Do you use Mint, Personal Capital or Both? Neither?

[dfree86]

Hey Guys,

As part of my Mustachian course correction, I plan to start using Mint and/or Personal Capital to keep track of mine and my wife's finances. I've read MMM on these services but I wanted to poll the general public to see how you guys feel about them. I've setup PC so far and I like it, although I haven't been able to link my wife's savings account from the very local credit union she uses here in NYC. What are your thoughts on these two programs? Do you use one? Both? Neither?

Oh, and one addendum about Savings accounts. Is it safe to say that keeping any money in a 1.1% APY Savings account (at said credit union) is a poor choice? In other words, that money can work a lot harder either paying off my 6.5% student loans or in a vanguard or 401k. Yes?

[GGNoob]

I use Mint and Personal Capital.

I just noticed over the weekend, Personal Capital fixed an issue with my work pension so I can now see the amount I have saved up in there (since I plan on cashing it out when I retire vs. taking the payments). So thankfully, I now have all of my financial accounts tracked with Personal Capital (Mint doesn't have our car loans or our HSA account). I like that to see a quick overall status of all of my investment accounts and my net worth.

My wife and I use Mint to track our budget. We use credit cards (rewards credit cards that we pay off each month) for every transaction we can (and manually enter any cash transactions). We then categorize each transaction into the right budget. We've been using Mint for a several years so its nice we can go back and see what our spending was back when we first started. My wife and I each have our own "fun money" budgets so its nice if my wife is out with friends, she can pull up her smartphone app to see how much money she can spend.

Oh, and one addendum about Savings accounts. Is it safe to say that keeping any money in a 1.1% APY Savings account (at said credit union) is a poor choice? In other words, that money can work a lot harder either paying off my 6.5% student loans or in a vanguard or 401k. Yes?

It depends what that money is for. If it's your emergency fund, then it's probably a good idea to have in a savings account. But if you have more in there than you need for an emergency, it could be great to earn a risk free 6.5% return by paying off student loans. With the 6.5% interest, I think most would agree that you'd be better paying that off than investing.

[soccerluvof4]

We use both. There is a big enough difference of the two to have them both.  I probably check mint alot more often as we break things down alot more on Mint.

[matchewed]

It depends on your exact needs. I have both but use Mint more frequently. Mint is easier to track expenses IMO than PC. Plus PC just keeps pushing their other services which is fair I guess. There isn't anything that PC does beyond fee evaluations and telling you what AA you have (pro tip you should know what AA you have :) ) that Mint can't already do.

As for your last question, like logant said, it depends. You need to determine what the money is for and allocate it appropriately.

[dfree86]

It depends on your exact needs. I have both but use Mint more frequently. Mint is easier to track expenses IMO than PC. Plus PC just keeps pushing their other services which is fair I guess. There isn't anything that PC does beyond fee evaluations and telling you what AA you have (pro tip you should know what AA you have :) ) that Mint can't already do.

As for your last question, like logant said, it depends. You need to determine what the money is for and allocate it appropriately.

Newbie question: What do you mean by AA? Asset Allocation perhaps? Obviously not yet a pro here... : )

[rubybeth]

Both, but I use Mint daily and Personal Capital only occasionally.

[matchewed]

It depends on your exact needs. I have both but use Mint more frequently. Mint is easier to track expenses IMO than PC. Plus PC just keeps pushing their other services which is fair I guess. There isn't anything that PC does beyond fee evaluations and telling you what AA you have (pro tip you should know what AA you have :) ) that Mint can't already do.

As for your last question, like logant said, it depends. You need to determine what the money is for and allocate it appropriately.

Newbie question: What do you mean by AA? Asset Allocation perhaps? Obviously not yet a pro here... : )

That I do. Nobody's a pro. Everyone's learnin'.

[Melf]

I just started using Personal Capital.  I have not used Mint since I don't really have a firm budget or track expenses that closely at this time.  I think PC is good for a broad look at my total net worth, income and spending since all of my assets are easy to track.

