For nearly 40 minutes, the administration fielded questions crowdsourced from Mint.com, Examiner.com, and MSN Money readers. The emphasis on social media was evident in the State of the Union itself, which namechecked both Google and Facebook, a first for a U.S. administration. Below is a recap of the issues discussed, and above is a video of the event.

Social Security concerns

Goolsbee opened by echoing the theme of the State of the Union — winning the future by out-innovating, out-educating, out-building and bringing rationality and thought to the economy. While he emphasized the U.S. was the richest country in the world, and with the most productive workers, he acknowledged the concerns of Mint.com readers like Ana Marina Soriano who face an uncertain economic future in a time of high unemployment, threats to social security, and a lack of incentives for long-term saving.

Soriano asked, “”I don’t really have much faith in social security benefits for my generation. What is in place to keep the system up and running?”

“We’ve known for decades about the fiscal challenge associated with the aging of the population and rising healthcare costs,” said Goolsbee, but “the deficit size is not primarily due to discretionary spending.” Going on to say that the forthcoming Obama budget will bring discretionary spending to levels that “have not existed since Dwight Eisenhower was president,” he expressed a willingness on the part of the administration to consider any plan for social security that ensured its survival and prevented it from being privatized. “It’s the most popular government program that has ever been and it has helped assure the safe and secure retirement for millions and millions of people.” Goolsbee stressed that social security is something that requires long-term solutions not short-term fixes.

Unemployment fears

On jobs, Goolsbee said we need to get the job engine running and must now move out of what he called a “rescue phase” and into a growth phase. “It isn’t the case that all the jobs are growing internationally. There were 1.3 million new private sector jobs in the U.S. in the last year. That’s a good start, not near enough but we’re coming into 2011 with a little bit of momentum.”

Still Mint.com readers like John Harvey are concerned with the spending freeze. He asked: “How will spending freeze not result in massive jump in unemployment as in 1937?” While Goolsbee cautioned against comparisons to 1937, he did say that it was important to proceed with more caution than the administration did at that time.

“At this moment, you want to be careful yanking the rug out from what is a fragile recovery. The reason the deficit is large last year and this year is not from the long-run fiscal challenges facing the country, it’s because we just went through the worst recession in virtually all of our lifetimes. When that happens, the automatic stabilizers such as tax revenues go down, spending on unemployment benefits, on a variety of cyclical factors, go up. That’s the main thing driving the business cycle in the short run. The spending freeze on discretionary non-security that the president outlined is over the next five years.”

Still not all of the adminstration’s efforts are aimed at long-term fiscal policy alone. “The president’s tax deal at the end of last year was specifically designed to get more activity in the here and now,” said Goolsbee, “as you look out over the next five years, we’ve got to make tough choices to keep the fiscal situation from deteriorating. It’s a bit of a balancing act. Your reader is exactly right. We want to be mindful not to do things that drive up the unemployment rate in the immediate term. It’s 9.4 percent. It’s way too high. We’ve got to do everything we can to get that down.”

Retirement saving questions

On retirement saving, user “phillip24″ (no full name disclosed) wanted to know, “Will the administration be announcing new initiatives related to retirement saving?”

“We have tried over this period to reduce taxes and give incentives for people to save,” said Goolsbee, “Most of the new programs and incentives we have now are about trying to encourage the private sector to get their employees to save.” One such program encourages companies to make automatic 401(k) enrollment the default option so that even busy people will get the benefit of 401(k) savings plans without too much effort.

At MintLife, our mission is to give users and visitors the financial information they need to save and do more with their money. Topics range from personal finance advice, to analysis of macroeconomic trends and the fiscal impacts of news of the day. We publish content from a variety of contributors and sources, and the opinions expressed don’t necessarily reflect those of Mint.com or of Intuit.

It’s true that the tone is often provocative, seeking to engage readers in dialogue around important topics, but the recent blog post “The Economic Impact of Immigration” went too far, cited polarized sources and did not receive the editorial judgment and oversight it deserved.

We regret it. It is completely unacceptable and won’t happen again. Our intention was not to further the agenda of any of the sources from which data was pulled, and the post has been removed.

- Lee Sherman, Editor of MintLife

But what use is a budget if you fail to stick to it? At Mint.com, we believe that a budget that is too complex to set up and maintain is one you’re not very likely to keep. As a result, our goal has always been to make it as easy as possible for our users to create and stick to their budgets. That, in turn, enables you to set and achieve financial goals with ease.

