Wiley Mint.com For Dummies Datasheet

Chapter 1
AL
Welcome to Mint.com
▶ Exploring the cloud
▶ Seeing where you are and where you’re going
MA
▶ Assembling your financial data
TE
▶ Understanding Mint.com
RI
In This Chapter
D
GH
TE
D
octor, scientist, academic, author, and all-around Renaissance man Louis
Agassiz is quoted as saying, “I cannot afford to waste my time making
money.” Mr. Agassiz’s time was well spent on various realms of scientific
inquiry, such as the discovery that the Earth was once subjected to an ice age,
and countless students were rewarded for his choice in allocating his time.
PY
RI
For most of us, however, managing and tracking finances and making money
are closely related to reducing stress and living a comfortable life. If your financial records are scattered around your home, stuffed in drawers, stashed in
pockets, filed in file folders buried under stacks of papers, or just stuck in your
head, the chaos of your finances can carry over into your daily life.
CO
Ready to come to your rescue is the Mint.com Web site. Fans claim that you
can begin benefiting from the use of Mint.com within the first five minutes
that you spend on the site. Going beyond that first five minutes is what this
book is all about.
Within these pages, you will find advice and tips for utilizing the information in Mint.com to manage your finances, set realizable goals, oversee your
short- and long-term investments, assemble your annual income tax information, prepare for your retirement, and live within a workable budget.
In these tough economic times, having a handle on your personal finances
is not a luxury — it’s a requirement. Using Mint.com is a giant step toward
keeping control of your finances.
10
Part I: Getting Started
Introducing Mint.com
Mint.com was started in 2005 by Aaron Patzer, a computer scientist and
engineer who was frustrated in his attempts to manage his finances using
programs such as Microsoft Money and Intuit’s Quicken. Patzer complained
that those programs required too much time to enter receipts and balance
accounts. Wanting to save time by streamlining the money management
process and gain some additional benefit from the use of the Internet, Patzer
came up with the idea for Mint.com, went public with the site in 2007, and
signed up fifty thousand users in the first month. The site now provides tools
for more than three million users to manage and track their finances.
Although most people agree with the concept that it makes sense to take an
active part in managing personal finances, that doesn’t mean they actually do
anything about their finances. Working with most personal finance software
programs takes time, and you have to keep all those pesky little receipts from
the grocery store and Taco Bell. Everyone knows what a pain that can be.
A nice solution is to sign up for a free service that not only takes the work out
of keeping track of every little expense but also tells you when you’ve spent
too much at the video store, when your bank is about to assess an unwelcome finance charge, and when it’s time to pay your kids’ allowance.
You can use Mint.com to help you keep an eagle eye on your every financial
move, or you can check in occasionally just to say hello and look over your
bank transactions. You can ask Mint.com to e-mail you friendly reminders, or
you can skip the mail service and oversee your accounts yourself.
Mint.com users who take advantage of all that the program offers can save
money in a variety of ways. Because Mint.com has partnered with nearly all
the nation’s banks that have Internet banking capability, the site can provide
instant analysis of your accounts, your finance charges, and your normal
banking activity; compare that information with its stores of data; and offer
cool deals to save money.
You are not charged for these services, but Mint.com gets a referral fee from
the bank if you switch to a new account. However, Mint.com looks for the
best banking opportunities for you, whether or not there is a referral fee.
Mint.com not only tells you about good deals at banks and other financial institutions and helps you keep track of your hard earned cash but also designs
a budget for you and tells you when you’re misbehaving. That’s right — you
don’t have to devise a budget and then try to stick to it. Mint.com creates the
budget based on your financial history and then gently harasses you when you
step over the line.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Mint.com
What about Clouds?
“Your head is in the clouds.” “Hey! You! Get off of my cloud.” “I’ve looked at
clouds from both sides now.” You’re no doubt humming along at this point.