Have any of you other Personal Capital users been hit up by their staff for their "financial services"?  I talked to one of their advisers last week and he's preparing a sales pitch. 

Marlan

[soccerluvof4]

I just started using Personal Capital.  I have not used Mint since I don't really have a firm budget or track expenses that closely at this time.  I think PC is good for a broad look at my total net worth, income and spending since all of my assets are easy to track.

Have any of you other Personal Capital users been hit up by their staff for their "financial services"?  I talked to one of their advisers last week and he's preparing a sales pitch. 

Marlan

I went through the whole PC sales pitch. Very well prepared and presented, mostly ETFs but at the end of the day I felt i was better off with my Vanguard index funds.

[schimt]

I agree with the consensus on this thread so far, i am using both, and spend more time on mint tracking day to day spending and use it to work out future budgets for spending, and use PC to analyze investments. I also like that PC sends me an email once a week with my overall portfolio performance, + or – in a percentage and actual amount, I don’t even need to log in to see it, which is very nice.

[DeepEllumStache]

Mint and PC here as well.  I've been using Mint for 5 years, so I can see all sorts of fun trends.  I definitely use Mint more than PC since that's my way to track day to day spending.

PC called pretty frequently at first, though that has trickled off.

[MDM]

For a different perspective: Quicken and Excel.

I suspect that, for most people, it is a case of "you like the packages with which you started."

[Runge]

For a different perspective: Quicken and Excel.

I suspect that, for most people, it is a case of "you like the packages with which you started."

And yet another perspective, :D

YNAB and GoogleDocs

YNAB for budgeting and cash flow tracking.
GoogleDocs for tracking/detailing of net worth, investments, retirement planning, and financial goals.

[dandarc]

Chalk me up as neither.  T. Rowe Price Account Center for looking at our investment accounts + logging in to our bank accounts + spreadsheets.  Probably could simplify, but I am quite the nerd and love my spreadsheets.

[little_owl]

I also use Quicken. 

[boognish]

YNAB. I track investments as off budget accounts.

It's far more manual than Mint or PC but I have yet to achieve Zen level frugality - entering transactions helps me hone in on bad habits / overspending.

[palebluedot]

I use YNAB and PC. Good combo!

[FIreDrill]

I use Personal Capital and YNAB.  I track my investments in YNAB as off budget accounts as well.  Been working pretty good for me so far :)

[Cyrano]

GnuCash is my one-stop datastore for personal accounting.

[beltim]

For a different perspective: Quicken and Excel.

I suspect that, for most people, it is a case of "you like the packages with which you started."

I also use Quicken. I've tried many other software packages and haven't found one that's anywhere close to as full-featured.

[Davids]

Honestly I just use Excel. Nothing fancy, just update everything at month end to see what my monthly gains/losses are. Helps me keep track.

[NathanDrake]

Depends on your goals, but for me I don't really need to keep track of spending. I know exactly what I'm spending each month, and it varies a little bit, but I don't really sweat the minor deviations.

I'm more concerned about investments and net worth, and Personal Capital is far better for this purpose. The UI is much sleaker, and it updates all of my accounts. Mint.com is far too unreliable.

[Nothlit]

I used Mint for a little while a few years ago, but I deleted my account because 1) they didn't interface well with my credit union, so the automated transaction importing was highly unreliable, and 2) I decided I was not comfortable disclosing all of my financial account passwords to a third party. After I closed my Mint account I changed all of my bank account passwords.

Now I use YNAB locally on my computer to track expenses, by importing QFX or other similar files downloaded manually from my banking sites. I also use off-budget accounts in YNAB to track investments; updating those account balances manually once a month is pretty painless.

[williakr]

If I've been tracking my finances in a spreadsheet am I able to put past data into mint?

[Beric01]

My credit union basically incorporates Mint.com's software directly into their online banking site, so I just use that. I love it, but would probably use Mint.com if I didn't have it.