How do you do that? We’ll explain below.

Automatically categorized transactions

The first step to creating a realistic budget is knowing where you spend and how much.

The good news: this is extremely easy to do — almost entirely automatic — if you are a Mint.com user. When you first sign up for Mint.com you’re asked to add all of your financial accounts, so that you can see all of your spending in a single place. You’ll get an at-a-glance view of your balances across all accounts — there’s no need to log into multiple websites and track multiple payment channels.

Once Mint.com starts tracking your transactions, it auto-categorizes them so that you can see exactly what you are spending and where. You don’t have to go through the laborious process of tagging your transactions: Mint does it for you.

It has a number of default categories, such as Food, Entertainment, Home, Kids and so forth, so that you not only know how much you spend at a particular merchant, but also in any given spending category.

But it’s flexible. If you’d like to categorize your iTunes purchases as food (music being food for the soul, after all), and not as entertainment, Mint won’t stop you. You can also create custom categories, such as Home Remodeling withing Home (or Food for the Soul within Food, if you will).

You’ll be able to tell immediately what your average spending is in any given category.

One of the most useful features of Mint’s budgeting tool is the abiltiy to uncover spending trends and pinpoint opportunities to save. For example, you can track your spending and income over time in order to get a true picture of exactly how much money you’ll have left over at the end of the month.

With that information, you can then take financial planning to the next level and set your financial goals, such as “Buy a new car,” “save for retirement” or “go on your dream vacation.” This is where Mint.com’s Goals feature comes in, making it just as easy to set and track goals progress as it is to set and track your budgets.

Mint.com lets you compare your spending from one year to the next or from one month to the next. You can set your budgets to roll over each month, so you can make adjustments as you go along.

Charting your course

With Mint.com, you can create a budget based on your actual spending, not based on some pre-determined notion of what you should be spending. Pie and bar charts break down your spending by category so that you can see exactly how much of your income goes to mortgage or rent, groceries, dining out, and much more.

What sets apart a budget you created with Mint from an Excel spreadsheet is that your Mint budget is based on actuals, not hypotheticals. We’ve added 16 interactive graphs that show you exactly how you are spending over time. With the graphs you can see exactly where you need to cut back in order to get your budget back on track.

Mint.com starts you out with a preliminary budget that you can adjust as needed to reflect your personal values and financial goals.

Budgeting scenarios

Mint.com’s budgeting tools are flexible enough to deal with a number of possible budgeting scenarios. Unlike with a spreadsheet or the tried and true back of the envelope approach, you can play around to see how changes in your spending or income will affect how much money you’ll have left over at the end of the month.

Other tools lock you into specifying a dollar amount for each category on a monthly basis, but Mint.com lets you enter irregular expenses that don’t occur monthly.

You can even see how one-time only expenses that you may not have accounted for will affect your savings plan.The ability to look forward allows you to use Mint.com as a planning tool that lets you see exactly how much money you’ll have left at the end of the month.

Monitoring Your Budget

You’ll want to make sure to log in to your account regularly to adjust for changes in your spending and income patterns. But Mint.com is also proactive in helping you with both setting up a budget and maintaining it. Not only do we auto-categorize your transactions and provide a starter budget. We also send you either SMS or email alerts for when bills are due or when there’s been unusual spending in any of your accounts. By keeping a closer eye on your spending you’ll be able to keep your budget on track.

Ready, Set, Goals

Now that you know how much money you’re spending each month and how much you have left over, it’s time to get familiar with Mint’s Goals feature. If you haven’t set a goal yet with Mint.com, give it a try. The process is just as streamlined and automatic as our budgeting tool. You can find out how to set and track financial goals with Mint.com here.

Mint’s approach to budgeting and goal-setting is simple, automatic and, above all, flexible enough to accommodate a variety of budgeting and saving approaches.

If there’s one thing you can be certain of in life, it’s the uncertainties. No matter how carefully you plot out your expenses, there will always be those that you didn’t account for. You’ve got medical insurance so you think you’re okay. But what happens when you need an expensive prescription only to discover that it isn’t covered. You’ve got homeowners or renter’s insurance and you’ve insured your wedding ring. But what happens when an unexpected bundle of joy is delivered, or you decide to send your little darling to an expensive private preschool?