Look up and you see clouds all around you. So where is all the cloud computing hiding? Mint.com, like so many recently developed programs, lives
entirely in the cloud (see Figure 1-1). That’s a fancy way of saying that the
program doesn’t reside on your computer. But, you’re using your computer
right now and there it is — Mint.com, right on your computer. So what’s the
deal with clouds?
10011011101011001
Data
E=mc2
Figure 1-1:
These days,
the clouds
are bursting
with data.
Here’s how data is stored in the cloud. Turn off your computer. Walk over
to your neighbor’s house, stroll down the hall at work to a coworker’s office,
or get on a plane and travel halfway around the world. Sit down at someone
else’s computer, get on the Internet, type www.mint.com, and enter your user
name and password. There’s your financial data, just as you left it.
Mint.com, and all the information it analyzes, is available only in cyberspace.
You don’t need any software on your computer or anyone else’s to go to the
Mint.com Web site and examine your money.
Having your Mint.com data in the cloud has the following advantages:
✓ You don’t need to purchase or own any software.
✓ You don’t even have to own a computer. You must have access to a
computer, but it doesn’t have to be your computer.
✓ If Mint.com decides it’s time for an update, the program updates itself;
you don’t have to do anything.
11
12
Part I: Getting Started
✓ You don’t have to worry if your computer crashes. Well, okay, you do
have to worry if your computer crashes, but you don’t have to worry
about the safety of your Mint.com data.
✓ You don’t have to worry about the security of your data. Your personal
financial information is at least as safe on the cloud as it is on your personal computer or stuffed under your mattress. (For more on how Mint.
com keeps your data safe, see Chapter 7.)
We like to think about secure Web sites and sensitive data as being tucked
away in a hole in the ground instead of floating around in the sky. The data
does reside in a physical place called a server farm, and in the case of Mint.
com, that server farm resides underground. But “cold and dark” isn’t nearly
as fun-sounding as “light and fluffy,” so the cloud concept is the one we use
to describe information accessible only through the Internet.
Changing Your Life with Mint.com
If you are a skeptic, you probably need to see Mint.com in action before you
will believe that this program can change your life. We were in that camp
before we started using Mint.com, so we know what you’re thinking:
✓ First, you’re worried about the safety of trusting all your financial information to an unknown source. See Chapter 7 to put your mind at rest.
✓ If you’ve used a different personal finance program, such as Quicken
or Microsoft Money, you’re thinking that this is just another program
where you have to gather all your receipts, deposit slips, and check
stubs, and then schedule time away from the family or the television
or your favorite book or whatever you’d rather be doing every Sunday
night so that you can keep your finances up to date. Nope. You don’t
have to do anything. Mint.com takes care of the staying-up-to-date part
for you.
✓ Now you are really getting worried about security issues and are thinking there’s no way you’re going to let some unknown group of computer
geeks who run a Web site keep track of your very personal finances.
Back to Chapter 7.
✓ You think that it might be nice to see some reports about your spending habits, but you’re not convinced of the usefulness of a budget or
another analysis prepared entirely by a computer program. Part II is
waiting to change your mind on this issue.
✓ You don’t trust computers. You want your financial information stored
in your desk or your file drawer. Wait. You’re not that person, at least
not anymore. You wouldn’t have picked up this book if you weren’t
ready to give Mint.com a whirl.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Mint.com
Finding where you’ve been
When you start using Mint.com, you’ll soon discover that you have at your
fingertips a quick history of your financial behavior. Just try deluding yourself
about your frugality when you look at a report that shows you blew $300 last
month on video games. Don’t try to convince yourself that you cook all your
meals at home when the report shows that you dined out 16 times in April.
But the spending news is not all bad. Look at how your medical expenses
have decreased since last year. Check out the small amount spent at department and clothing stores, and pat yourself on the back for taking a pass on
new additions to your wardrobe.
Mint.com tells you how much you’ve dropped in various spending categories
and provides pretty graphs that illustrate all the places where your money
has gone.
With a quick click, you can see how your current spending compares to previous time periods. But that feature is just the tip of the reporting iceberg.
