Anonymous connections save you money…
Mint.com is this great website I found out about at Likemind a few weeks ago.
They help you organize your finances for FREE. They keep track of your spending, organize it for you, and help you understand where you might be spending too much. How do they know you’ve been spending too much, or that you’re a great budgeter? They allow you to compare your expenditures with everyone else who uses them. Very big brother meets web 2.0, I know.
But here’s how they do it. They anonyize everyone’s data and compare your spending and suggest ‘Ways to Save’. Yes some of these are driven by advertisements, but the person who suggested the site said that it tracked his car insurance payment and realized he was overspending. Now that’s valuable information.
For me, after the two-minute sign up process, it noted that I spend too much on bills and utilities in comparison to other months. When I looked to see what fell into this category it was because of the City of Los Angeles charges on my credit card ($340 in tickets later I will never park in a red zone again!!!) We’ll see what else I learn about myself in the coming days. Supposedly Trader Joe’s is my most common vendor… what’s yours?
Side note- lowermybills.com in theory is supposed to help out with this too, but they are way more ad/lead driven and don’t analyze personal spending. I have an interview with them tomorrow, maybe I’ll find out more interactive things are in the works.
2/27/09 Update…Mint just told sent me an email reminding me that my credit card bill was due… LOVE THEM!!!