It’s not enough to make sure you’ve paid down your credit card debt or to make sure you are investing for your eventual retirement. An emergency fund must be a part of any sound financial plan.

Most people count on their employer for their income, tax payments, and medical benefits. But what happens when you are laid off (an increasing likelihood in this economy) and all of a sudden you are stuck with having to pay for things yourself. No matter where you stand financially, it’s going to take you awhile to get back on your feet. So most people will agree that an emergency fund makes fiscal sense. The question is how much do you need?

The standard answer to that question is that you should have three to six months of expenses set aside but in these oh so nonstandard times, that’s not necessarily enough. Keep in mind that every individual is different and your expenses will vary depending on what time of year it is. You might have a particularly expensive hobby, like going up to Lake Tahoe every weekend to ski during snow season. Or you might need to pay a piano teacher for lessons each week. If you’re thinking that these are luxuries that can be cut back on when disaster strikes, you’re right. But ideally your emergency fund should allow you to maintain the same quality of life you have now. With an unemployment rate that is at the highest it has been for the past 15 years, you may need to revise that time frame to between 6-12 months. If you are more experienced and thus higher paid, you will be at a disadvantage during this recession because it will take longer, often much longer, for you to find a job.

Your first step in establishing an emergency fund should be to set up a budget. It’s especially important to pay attention to those reoccurring payments; grocery bills, car payments, rent or mortgage payment, internet access and phone bills, electric and water bills, that can’t be entirely eliminated.

Okay, now that you’ve established the need for an emergency fund and have some idea of how much you need, you need to decide where that money should go. No, stuffing it under your mattress is not a viable option. You still need to put your money to work for you so that you can, at minimum, get ahead of inflation. Remember that you’ll need immediate access to these funds should disaster strike so forget about any accounts or investment vehicles that make you pay a penalty for early withdrawal. That’s what the financial gurus refer to as liquidity.

This is your emergency fund we are talking about so you should be as risk adverse as possible when it comes to establishing it. So forget about the stock market and put that money into an interest earning account at the highest yield possible. Mint.com’s Ways to Save can help you identify whether the interest rates and fees you are paying on your current checking and savings accounts are as good as you can get. If not, consider opening an account just for your emergency fund. In addition to checking and savings accounts, you may want to consider money market mutual funds or a certificate of deposit (CD) as places to stash your cash. Both are good, stable investment vehicles that are somewhat immune to the ups and downs of the financial markets.

Lastly, you should make sure that your credit score is high and you’ve established a solid line of credit. Worse comes to worse, you can pay for your day-to-day expenses with your credit card and defer the payments until such time as you are again gainfully employed or otherwise financially solvent. But this should remain a last resort. Make sure you pay the balance off in full each month so as not to incur finance charges. With a little advance preparation, you can weather any storm.

The bad news is inescapable and much as you’d like to there’s no use hiding under a rock. If your kids are starting to ask questions about the economy, it’s a good idea to learn the best way to talk to them about this difficult subject.

According to the experts, today’s kids are much better equipped to deal with sensitive subjects than you were, as you know if you’ve already discussed sex with them without resorting to that birds & bees nonsense. The trick is in approaching them in a way that raises their comfort level and presents only the information that is appropriate to their age level.

If you don’t talk to them about the economy, they are going to hear about it anyway. So don’t worry about whether you think they’ll be able to understand what’s going on. The best thing you can do is to keep the lines of communication open.

We asked Atlanta GA-based psychologist Dr. Erik A. Fisher for his advice in talking to kids about the economy. Dr. Fisher is the author of “The Art of Empowered Parenting, The Manual You Wish Your Kids Came With” and a blogger for the parenting website, ParentSociety.

Provide concrete examples

At age 3 your kids aren’t ready to understand personal finance. It’s vitally important that you express confidence and avoid passing on your own fears and insecurities to your children. 8 year-olds and older are ready for an education in basic financial concepts but these are difficult for even adults to understand, so you’ll want to make sure to provide concrete examples. “Your kids will hear all kinds of terms like foreclosure but they won’t know what that means,” says Fisher. “Explain to them how a mortgage works and what banks do. Make it concrete by using examples such as a barrel full of apples. Get out a stack of pennies and teach them how interest works.” Fisher stresses that, while there are certain guidelines for particular age groups, it’s also important to keep in mind the maturity level of the individual child, “If the child finds it difficult to accept change, you have to ease into those conversations, give them bits and pieces of the puzzle.”

