November 10, 2017, 06:53:09 AM »
While impractical for Mint to do I would like to see it become less passive with the comments and more direct. They shouldn't beat around the bush but rather create large pop-ups with flashing lights and state that a five star alarm is going off when you exceed your budget. The app/program should make people feel as if they are doing something wrong because otherwise the won't learn from it.

Again, I know this won't happen...but it is fun to think about.

ACyclist

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #13 on: November 10, 2017, 09:22:06 AM »
You'd think the glaring red bars are an indication.  Or, when your goals are in the red. 

One of my goals went red a couple months ago, but it was due to a property purchase.  I pulled cash from an account to buy some land in my bike paradise.  It was a worthy setback.

I am not quite sure how to best tag deposits to my fidelity core account.  It sees those as spending.  I tag them as financial.  Not sure how to best tag those.  I can drill down how much I have saved after tax, easily.

Not sure I am using Mint to it's full extent.   I only got everything uploaded about 3 months ago. One of my retirement accounts will not upload.  It seems to hate Voya.  I have a substantial amount in there, but it doesn't like it.  Weird.  My fidelity stuff is all good though.

hernandz

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #14 on: November 10, 2017, 03:44:21 PM »
If you look through the categories on a transaction, there is one at the bottom hide from budget/trends. Or you can set a TAG to hide. 

Zikoris

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #15 on: November 11, 2017, 12:03:20 PM »
Hah! The red bar of judgement. My Mint logins greatly decrease for the rest of the month when I know that will be waiting for me.

Dollar Slice

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #16 on: November 11, 2017, 02:41:41 PM »
The app/program should make people feel as if they are doing something wrong because otherwise the won't learn from it.

Like a cookie jar that delivers a mild electric shock when opened. Or a corkscrew that delivers shocks, or a sofa that shocks you when you sit for too long....

Or a Mint-connected wallet that shocks you when you open it when your budget bars are in the red? :-)

I am not quite sure how to best tag deposits to my fidelity core account.  It sees those as spending.  I tag them as financial.  Not sure how to best tag those.  I can drill down how much I have saved after tax, easily.

My #1 problem with Mint right now is that it doesn't consider my 401k contributions as income, so my "net income" bars average out to roughly $0 for the year, even though I'm putting away five figures into savings. There is zero indication that I'm accomplishing anything, savings-wise. They should have some carrot to go with their stick.

gggggg

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #17 on: November 11, 2017, 11:08:27 PM »
Mint sucks for me now. Personal Capital is much better IMO. My mint account won't cooperate with several of my outside accounts. Between the syncing issues and the terrible investment tracking, I hardly use Mint anymore.

clarkfan1979

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #18 on: November 25, 2017, 10:52:09 AM »
Mint is good for monthly budgeting and tracking net worth. It is not a good tracker for a savings percentage because it only tracks your net income after 401K and health care deductions.

I still use it. I check about twice a week.

BookLoverL

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Re: People feel judged by Mint
« Reply #19 on: November 25, 2017, 05:19:08 PM »
How ridiculous!

An app is merely a tool. If somebody is feeling judged when it tells them they're over budget, all the judgement must be coming from themself.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!