Tools

Mint Debuts Bill Reminder Feature

A few weeks ago, Mint rolled out a feature that is sure to make it a more competitive money manager: bill reminders. In this review, I take a look at all the new features, and decide whether Mint can take over as the primary way I manage my money.

Going Paperless With Your Money

If you want to take the leap to paperless, or your existing system isn’t working quite right, here is the strategy I used to set up my own system and dump my filing cabinet for good.

Track Your Gas Mileage With Fuelly

Surprisingly, while most of us know how many miles per gallon we should be getting, very few of us take the time to verify the information and keep track of it regularly. Enter Fuelly, a free and easy-to-use tool.

Trouble? Try Tracking Your Money Weekly

A few weeks ago, Heath, a frequent comment and social media contributor to the site, mentioned that he was tracking his money week-to-week. I was curious so I decided to try it myself.

Afraid to Swipe? One Way to Increase Debit Card Safety

Many of you are stuck in an interesting Catch-22: You believe that credit cards lead to over-spending, but you like the protection they provide to your checking account. I believe I have a solution.

Big Banks vs. Community Banks and Credit Unions

Community banks and credit unions are a unique “middle ground” between mega-banks (think Citibank, Chase, Wachovia) and online banks (like ING and Ally). They have some of the unique pros of both.

Online vs. Brick-and-Mortar Banks

Online banks are the hot new thing, and with good reason–they offer killer service and awesome interest rates. Here are the pros and cons of switching to an online bank.

It’s Rarely About the System

The latest or greatest tools rarely define how successful you are with your money. It’s all about…these few things.

5 Reasons Offline Money Software is Dying

There are at least five solid reasons why offline money managers like Quicken and Microsoft Money are slowly dying. What is the future of the personal finance manager?

3 Reasons Why Spreadsheets Make Effective Tools

I used to think spreadsheets were lame and difficult to use, but I’ve turned on both counts. Here are three reasons why I love spreadsheets.

YNAB 3.0: Second Look

In January, I put up a long review of the newest version of YNAB, being fairly disappointed in how it stacked up to other alternatives I was using at the time, like Mvelopes. Knowing how to create a budget was a good start, but I needed the right tool to help me make my plan [...]

The Slow Monopoly of Mint.com

Ten years ago, when I first seriously got into personal finance and started using yearly versions of Quicken, there was a decent amount of choice. The big players, Quicken and Microsoft Money, kept each other somewhat on their toes and new features were implemented over the base design, although Quicken never really changed much. Somewhere [...]

← Previous Entries

Tools

Selected Reading