Emphasize the role of the family

You should teach your kids the value of work and explain to them that, in these tough economic times, everyone is going to have to work a little bit harder. Fisher stresses the importance of the family unit and says you should get across the idea that you, as a family, are all in this together. “Have your kids put some money away each week so that they can realize the value of savings,” he says. Explain to your kids that the family is like a business, with money coming in (income) and money going out (expenses). An understanding of what goes into running a family can go a long way toward teaching kids the value of money.

Paint a positive picture

While Fisher thinks that a lot of parents make the mistake of pretending that everything is rosy right up to the point where the family is forced to move to an apartment because the bank just repossesed that 3-bedroom home in the burbs, he says there are things that you should keep from your children. “Don’t let them know how much you owe,” he says. “Don’t let them know that you are horribly in debt and can’t get out. And whatever you say, don’t make the kids feel guilty.” Kids, right up into their teenage years are largely driven by impulses and emotions. It’s okay to gloss over the details so long as you provide them with hope that your family will recovery from this temporary setback. “If you’ve been impacted financially and had to make adjustments in your spending, let the child know that things are changing in terms of how the family is spending their money but reassure them that they are going to be taken care of and that it is not their fault.” The parent’s role doesn’t change just because your financial situation may have. It’s as important as ever to provide your children with a sense of security.

Focus on what’s really important

Life is full of ups and downs. The economy is cyclical. But relationships, if properly nurtured, can last a lifetime. You don’t have to go on expensive vacations or constantly look for ways to entertain your kids. Simply spend more quality time with them and less time slaving away at work. Fisher says you shouldn’t back off on allowances because providing kids with an allowance and letting them make their own choices about how they spend their money is critical to teaching them the value of things. But it’s also important to take a step back and show them that there is more to life than things alone.

Older children, let’s say teenagers and above, are ready to learn a powerful lesson from the economic crisis. Explaining the root causes of the crisis can help teach the lesson that arrogance has been the downfall of every major civilization throughout history, according to Fisher. “We’ve spent so much time in our culture accumulating wealth and what got sacrificed is relationships. Our sense of value should come from within.”

In this time of economic uncertainty many are putting off a major purchase such as buying a car. Why incur even more debt? But while the high price of gasoline might dissuade you from purchasing a gas guzzling sport utility vehicle (SUV), you probably don’t have the luxury of giving up driving entirely.

So if you are in the market for a new car, you’ll need to deal with the fact that it is harder than ever to get a loan. In better times, the major automobile manufacturers established their own financing to help people buy a car without having to leave the lot. These services typically don’t offer the best rates, but their threshold for extending credit has typically been lower than actual banks.

What many don’t realize is GMAC Financial Services and Ford Credit, are not only the largest companies dedicated to automotive financing but in fact are large financial institutions that process more credit than many banks.

Dealers have long provided a number of financing options. While those options haven’t gone away in the current financial crisis, the financing arms of the major automobile manufacturers are being more careful than before in providing credit.

GMAC Financial Services has responded to the instability of the global capital and credit markets by implementing a “more conservative purchase policy for consumer auto financing,” according to a recent press release.

Among the changes – you will now need a credit score of 700 or above to even qualify for a car loan from GMAC. Credit scores typically range between 300-500, meaning that many people who need a car won’t be able to get financing.

Before you even venture on to the lot, you should know your credit score. If you don’t know what it is, you’d better find out now. You’ll want to make sure it is both up-to-date and accurate. Try a service such as FreeCreditReport ($12.95/month for credit score and monitoring) or myFico (all three FICO scores and credit reports).

GM dealers are paying more to provide financing (an increase of 75 basis points) so they are going to be a lot more careful about who they are providing credit to and how much credit they are providing. Those shrill cries of “no down payment required,” are quickly becoming a thing of the past. GM customers can no longer borrow in excess of the dealer’s invoice price so must pony up 10% down on the purchase of a new vehicle. New limitations on loan terms are also making it more difficult to buy a car (60 months is typical).

