Win a Free Pass to TechCrunch50
If you’ve been a Mint blog reader for awhile, you’ll know that Mint.com launched last year at the first TechCrunch event last September. We were honored to be named the Best Presenter and then challenged to keep our servers from melting down. Good times.
Since that means our birthday is coming up, we’re thinking that gifts are appropriate —but for you, not for us. So, we’re giving away two passes to the September 8–10 TC50 event (street price: $2,995 each). Two ways to win:
1. Be the Mint user who refers the most friends who become Mint users. You’ll need to send your friends an invitation to Mint using our Tell a Friend feature to have your referrals counted.
2. Write the best “How Mint has helped me” story. Submit your story via a comment on this blog post. Team Mint will choose the most original, creative (yet believable) tale as the winner.
The “Be Our Guest at TC50″ Contest is now open and runs through midnight, Sunday August 31st. Read the full contest rules here. Winners announced September 2nd, so you’ll have time to buy a ticket to SF to schmooze with some of this year’s best and brightest new companies, products and entrepreneurs at TechCrunch50.
We’ll look forward to meeting our winners there!
Organize your financial life.
Use Mint.com to see where your money goes, get bill reminders & alerts, track your investment performance, and find extra savings. It’s FREE! More
Okay, I’ll go first. I would so love to go to TechCrunch, and here’s why. It ties into how Mint has helped me. You’ll understand in a minute. I got engaged last year to my most amazing (now) wife and started to talk about money with another adult, really, for the first time. My parents not being really smart about money, this was a first for me. My then fiance, now wife, is really organized. I’m not. And she told me about Mint. Trust me when I say that i had really not much of an idea where my paychecks went every month before I started using Mint. Actually no idea. I just saw my balances go to zero, maybe less than zero if you were on top of my credit card balances, every two weeks. But J. (now wife) showed me how to track my money using Mint, set me up for alerts, yada, yada. Within about a month, I’ve got the cold, hard truth about the state of my economy (sorry, McCain). Made some changes in my spending, went out maybe a little less. Started to know where the ATM cash went, etc. etc.
Now I’m realizing that while my job pays the rent, J.’s salary (and benefits) are enough to keep us afloat and I’d really like to start my own thing. I have The Big Idea, based on lots of conversations with people much smarter than I am, for the next big thing. I just need to get my idea in front of the right people (can you feel me TC?) to get the funding I need to seal the deal.
So, Mint people, you should vote for me!! I love Mint, use it all the time, and can hoenstly say that getting mint-organized with my cash has helped me get entrepreneurial. See you in Frisco!
As a recent college graduate mucking around the hallows of corporate America, there is only one thing that has made a major impact on my life. Its not my diploma. Its not my job offer. It’s my ability to save, with Mint.
I step into the office at about 8AM, Starbucks grande 5-pump light ice white mocha in hand, and log into Mint.com to check my daily balance. I get a tingly feeling when Mint tells me to refresh the page so I can see my net worth. Call me a geek, but at least I’m trying to save right? Anyways, Mint is priority number one when it comes to kicking off my day. Yes, I log into Mint before I even check my e-mail (I hope my employer doesn’t read this ;). I click on “trends” and see exactly what I’ve been blowing my paychecks on. You guessed it; the sweet, dark nectar of life better known as Starbucks Coffee.
10% of my paycheck is going just to get me ‘wired?’ Something has to change! This is where Mint really shines. Mint found ways I could better save my money. I was earning little to no interest by keeping my paychecks at a brick & mortar bank. I got a suggestion from Mint to put it into a higher yielding bank account which would save me at least $500 a year! Thats approximately 142 white mochas’! Since switching to a better bank, and monitoring my purchases, I’m able to enjoy my guilt free coffee and play with pretty charts at the same time (it gives me that tingly feeling). Now it’s time to get back to work - oh wait, its already 5PM. Thanks Mint, you’ve done it again =).
I’m more interested in just sharing my Mint story, since I’ve been meaning to blog about it.
I used to meticulously track my finances using Quicken. It was a huge beast and really a pain to get it to do what you want, but I eventually had everything down. Eventually my wife and I comingled our finances and she wanted to co-manage our finances as well.