You can also see how your spending compares to that of other people who
live in your city or in a city where you might like to live. You can even view
comparisons of your spending versus the spending of the entire country.
You can track different types of spending. For example, how does your Starbucks
spending compare to that of coffee drinkers in Des Moines or New Orleans?
Spending isn’t the only type of financial activity that qualifies for these comparisons. Mint.com lets you compare your income, assets, debts, and net
worth to that of others.
Finding where you are
On the opening page of Mint.com, your spending for the month appears right
before your eyes, along with a comparison to your budget. What? You have
a budget? Yep. You didn’t have to do a thing; Mint.com sets up a budget for
you. The budget is a starting point — you can customize and work with the
numbers so that they are appropriate for you.
If one budget isn’t enough of a challenge for you, you can set up multiple budgets with different scenarios. We describe these options in Part II.
Mint.com also provides a detailed analysis of your recent financial activity
and lets you identify how various spending and income items should be categorized. In this way, you can fine-tune your budget and the reports that Mint.
com prepares for you.
13
14
Part I: Getting Started
Finding where you’re going
You don’t really need a computer program to tell you how much you spent
at the vet for your puppy’s checkup. But a little help from Mint.com comes
in handy when you want to read into the future to help plan your retirement
and long-term goals.
Mint.com can also help you plan for big expenses, such as a college education, a wedding, or a vacation, and not-so-big expenses, such as carpeting, a
new television, or repairs. Instead of worrying about how to set aside money,
use the tools in Mint.com to prepare for these purchases and make them
work within your budget.
Gathering Information
To get the most out of the Mint.com experience, you should connect all your
financial accounts to your Mint.com profile. Otherwise, you’ll end up with
a partial financial picture, hampering your ability to know your spending
habits, make accurate plans, and take advantage of all Mint.com has to offer.
To get the full Mint.com experience, you need information from the following
types of accounts:
✓ Bank accounts: If you have more than one account at the same bank, all
the accounts will be pulled into Mint.com at once, so one login name is
all you need. If you haven’t signed up to access your bank account information online, do that now. You can’t get much benefit from Mint.com if
you don’t connect your bank account. If you have accounts at more than
one bank, gather login information from each bank.
✓ Credit card accounts: If your credit card accounts aren’t set up with the
same bank as your bank accounts, you need your login information. If
you don’t have online access to these accounts, now is the time to get
it. Credit card accounts include bank credit cards, gas company cards,
department store credit cards, and any other credit cards that you have
and use. If you have, say, an old Sears card that you haven’t used in
ages, don’t worry about setting up an account for it in Mint.com.
✓ Investment accounts: Do you have one or more investment accounts
with a broker or a mutual fund? Find the login password and user name.
✓ Mortgage: Even if you don’t access your mortgage online, you need to
collect login information for the account. If necessary, set up your mortgage for online access so you can include your mortgage with your Mint.
com profile.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Mint.com
When you enter the name of your bank or financial institution, Mint.com
tells you whether that bank can be accessed online. If your financial institution isn’t accessible online, see whether it has plans for online access.
While you’re thinking about your house, list all the home improvements
you’ve made, including the cost and the date. Improvements are purchases you make that add to the value of the house. Buying a throw rug
doesn’t count, but installing wall-to-wall carpeting does. Repairing a nick
in the wall doesn’t count, but painting the entire room does. You’ll use
this information to help in valuing your house in Mint.com.
✓ Bank and car loans: Again, set up online access for any loan accounts
that you want to include in your Mint.com profile.
✓ Cash spending: Start thinking about how much of your spending is
in cash instead of writing checks or swiping credit and debit cards.
Tracking your cash gives you a complete picture of your spending
habits. (For more information, see Chapter 5.)
After you gather the preceding information, you’re ready to get started in
Mint.com. If it’s Saturday night and the banks are closed and you can’t find
or remember all your login information, you can still start using Mint.com —
just make sure that you add the accounts as you get the information.
15
16
Part I: Getting Started
">