If you have a high enough credit score, you may want to consider shopping around for the best car loan you can find rather than taking the dealer up on the factory financing. See this how-to video to learn how to find a great deal on a car loan. Just remember, you better get dealing before you can get wheeling.

Until last week, the expression, “money in the bank” was considered the ultimate in security. But after the WaMu firesale, many are getting a little worried that their own bank might fail.

So how can you make sure you are protected?

Before you pull out all of the money you have in the bank and stuff it under your mattress, know that the money in your accounts (not just savings and checking but also investment accounts and IRAs) is protected by federal insurance. But there are limits. Depending on how much money you have and where you keep it, you may or may not be fully covered. The best thing you can do, as with so many matters related to personal finance, is to educate yourself. Knowing what is protected and what isn’t will help you determine what to do with your money.

Even if your own bank suffers the unfortunate fate of WaMu (and even if you bank with WaMu) you probably don’t have anything to worry about. In most cases, as in this one, when one bank fails, its accounts are acquired by another bank.

At WaMu it is still business as usual. The quirky WaMu brand may be disappearing but your money won’t be. When a bank takeover like the one last week occurs, the law mandates a speedy transition with no downtime in being able to access your accounts. Even if the bank is physically closed, customers usually have access to their money by check, debit card or ATM. In most cases, a bank closed on a Friday will be open on a Monday. In those rare cases when a buyer can’t be found right away, ATM and debit cards will stop working and checks that haven’t cleared the system will be returned. There may be some delay in receiving your insurance checks and you’ll have to do the work of contacting each merchant to make other payment arrangements. But the good news is you won’t lose your money.

Know the facts

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), an independent agency of the federal government, was specifically created as a means of shoring up the US economy in response to the thousands of bank failures that occurred in the 1920s and early 1930s.

The FDIC insures all bank deposits (checking accounts, savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and money market accounts) up to $100,000 per account per owner of that account. This means that, in the case of a joint account, each co-owner is insured up to $100,000. Not covered are stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or money market funds (as distinct from money market accounts).

Most banks are FDIC insured (and you can find out if yours is by checking with the Bank Find tool on the FDIC’s web site).

The FDIC provides separate coverage for certain kinds of retirement accounts such as individual retirement accounts (IRAs), and Keoghs, insured up to $250,000. Note that this is in addition to the $100,000 per account for bank accounts. Living or revocable trusts are protected up to $100,000 for each beneficiary.

Use the FDIC’s Electronic Insurance Estimator to find out how much coverage you have.

Maximize coverage

Remember that insurance is provided on a per owner basis. A married couple can have as many as three accounts, two individual and one joint account to increase coverage for your family up to $400,000.

One sure way to increase your coverage is to open multiple bank accounts with different banks. FDIC insurance is provided on a per bank basis and there is no limit on the number of banks you can open accounts with. Use Bankrate’s Safe & Sound rating system to determine how stable a particular bank is.

Even if you have more money than what is covered by insurance, all is not lost. You become a creditor of the failed bank’s receivership and you’ll be first in line to receive payments when the FDIC sells the assets of the failed bank. The FDIC says that uninsured depositors typically receive anything from 40 cents on the dollar to 100 cents on the dollar with an average of 72 cents on the dollar.

Managing your money shouldn’t get in the way of living your life. That’s why personal finance apps are such a natural fit for the iPhone. They let you track your stocks, convert currencies, calculate how much you owe, and track expenses—all on the go. The more full-featured among them even let you manage multiple accounts and transfer money between them. The best apps are those that take advantage of the iPhone’s finger-friendly interface or unique features such as location-awareness. For example, GPS or WiFi can be helpful in finding the way to the nearest ATM. Most of these apps are free or available for a nominal charge so there’s little to lose by trying them. Here’s a look at 10 that count.

Bloomberg Mobile (Free)

Bloomberg

Wall Street Traders swear by the Bloomberg Terminal to analyze real-time financial market data, place trades, and get news and price quotes. Bloomberg Mobile isn’t quite the same thing but it is a beautifully designed app that provides up-to-the-minute news, stock quotes, company descriptions, and price chart and market trend analysis. The My Stocks feature is a more detailed replacement for Apple’s stock Stocks app. And Bloomberg Mobile takes full advantage of the iPhone’s position sensor by providing larger charts when you rotate the phone to a horizontal position.