So we started the hunt. At one point we were going to do a “shared drive” situation. But that just seemed messy. I even thought about writing my own web app (not much was around back then). Then things like Wesabe, Mint, Geezeo even Quicken Online started popping up. We methodically tried each one. I even tried Mint twice. Each had it’s own quirks and flaws, but Mint was the only one that started pulling in data from the banks we used (we have about 20+ financial institutions).
Once we finally had everything in one place, we knew Mint was the clear winner. We work with a financial advisor and having all sorts of statistics at the ready and always up to date is a godsend. Eventually we saw some redundancies in our finances and started consolidating accounts. This keeps not only our finances in order, but mail from piling in.
The real great thing is we got exactly what we originally set out for, a single tool that both my wife and I can look at and know exactly what’s going on with our money.
Hey mint.com!
You can just call me a MintFanatic™ since just after TechCrunch last year I have using and growing with you and your site. Since you have changed my life I thought I would make a site where I can tell everyone how mint.com has made my life better. So for the next ten days I will be sharing (via video) my mint stories. Then at TechCrunch I will blog my experience and continue to be your number 1 word of mouth advocate. I look forward to meeting you in Frisco!
Check out Day #1 Just a little back story:
http://www.mintfanatic.com/MintFanatic%E2%84%A2_Goes_To_TechCrunch/Top_10_Reasons/Entries/2008/8/21_The_Back_Story.html
Hey mint.com!
I am one of those early adopters from last fall who is still in love and always falling in love again with your site. Since I am such a huge fan I set up a website http://mintfanatic.com to help tell my story. So for the next 10 days I plan to share my stories with you about my time with mint.com. I am super excited for the chance to attend TechCrunch50 and look forward to sharing my stories even more!
P.S. I think I may have messed up on
Thanks!
- Mintfanatic™
I used to be attentive to my finances. I had the most exquisitely balanced checkbook. Not a single digit in the red. I catalogued my receipts, folded them with the care of an origami guru, and sealed them into neatly-labeled envelopes. I did everything right. Things were good.
…until about two years ago.
The stack of medical bills, the moving costs– the onslaught of sudden debt snapped my budget like a splinter. And I kind of gave up on monitoring my money.
A year ago I tried Quicken. But even when it wasn’t hanging up on server requests, the whole thing felt too archaic. I could have read the entrails in a dissected dog and had my answers faster.
I even tried going back to my original medium– hand-coded Excel spreadsheets with specialized inputs. But I’d forgotten how tedious it was to sort through every receipt. I’d end up with a bird’s nest of ticker paper in my purse and I’d throw it out by the fistfuls.
I finally found Mint through a friend.
A week or two in, and I had moved my credit debt to a zero-interest MasterCard, built a new budget on the fly, and figured out where the holes in my pockets actually led. And I felt secure again. In control.
And as much of a sucker-punch as it is to see your debt impassively presented in a smiling pie chart… it’s also a relief to see that fat, ugly wedge pared down every month– month after month.
I kind of wish I could start a svelte little slice where that one has begun to recede: “Donations to Mint.com.”
You guys rock.
I’m an avid TechCrunch (www.techcrunch.com) reader and thanks to them, I found Mint (www.mint.com). Mint’s description of me is 100% Minty and I couldn’t agree with them more. In my opinion, they have the absolute best way to manage your finances and budgets online.
Think Quicken, MYOB, Microsoft Money or whatever software you might currently use to manage your finances, except that mint puts it all online.
The interface is very simple to use and one of the features I love the most is the ability to send yourself alerts when certain budgets have been exceeded or when large transactions have been recorded. You can have them emailed to you or sent to your phone via an SMS - very cool!
So far I’ve linked up my bank accounts, my credit cards, some of my credit line accounts, my investment account and my PayPal account.
Currently they support some 60,000 account types with more being added daily. They also take your requests if an institution you need isn’t there.
Overall, this is one of the best internet applications I have ever seen.
OH BOY
techcrunch will be awesome, I would love to go. Thanks
I found Mint.com last year as a recent college graduate who was covered in educational loans, confused about managing my finances, and in desperate need of a cost effective money management tool. I tried everything to get a handle on my finances and a clear plan for my future, from Excel spreadsheets to Quicken, and nothing worked. I couldn’t effectively see where my money was going, how to cut my spending, or why certain months seemed terrible while others went quite well for me. As a visual learner, Mint.com brought me the exact tool that I needed to find my way through the financial jungle, and I’m in such a better place today.
