ASU2003

Since I switched to Linux, I haven't been able to use MS Money. I will attempt to install it with WINE tonight.

But, I've come across this on-line tool that may do what I want. It would be easier than doing all of the data entry myself. But, do I trust this website to know how much money I have and where it is?

Also, MS Money is flexible enough to deal with cash and foreign currencies. I'm wondering if this mint.com will allow me to tweak things and enter in my own info, overriding the default info. And if I will be able to make new categories like I have done with MS Money.

yellowmac

Yeah, I use mint.

So far, I like it a lot. I never had or used Quicken or MS Money, actually preferring to manage my finances on my own spreadsheet. (I'd never really cared much about categorizing my expenses or budgeting back then...) I still use my own spreadsheet, but I've supplemented it with using mint. I like the site a lot and it was just what I was looking for. I had used wesabe as well, but I dropped it in order to just focus on using one site.

I like mint because it automatically imports all of my transactions from all of the online accounts i have (bank, credit cards, etc). It's been pretty easy to have it automatically categorize transactions as they're processed. It had been kinda buggy in the past, but I haven't noticed any major issues lately. There's also a lot of available data porn that's available, but I've liked wesabe's charts and graphs with regards to that better.

Still, I like the site overall and it shows me just where my money goes.

ASU2003

It doesn't look like MS Money will install easily on Wine. It needs a IE browser update for MS Money 2007. And I will have to hunt down my MS Money 2005 CD which is somewhere.

I signed up for Mint.com, but it is having trouble logging into my account. My bank just switched to a different log-in procedure and it doesn't look like it is liking it.

yellowmac

Bummer. I'd suggest dropping a line to their support staff. My impression of these start-up, Web 2.0 sites is that they are very responsive to requests, bug reports, etc., so I have a feeling that they'd appreciate your feedback.

ASU2003

Update: It doesn't look like upgrading to IE6 did anything except give me a different error message with MS Money 2007.

I may just not be putting in the exact account info either for my bank on that website. Although I do think they should have a manual entry option (although it would take a long time and isn't as good as a perfect auto-updating system)

Rekna

I'd be a little worried about giving some website login information for all my accounts....

ASU2003

That is my concern as well, but there isn't too much that can be done from on-line from most of my websites.

I setup Mint.com as much as I could so far, and it looks pretty good. I need to install a newer version of Flash (if they make it for Linux) to see the trends and other info. And I have the same concerns as a few other people with the lack of a cash account and no user-created categories for purchases and income. But, I think it will work well once it is all setup, and it is better than me guessing like I've been doing for the past 18 months.

Rekna

Some of their documentation says they don't save your logins and passwords. If they don't save them then where are they saved? Locally on my drive? Do they encrypt them on my drive? Or do I have to relog in every time I want to view my finances? I really liked the video and what could be done but i'm still too concerned about security to sign up.

yellowmac

My understanding is that mint is essentially a prettier interface to other online account aggregators like Yodlee Moneycenter. I believe mint basically hands off the login/password info to sites like yodlee, and they handle the logging in and delivery of data. I believe yodlee is one of the sites categorized as "our online financial service providers" coming from mint.com's FAQ. I remember mint mentioning yodlee explicitly in the past but perhaps they're using other companies instead or as well?

Personally, I'm not that worried about the login/password data being stored on a site like this. Thankfully, I've never had to deal with an incident myself, and I think the fear about security in this aspect is slightly overblown. I'd be interested to hear stories indicating otherwise, though.

Aladdin Sane

I've used Mint for a year or so. For my purposes it works fine. It doesn't track my investment accounts but they are working on adding this feature.

Try it out. I recommend it.

__________________
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Rekna

So I signed up for it and am trying it out. It is pretty slick. I was unable to find a balance sheet to see my month to month debits vs credits. Does anyone know how to get this? For example how do I see what my income was one month? How about my total expenditures? Right now the only way I've been able to find that information is to highlight over one of the graphs on the overview page and wait for a little text pop up which has that information. Also in the budget section is there a way to budget things like "transfer $X to savings"

yellowmac

Hmm... I don't really know off the top of my head. I'd suggest posting this in their support forums, or perhaps this is a suggestion that they can work on in their next release.