Mobile Banking (Free)

Bank of America

Bank of America’s iPhone app, Mobile Banking is little more than a wrapper around its existing mobile site (which isn’t optimized for the iPhone) but if this is your bank you’ll still find it useful. You can use it to check available balances, pay bills, and transfer funds on-the-go 24/7. Its best feature is its ability to find the nearest ATM and Banking Center locations using the GPS in the iPhone, something that isn’t possible with the mobile site. BofA’s Online Banking Guarantee is its assurance that you won’t be responsible for any unauthorized transactions and it uses advanced encryption technology to prevent unauthorized access to your accounts and to protect your online identity.

PayPal (Free)

PayPal

In Japan many have thrown away their wallets in favor of paying for everything from train tickets to beer from a vending machine with their mobile phones. We’re not quite there yet but the PayPal app provides a tantalizing glimpse at this future. It provides complete access to your PayPal account allowing you to check your balances and send money to your friends and family, all from your iPhone. It supports 16 currencies and is secured by your existing PIN or password. It’s a good start but I’d like to see it go further. Missing is any way of displaying your transaction history and I’d also like to see it use the notification indicator on the app icon to show when money has arrived in your account.

Loan Shark ($4.99)

FoggyNoggin Software

Designed to help you navigate the often treacherous waters of financial lending, Loan Shark provides a number of features that let you calculate and compare loans from different vendors. You can calculate any component of a loan, including payment, interest rate or loan amount, see the full Amortization Table for the loan’s lifespan and play with “what-if” scenarios that let you determine the effect of making extra, higher, or lower payments. Loan Shark can help you determine how long it will take to pay off that credit card, determine how close you are to paying off your mortgage, and compare the cost of different loans, among many other uses. Kudos to FoggyNoggin Software for an easy-to-use and good looking interface that works well on a mobile device.

Bonus feature: Lets you locate nearby banks using the iPhone’s location-awareness

Tipulator (99 cents)

Tap Tap Tap

Tipulator stands out in a crowded field of tip calculators (it’s often said that the true test of how successful a new platform will be is how quickly a tip calculator appears for it) by marrying cute graphics with easy-to-use number dials. You can probably split the check without it but you won’t have as much fun doing it. And for 1/3 the price of your last latte, you owe it to yourself to at least try it.

Tiptap (Free)

Made With Bananas

More traditional but no less useful is the free Tiptap which is one of the most straightforward tip calculators I’ve seen. Featuring a large custom keypad and a large picker wheel, it’s extremely finger friendly, a plus when when your dining companions are tapping on their wallets and waiting for you to tell them how much they owe. You can choose to enable rounding, splitting, or tax support and Tiptap works with multiple currencies and multiple languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Swedish and Japanese).

PocketMoney ($9.99)

Catamount Software

This venerable mobile checkbook first appeared 14 years ago on the Apple Newton and has since been available on Palm and Windows Mobile devices. Long time PDA users transitioning to the iPhone and former Quicken users alike will welcome its powerful approach to tracking your finances. PocketMoney can track an unlimited number of accounts, can auto-complete transactions based on payee, and will generate expense reports and pie charts. PocketMoney can import database files from the Palm version and also Quicken Interchange Format (QIF). You can even sync these files over a WiFi network using a free desktop app.

SplashMoney ($9.99)

SplashData

SplashMoney is another mobile checkbook that is well known from its implementation on Palm and Windows Mobile. SplashMoney allows you to track different account types: checking, savings, credit card, cash, asset, liability, money market and line of credit. You can create a budget and track and analyze your spending with customizable reports and charts. SplashMoney bests PocketMoney by connecting wirelessly to many online US banks using the same DirectConnect service as Quicken and Microsoft Money. In order to sync with the desktop, you’ll need to purchase the desktop version of SplashMoney separately.

Day Bank ($3.99)

Quantum Quinn

Day Bank is a pocket-sized check register that has been built specifically for the iPhone with a number of features that take advantage of the phone’s capabilities. Unlike the others included here, Day Bank seems particularly suited for entering transactions on the go and tracking your cash spending. Transaction entry is particularly speedy and the app uses the iPhone’s camera to capture images of receipts or purchased items. I like the ability to easily filter the view by day, week, and month. Day Bank isn’t as full featured as its competitors and currently can’t serve as your primary money manager due to its inability to reconcile transactions but it is improving rapidly and in its next version will support transaction geo-tagging, the ability to rename categories, QIF, CSV, & XML export, WiFi backup and restore and more.