Virtually all of my financial accounts are linked to Mint, including my cash accounts and loan accounts. I no longer view my loans as an abstract dragon waiting to be slain but see with clarity how much I owe, what it’s going to take to pay those loans back, and how much of my daily income I can afford to use to both get ahead and save for the future. I can with certainty say that there is truly no greater tool on the web today than Mint - it doesn’t cost a cent, which means that my money goes not towards managing my money but managing my life.
I’m an American abroad right now, with little access to financial advisors with whom I can meet in person and communicate effectively. Mint bridges the gap between those of us living abroad, far away from our financial centers back home, and our account ledgers back home. Were it not for Mint, I would definitely feel more concerned about my capabilities for money management abroad. Before traveling abroad, I knew that I would need to find something online because of how easy my financial life would be to access while I traveled. I travel light, without lots of paper and pens, which means that Mint makes the perfect companion for anyone considering living abroad while managing financial responsibilities back home.
Part of my journey to Mint came due to my life as a freelance web developer. For a time I would win client contracts, take money in, and not really keep up with how much was coming in per month and how much was going out per month. I had a vague idea about the state of my finances, and was given very little education about strong money management as an adolescent and college student. My impulse to spend what I had at the moment without building a safety net was perpetuated by my reticence to really get a grip on my finances. I was like the ill patient who refused to go to the doctor to see what was wrong. When Mint came along, the joy of really seeing where my money was going far outweighed the pain of realizing that I had wasted so much time in my life avoiding the kind of pure, solid, straightforward money management that Mint provides to its users. I am so thankful that Mint came along.
As I enter the second quarter of my life, I am dedicated to better money management, smarter decision making, and conservative spending. I am dedicated to knowing where my dollars go, to the cent, and Mint makes that possible. I am extremely busy, which means that I do not have time to manually type out hundreds of lines of transactions in Excel or figure out the bloated, expensive financial software programs on the market. The beauty of Mint is that it is as complex as I need it to be, or as simple as I need it to be.
The real story in my journey to Mint is that I came to Mint and then left, wondering if I would find another solution that was better. After a several month long search and find mission for better alternatives to Mint, I came to the realization that Mint, by far, is the best option for me, given my current lifestyle. I am a young, recent college graduate, who travels the world and needs to know that there will always be a place for me when I need to get my finances in order, no matter where I am at in the world or how much money I have. From small time change to huge earnings, Mint will be there for me along the way, and I’m really glad that I made the decision to come back, and stay.
I lost my wallet over the 4th of July weekend. I figured it was somewhere in my luggage that needed to be unpacked BUT apparently someone stole it and was spending small amounts on different credit cards on different days at Gas Stations around town. I would not have noticed the extra spending because gas is so expensive and all the purchase were under $100 on different days at the same gas stations. So unless I was comparing each credit card statement side by side I would have never seen the duplicate spending.
This brings me to my favorite part of mint.com. The emails about my spending. At the end of the week I got a friendly email that said “Hi there, You exceeded the $170 monthly budget you set for Gas / Fuel by $758 in July. To view details go here: View Overview page…” This sent up a RED FLAG and I reported my wallet as stolen!
I love that mint.com compares all my credit cards & bank accounts side by side! Thanks!
I hate paper more than you do. Jealous?
Things, objects, people, relationships, even the unfortunate child have a tendency to slip between my fingers. Lost in the abyss between my nightstand, manila envelopes, and desk - somewhere lies a treasure of bills, receipts, unverified credit cards, event postcards, and my asthma inhaler. The last one I added just to paint a more realistic picture. You’d be suicidal if you wanted to be my accountant - and I’m only 25. But I’m currently accepting applications. Address it to Aaron, Subject: Death Wish
So then the Internet comes along, a few guys have an idea to securely link credit cards to a website, build a dashboard with fancy pie charts (I spent $45 on Mexican fighting masks this month!) and notifications, and I’m pretty much falling in love. It was tough at first, but mint was gentle, showering me with high-fives whenever I was under budget. And believe it or not, that’s what I look forward to at the beginning of every month. To get a ‘You Kicked Ass in July!’ shows me that mint really cares. So it’s not only helping me balance my budget - that goes without saying. Mint is making me into a generally happier person. I don’t feel bad anymore when I’m spending $20 on tacos and beer - because my mint says it’s okay.
