A week ago, I set out on a mission to figure out the best tool to track your dollars. After all, knowing where your money is going and how much of it is being spent is one of the best ways to protect against financial ruin. I recently tested three programs, Microsoft Excel, Mint.com, and Google Docs, to find the pros and cons of each. While all of these programs have value, one was clearly a cut above the rest: Mint.com.
By far one of the most extensive money-tracking programs, Mint shows spending trends, ways you can save money, and sends e-mail reminders about low balances and upcoming bills. But, check out what all of these programs have to offer, and read why Mint is the best.
This free program does most of the work for you. Once you input all your accounts including loans, debts, savings and checking accounts, and investments, your work is pretty much done.
One of Mint’s most useful and probably sobering features is its trend report which displays average spending in specific areas such as health and fitness, grocery shopping, entertainment, and utilities. Mint does this by looking at where each credit and debit card and online purchase was made. You can also re-categorize certain purchases if the default setting is inaccurate. The only drawback is that cash withdrawals are not categorized (unless manually done), which can skew your actual financial picture.
When you log in, alerts, which can include bill due dates, low account balances and what it considers abnormal spending, are posted on the homepage. For instance, I received an alert when I spent $296.56 in the past 30 days on “Health and Fitness†because I usually spend $85.
The Website also
forwp-incontent-custom-banner ampforwp-incontent-ad2">Itemized Budget: You can set a budget for each area of you life including utilities, shopping, and entertainments. Instead of checking your budget at the end of the month,
Mint tracks each expense and lets you know how close you are to exceeding monthly allotment.
Investment Portfolio Overview: If you have a brokerage account, Mint allows you to track how your investments are doing versus the S&P and other major indices. It also calculates your returns.
Excel Budgeting Spreadsheet
Probably one of the most ubiquitous programs for computer users, Microsoft Excel offers a selection of personal finance spreadsheets. I chose the personal monthly budget template for Microsoft 2007, which is for Mac users, because it seemed to fit my financial lifestyle best. One of the drawbacks with the online and default Excel budgeting templates is most of them include “projected†and actual cost columns. This can be unnecessary for someone who doesn’t have fluctuating income or expenses. Next, the real tedium kicks in. Manually inputting each debt, expenditure, and income source is consuming. But the program allows users to view expenses as charts and graphs. Overall, if you have time to log every expense, go for it, but for those with busy lives, this may not be your best bet.
Google Docs Personal Finance Budget
For those who want to manage their finances on the go, Google Docs offers numerous personal
finance budgeting templates. If you have the ability to check your e-mail from your phone, then you can manage this personal finance tracking tool. I selected the “Personal Monthly Budget†because it best fit my financial picture. Like Excel, this tool is rather laborious. You must manually input each expenditure, income sources, and debt.Another drawback, for those with fixed income and expenditures is the “projected†category, which, again, like Excel, can be unnecessary. Despite having to input information manually, this tool would be ideal for couples or parents and children working to manage a family budget since Google allows users to share the document with other users. This can be a great learning tool for children as parents can help them monitor their spending and teach them how money works.
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Renita Burns is the editorial assistant at BlackEnterprise.com.