Inside the Head of a TV Junkie

Mint.com is a website that allows you to view all of your financial accounts in one location.  It gives you an overview of your financial life.  Signing up for Mint is incredibly easy and takes only a few minutes.  The only identifying information that is asked of you is an email address, zip code, and a password.  Once you have an account created, you can begin adding your financial accounts. 

Don’t worry, Mint is safe.  (view a video about it here)  Mint utilizes Yodlee for financial account storage and connection.  Yodlee has been around for 10 years and powers many of the large banks that allow for online banking (Bank of America).  If someone were to gain access to your Mint account, all they would be able to see is how often you go to the grocery store and how much you spend each time… and this info wouldn’t be attached to your name, address, or other personal information, just your login with Mint.  Pretty safe, in my opinion.  Of course, there are people out there that aren’t going to be comfortable with Mint and giving up their login information and that’s fine. 

For those of you who do want to give this a shot, please do.  The founder of Mint used to balance his check book every month, but soon fell behind.  He realized, as I did quite a few years ago, that balancing a check book isn’t the only way to keep on top of your spending or keeping your various accounts in check.

By the way, I have every credit card account, every investment account, and my main banking accounts (checking and savings) tied into Mint at the moment.  I’m loving it.  I have SMS alerts setup for when payments are due on the credit cards.  I have Mint setup to send me a SMS if an unusually large purchase is made or a banking account balance falls below a specific amount.  I also have a monthly budget setup that greets me every day when I log into Mint so I can see how I’m doing.  It’s a one stop shop for my financial account health and it’s already saving me time.

So, do you use Mint?