Mint isn't just a flavor anymore

In addition to being a very widely used ingredient in the kitchen, Mint has now found a place in your pocket. Most of us like to stay on top of our finances. Some of us reaaalllly like to stay on top of our finances. Remember the days when you used to create an Excel spreadsheet or use software like Quicken and manually entered every single transaction from the n number of bills you carried around in your wallet? Heaven forbid you lost a bill! Fortunately, we live in the 21st century and there is a solution for that. For now it is a solution that primarily works with the United States of America and Canada (it is in the process of being expanded). Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you Mint.

Mint is not a new site or app. It has been around since 2006 (they were bought by Intuit in 2009) and we have been using this very very simple site/app for quite a while. Oh and it is free. Think of it as a personal assistant that keeps track of all (and we mean ALL) your finances. You enter the financial institutions' login information into your account and Mint will pull all the transactions and categorize them for you automatically. You can see what's happening with all your accounts, be it a checking, savings, investments, or retirement account at any time. You can also set a budget and create a plan to reach your personal financial goals. 

Mint's graphs and charts help you track your spending, income, net worth and account balances over time, and compare your spending year-to-year or month-to-month. You can even track your progress on individual goals. Mint also has more than 20 types of alerts to notify you of fees, remind you to pay bills, and warn you if you’re going over budget. Every week you’ll get a summary of your spending and saving. It also gives you the option to manually enter any transactions.

Remember we said you can see what's happening with your accounts at any time? You can do so through the Mint.com website or through the apps that are available for your smartphone or tablet at the Apple App Store or Google Play. So why don't you check them out? We have been pretty satisfied since we started using Mint for tracking our finances. Now, if only it could accept the credentials for other non-financial accounts like cable, internet etc... that would just be the icing on the cake!


Update: We have found the following Indian Institutions that work with Mint.com:

1. Citibank
2. HDFC
3. State Bank of India