[MoneyCat]

I used Mint for a little while a few years ago, but I deleted my account because 1) they didn't interface well with my credit union, so the automated transaction importing was highly unreliable, and 2) I decided I was not comfortable disclosing all of my financial account passwords to a third party. After I closed my Mint account I changed all of my bank account passwords.

Now I use YNAB locally on my computer to track expenses, by importing QFX or other similar files downloaded manually from my banking sites. I also use off-budget accounts in YNAB to track investments; updating those account balances manually once a month is pretty painless.

That was pretty much my experience with Mint.  Mint has no idea about a lot of my financial accounts, because it doesn't interface with those institutions.  It made Mint pretty much useless for me.  Overall, I just ended up keeping track of things on the financial institutions' websites.  I spend very little money and the money I do spend is rather predictable, so it is fairly easy to keep track of things without really doing much budgeting.

[NoraLenderbee]

We've used Quicken for a number of years. It works well with TurboTax. We also keep a spreadsheet showing asset allocation and stuff like that. I don't want to have my financial information on the cloud.

[rubybeth]

I used Mint for a little while a few years ago, but I deleted my account because 1) they didn't interface well with my credit union, so the automated transaction importing was highly unreliable, and 2) I decided I was not comfortable disclosing all of my financial account passwords to a third party. After I closed my Mint account I changed all of my bank account passwords.

Now I use YNAB locally on my computer to track expenses, by importing QFX or other similar files downloaded manually from my banking sites. I also use off-budget accounts in YNAB to track investments; updating those account balances manually once a month is pretty painless.

That was pretty much my experience with Mint.  Mint has no idea about a lot of my financial accounts, because it doesn't interface with those institutions.  It made Mint pretty much useless for me.  Overall, I just ended up keeping track of things on the financial institutions' websites.  I spend very little money and the money I do spend is rather predictable, so it is fairly easy to keep track of things without really doing much budgeting.

I found this to be true for some accounts, but over time and by using their feedback options, they have now added literally all of my accounts except one (and that's because the credit card refuses to work with Mint--not Mint's fault!). I added some things manually for a time (like my pension and car values) but now, they've added that account and also recently added the feature which uses info. from Kelley Blue Book to keep your car's value up-to-date. Seriously, contacting them about adding an account really works.

[BlueMR2]

I use a spreadsheet.  My stuff is somewhat complex, but still manageable that way.  Choice is drive by not being a fan of giving out my info to other people and I don't want to spend money either.  Doesn't take up too much of my time, and my spare time is pretty much worthless.  The only value I get from it is doing things that I then don't have to pay others for.  And that, with my wife's unemployment long gone and not a job in sight is PRICELESS!

[frugaliknowit]

I would love to use both, but I cannot allow myself to give out passwords to a third party.  Sorry, just cannot do it.

I do a monthly balance sheet and update my cashflow each payday on excel.

[ampersand]

I just have PC, but am not a big one for "budgeting" in the conventional sense so haven't really felt the need to try mint. I signed up for the daily PC email and use it as my fraud protection to see all account transactions which is comforting.

[Calvawt]

I also use both PC and Mint.  I use Mint a lot more, but like the investment graphs/presentation better in PC.  Will probably continue to use both since they cost $0.

[agent_clone]

I use gnucash.  I could potentially set this to automatically update stock prices (I haven't done so at this point, rather I edit the price manually).

I am unsure as to whether it would interface with my bank accounts, I believe they can interface with some US ones though. It will import QIF files from them.  I do not do this as I prefer to understand what I am actually spending money on.

In regards to your adendum, I believe people would consider the money in your wife's savings account as an emergency fund.  It all depends on how much it is really.  Admittedly where I live interest rates for savings accounts are higher than the US.

[Blany]

I am a fan of mint and find value from their service.

[bdc]

Both. Mint to track spending.  PC to track investments.