Author Topic: Mint.com Trends/Alternatives?  (Read 5039 times)

abovethewaves

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Mint.com Trends/Alternatives?
« on: September 21, 2014, 03:53:29 PM »
First post here! I found MMM a few months ago when I was looking for reviews for Mint.com and Personal Capital. I have a high savings rate already, but knew that I could save much more without really changing my lifestyle if I kept better track of my spending. What an eye opener MMM is!

I imported what I could to Mint and typed in all my other transactions back to Jan. 1. Mint seems somewhat helpful but not great. I want a chart that shows where every dollar went that came in. I want to be able to look at a glance and see what % of my income went to savings and what I’m spending in all other categories. To get this, I started classifying savings as a spending category (‘Education’ since I have no education spending), so it will so up on the trends chart.

What I also find limiting is that you can’t see your breakdown by subcategory. Particularly with income. You can only see 100% income, not the breakdown of income? Why even offer that chart?

I’m looking for advice on better using Mint in this way OR a better online solution if there is one?

Thanks! I look forward to learning a lot from this forum!
« Last Edit: November 19, 2017, 05:11:09 PM by ladystar »

MDM

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Re: Mint.com Trends/Alternatives?
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2014, 05:30:03 PM »
Quicken can do what you seek.  Mint may also be able to do so - I've seen reviews that imply Mint and Quicken have very similar functionality - but you'll need someone familiar with Mint to say how (if it is possible).

iheartcharts

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Re: Mint.com Trends/Alternatives?
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2014, 06:04:23 PM »
What I also find limiting is that you can’t see your breakdown by subcategory. Particularly with income. You can only see 100% income, not the breakdown of income? Why even offer that chart?

I’m looking for advice on better using Mint in this way OR a better online solution if there is one?
I seriously LOVE Mint. Their charts (particularly Investments) isn't perfect, and a Google Sheet with charts is usually a better solution for investment tracking. That said, what you specify here is TOTALLY possible. Here's how:

Trends --> Income --> By Merchant

Additionally, since you can specify new categories, you could consider adding a new category named "Savings" under Uncategorized. This might not be what you're looking for, but is an alternative idea.

cynic_pi

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Re: Mint.com Trends/Alternatives?
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2014, 09:58:52 PM »
What I also find limiting is that you can’t see your breakdown by subcategory. Particularly with income. You can only see 100% income, not the breakdown of income? Why even offer that chart?

I’m looking for advice on better using Mint in this way OR a better online solution if there is one?

You can actually view the pie chart breakdown by subcategory, you just have to click into it (at least on Chrome browser), you can't however see two different category's subcategory breakdown at the same time.

abovethewaves

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Re: Mint.com Trends/Alternatives?
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2014, 01:53:14 PM »
Thank you for the replies. I want to love Mint too!

I do realize you can click on the pie chart to see different sub categories, but I would like to see them all at once. I tried exporting to Excel and making my own graph. That worked to an extent, but the export included only sub-categories, not the main categories.

I realize that I have interest in only using one part of this product (just tracking spending and not budgets or investments), but I guess I expected it to be a lot more sophisticated than it is given how much people love it and how long it's been around.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2017, 05:11:49 PM by ladystar »

Cheddar Stacker

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Re: Mint.com Trends/Alternatives?
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2014, 02:41:00 PM »
One thing I use is tags within Mint. Since you want to track spending you might want to do this.

I created a tag called "Debt Principal" which I segregate when making a debt payment. I tag the principal portion as "Debt Principal" then I hide that tag when looking at trends for expenses and net income.

This gives you a more accurate picture of your expenses vs. savings/debt reduction.

Welcome to the forum ladystar.

 

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