Would you track finances online?

Financial Planning - Financial planning in general. (Moderated) 

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Subject Author Date Would you track finances online? me 07-10-2008  Re: Would you track finances online? PeterL 07-10-2008  Re: Would you track finances online? Mark Bole 07-10-2008  Re: Would you track finances online? me 07-11-2008  Re: Would you track finances online? Mark Bole 07-11-2008  Re: Would you track finances online? PeterL 07-11-2008  Re: Would you track finances online? me 07-11-2008  Re: Would you track finances online? Chip 07-11-2008  Re: Would you track finances online? Mark Bole 07-15-2008
Posted by on July 10, 2008, 12:14 pm I've been reading rave review abt this service Wary abt giving my account info tho Anyone be ok with doing it? http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2321082,00.asp -------------------------------------- Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM THE MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the Newsgroup. Posted by PeterL on July 10, 2008, 2:04 pm On Jul 10, 9:14 am, m...@privacy.net wrote: > I've been reading rave review abt this service > > Wary abt giving my account info tho > > Anyone be ok with doing it? > > http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2321082,00.asp > I use Quicken. It's not automatic, but I am not sending someone all my acct. info either. I share your wariness. -------------------------------------- Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM THE MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the Newsgroup. Posted by Mark Bole on July 10, 2008, 3:57 pm me@privacy.net wrote: > I've been reading rave review abt this service > > Wary abt giving my account info tho > > Anyone be ok with doing it? > The third party aggregater in this case is Yodlee, you can visit their web site yourself to read more. A leading investor in Yodlee is Bank of America, wouldn't be surprising if they just buy it outright at some point. In fact Yodlee itself offers a competing service to Mint. You can also check out Wesabe, which according to the web site does not require you to upload your login info, you can manually upload the data yourself. I don't use any of these, and can't tell you what the costs or other comparative data are. Quicken on-line apparently is another similar service. If using a service like this makes the difference between tracking your finances and not tracking them, I'd say the benefit outweighs the cost. After all, if you have all your account information stored on a notebook computer and already have "paperless" financial accounts on-line, I'd guess the aggregater's security is probably better than yours (in other words, the aggregater isn't the weakest link). -Mark Bole -------------------------------------- Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM THE MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the Newsgroup. Posted by on July 11, 2008, 5:11 am >If using a service like this makes the difference between tracking your >finances and not tracking them, I'd say the benefit outweighs the cost. Well I did it for years using Quicken.... but it was a hassle as I would have to save all receipts from daily expenses and enter them at night to get the necessary "snap shot" of what's going on. I basically track EVERYTHING.... even small purchases such as coffee and such. I do use my Visa card for 99 percent of payment.... even small things like coffee.... but still need some way to get that snap shot. I do realize there are competing services that do same thing such as Mint..... but am just unsure of giving Mint my acct info But as you say.... they are basically an aggregator what to do... what to do I'm attracted to the automation that Mint has. Sounds like it could eliminate the nightly entry of receipts into Quicken -------------------------------------- Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM THE MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the Newsgroup. Posted by Mark Bole on July 11, 2008, 8:55 am me@privacy.net wrote: > >> If using a service like this makes the difference between tracking your >> finances and not tracking them, I'd say the benefit outweighs the cost. > I basically track EVERYTHING.... even small purchases > such as coffee and such. [...] If you've been doing this for a while now, can't you just put in a single monthly number for coffee, it's likely the same every month (you can average the varying number of workdays per month over the course of a year). For budgeting purposes this should work fine. OTOH, if you are using a charge card for every small purchase, then you have the details already. > But as you say.... they are basically an aggregator Slight correction -- Mint *uses* an aggregator, namely Yodlee. > what to do... what to do Try it. It's free, the security risk to use it for one or two months is minimal because you can always cancel and then change all your passwords. One downside, if you have a database already and want continuity for historical reporting or forecasting, switching around in this way will require you to import and export data in some fashion. -Mark Bole -------------------------------------- Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM THE MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the Newsgroup. Similar Threads Posted Keeping track of it all April 14, 2008, 5:02 am How to track portfolio investments over time? October 23, 2006, 4:13 pm Any place to summarize ETF back track performance? December 7, 2006, 5:01 am finances and O.J. Simpson... January 18, 2008, 12:57 pm Online Banking February 19, 2008, 5:25 am Experience with TurboTax Online? 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