Pennies ($2.99)

Design By A Knife

Pennies is a slick expense tracker with an interface that looks like it could have come straight from Apple. It doesn’t pretend to be a full-featured money manager like SplashMoney or PocketMoney but what it does do it does exceedingly well. It lets you quickly establish a monthly budget and record and track your daily expenses against it. Large finger friendly buttons and fun features such as a fuel gauge that indicates how much money is left in your budget make Pennies a joy to use. If you still rely on cash for your daily purchases and only want to make sure you are meeting your budget goals, Pennies is a good choice.

Mint.com the best FREE way to manage your money. Get started here!

One answer comes in Mint’s ability to give back to the community by sending three budding internet entrepreneurs to the conference this year.

We ran a contest and awarded three passes to the users who either referred the most friends to Mint.com, wrote the best story about how Mint.com has helped him/her mange money, or proved themselves to be the biggest Mint.com fan.

I really enjoyed meeting all three of them in person so let me take a minute to introduce them to you.

Dan Hassenplug, from Chicago, Illinois is a marketing professional with a taste for social media and an interest in personal finance. After hearing about Mint.com when the news broke at last year’s TechCrunch, he decided to see if the service could help him integrate his finances. Dan was particularly drawn to the service’s attractive graphical user interface and handy SMS alerts and weekly email update. “The idea of using something like this to manage my finances was a no-brainer,” says Dan. “I decided right then that this was something I needed in my life.”

Dan, who has now acquired the moniker the MintFanatic™ created a website of the same name to share his love for his favorite online money management tool. Rejected names included “Send me to TechCrunch,” “MintyFresh,” and “I Love Mints.” By any name, his admittedly over-the-top efforts to win, which included daily video posts are a clear sign of his devotion to the service.


Robert Love, a graduate student at the University of Florida in aerospace engineering, took a more analytical approach, quantifying his experience using Mint.com in actual dollars saved ($1,000 in about 40 hours). “The main savings came not just from using Mint.com but from making lifestyle decisions based on what Mint.com was telling me to do,” he says.

Robert is taking an entrepreneur class this semester and is looking forward to learning more about the business side of startups at TechCrunch. “I’m really interested in the dynamics behind building a team and the process of working ideas through to implementation.


Ryan Merket is a Senior Designer at CBS Interactive in San Francisco specializing in social media and the creative brains behind a number of innovative startups including Ping.fm. Like Dan, Ryan heard about Mint’s win at last year’s TechCrunch and signed up immediately. As a designer himself, he was surprised to see how much he liked the design of the service. “It stood out 10 fold over the rest of the sites out there and it was amazing how quickly it pulled all of my information together,” he says.

In addition, Ryan is an advocate of the kind of cloud computing Mint espouses. “I’ve tried Microsoft Money and frankly, I don’t want to put my money on my laptop. Someone can rob you of your computer bag.”

Not being a writer, Ryan knew his best shot at winning was to leverage his extensive Gmail contact list. Good thing he did. After missing TechCrunch last year and failing to make the cut this year, he finally got to attend, thanks to Mint.

Just as Mint’s software streamlines the management of your personal finances, our content delivers a fresh perspective that gives you the actionable advice you need to make the right choices about how to spend and save your money.

We understand that the challenges you face are different from your parent’s generation and your expectations about how you live, work, and play are different too. If you’re just getting started in managing your money, look to Mint.com for how-to information on everything from planning a budget vacation to improving your credit rating. We’ll continue to provide you with money saving tips on all of the things you do, whether that’s buying concert tickets or going on a surfing trip to South Africa. We’ll also be covering topics that you won’t find on other personal finance sites. For now, those will remain our little secret.

And we can’t do it without you. Our hope is that the Mint blog becomes a two-way forum for your thoughts, hopes and aspirations around the money you work so hard for every day. We encourage you to reinvest—not just in stocks or mutual funds but also in your relationship with your money. Just like in your personal relationships, a small investment can pay huge dividends. As we like to say around here, “money is for living,” and that philosophy is at the heart of every blog post we write.

Let us know what kinds of articles you’d like to see on Mint, either by leaving a comment here or writing me directly at lee@mint.com. A penny for your thoughts?

Lee