Good fight, and good night.
As a refugee of communist Cuba I have had little need for financial software most of my life. I can remember fleeing my native land like it was yesterday. My wife Anita and seventeen children had been plotting our escape for what seemed like a decade. We had decided to flee on the eve of August 23rd 2004. There was only one thing left to do before embarking on our journey. We had to kill our pet Chihuahua as he would surely blow our cover. After the deed was done we jumped in a raft I had made from spare tires and particle board I’d collected after 9 long years. The seas were rough and we lost jose, jaun, and angelo as well as three very nice tires. After 4 days we finally made it to the blessed land of the United States.
We had little money and could not speak a word of English, life was not about to get any easier any time soon. two years passed and in the summer of 2006 me and my 14 children were able to earn enough to support ourselves. We started investing our money in the stock market, putting it in high yield savings accounts as well as opening one checking account per child so that it would be more difficult to seize our assets if we were sent back to cuba individually. All the accounts were a nightmare to manage. My wife and I would spend 12 to 14 hours a week just logging in and checking balances on all the families accounts. We were desperate for a solution.
In late 2007 we were turned on to mint.com and our lives have never been easier. We are now able to manage all of the family finances on one gorgeous software platform. Viva la mint
I found mint off another website while researching how to better manage my money flow. As you see, I am a single dad who was barely making enough money to pay my child support, see my child on a bi monthly basis if I could afford it, try to manage to find money to get food, put gas in the car, and trying to make my credit card payment on time. Realizing that making it from paycheck to paycheck wasnt even happening anymore I searched and searched for answers. I tried to use MSMONEY and had no sucess. it just wasnt enough. I kept getting stressed out that I was getting hit with constant overdraft fees, 100s and 100s of dollars a month. I found Mint.:) I signed up to try to see how it would help me I was at my wits end. I entered my bank account and credit card. I started watching were my money was going and why I was coming up short. I started cutting back on areas that I was overspending using the budget system that Mint has. I could see as soon as I logged in and connected with Mint where my money was going. I signed up Febuary of 2007. I have been using mint on probably a daily basis using every feature Mint offers. I have now, because of Mint, been able to start a bond fund for my daughters college and start her a savings account for when she gets older. The best part is that there is actually money in there for her and I am able to make monthy contbutions due to Mints help. I think that without the help and timing of finding Mint.com when I did I was heading for diaster. I love using the account email notifications because they come right to my cellphone. I know right away I have a problem that needs attention because of Mint. I have not missed a credit card payment since I started Mint. Because of this my credit card interest rate has dropped by 15% I also found that because of Mint showing me that I could get a credit card with a lower interest rate and no yearly or monthly fees. That lowered my credit card interest rate. Now I love logging into Mint just to see that I actually have money to pay my bills and buy food and be able to actually save for my daughters future. Thank you mint for your help in keeping me in contact with my daughter and letting me see her more frequently. I have been struggling for years before Mint and will do it no more. I know where every dollar goes and who gets it and know that my daughter’s future will be better. Again Thank you MINT!!!!
My wife and I started using Mint right after we got back from our honeymoon. We were both still in college at that time and we knew watching our income would be very important. Mint allowed us to see not just where our money was going, but also to understand where our money needed to go. When you are just starting out, there is not much to formulate a budget upon. With Mint tracking our spending in such a detailed, yet easy to see way, we were able to create a usable budget that allowed us to start saving money as well in just a month or two.
As of today, even with our first child on the way and money tight, we have not had a single argument about money because we both can just go to Mint and look at up-to-date information about how we are going based on our budget!
Mint has helped us start well and continue smoothly through our marriage. We suggest it to all my friends getting married.
Wil & Regina Wade
Mint has been an excellent tool for organizing our finances as we prepare for our Series A round. We were impressed with Mint when we saw it at Techcrunch last year. BTW do you remember us? We presented right after Powerset which was recently purchased by Microsoft. We have some exciting appplications that will be released soon.
Thanks
John Chen
I love mint, simply because it makes finance record keeping so much easier (emphasis on “so much”).
Take it from someone who built his own finance softwares: first in VB, then in Oracle Forms, then finally in MS Excel (all failed miserably).
The challenge has always been about how to keep track of all my money sources, do updates (previously consisted of pocketing all the receipts i get) and reconcile all my expenditures (if it doesn’t balance, just round it off to the nearest hundreds kind of sytem).
Mint has done the impossible by automating all of the above processes. I merely log-in, see an overview of my account, slice em and dice em using the cool pie chart and off to watching TV i go!
No manual input needed from me.
Just log-in, log-out, watch tv. The process couldn’t be simplier.
Mint has a cool name too, and the website rocks, and it hasn’t changed my daily routine which is why i heart it so much.
Thanks Mint!
I’m a spy, so keeping track of all my bank accounts can be a hassle.
Since I’ve used Mint, no longer do I have to log in to dozens of financial websites. Now, whenever a large deposit is made to one of my accounts, Mint notifies me right away–a boon for working with problematic blackmailers.
With Mint’s snazzy pie charts and custom spending categories, I can check at a glance what I’m spending on caviar, sports cars and sat phones–it may seem glamorous, but even spies have expense reports.
This site has really helped me get my finances in order after what was a very financially complicated move into my very first apartment. Once the realtor fees, moving truck rental, security deposit and an attempted apartment gone wrong were out of the way, I was faced with developing an entirely new monthly budget.
When living with roommates, expenses were that big of a deal with everything split three ways. However, once I took everything on by myself, that all changed. I had utilities, much higher rent and all of the little stuff that one doesn’t realize he’ll need in such situations (broom, trash can, etc. etc. etc.) Because of all of this, I also needed a budget.
That’s where Mint came in and helped me to finally organize my finances. I had always been terrible with such things. I would basically spend my money without a whole lot of planning or attention. Mint helped me change that. Their tools made me so much more aware of my spending habits and have finally led me to a place of financial control.
Hopefully, the next place they bring me will be TechCrunch50!
I am an Operations Manager for a company that provides credit card processing for small businesses via community bank referrals. My brother who is on the cutting edge of everything technical pursued me for a year with mint.com for my personal use. I have found Mint soooooooooo incredibly valuable for my personal finances, that I began recommending to some of my smaller business owners for tracking their business expenses. As a result, the little extra advise has been utilized by them and referred to other business owners many times over. It reinforces my companies promise to help small business owners do their best and succeed. Great job and thanks.
Mint makes or breaks my weekend. Recently engaged, my boyfriend and I started getting our financial baggage out in the open. When my Friday afternoon Mint email hits with our combined accounts and “net worth” in one place – I am either incredibly relieved and immediately head to Happy Hour – or severely disappointed and start planning chicken-flavored-Ramen and a frosty tall boy for dinner (with maybe an angry text message or two to him about his spending habits).
Either way – its nice going into the weekend knowing where I stand. I don’t have to do anything - and I feel like I’m financially fit (or at least Mint tells me when I’m not). And that’s why I love Mint.
I’m a current college student who is (for the first time) 100% financially independent. This was a big step in my life as I am now juggling rent, bills, student loans, credit cards, and (the hardest of all) BUDGETING. When I began asking people what I should be budgeting for groceries, entertainment… I was getting wildly varying answers. Then someone introduced me to Mint.com, where I can not only view all of my expenses at once - but also learn how to budget my income wisely. This was a TREMENDOUS help in what is a very difficult step in any young persons life.
Also, I’m currently abroad and Mint.com’s site allows me to view all of my financial information in one place. (A difficult feat when you are working with dial up in a developing country!) This makes me appreciate Mint evennnn moreeee.
It all started while running on a secluded beach in Byron Bay, Australia in 1998; I was working for Sun Microsystems at the time and realized I needed to follow my passion of working in the medical field. As I ran I could see my future in front of me and that experience has changed my life as well as finding mint.com. Yes that is right mint.com is right up there with my closest experience to self-actualization.
In 2003 after working in tech startups and out of work for a year, I applied to Dental school and got in to one of the best schools in the country.
This was a scary thing to do financially, giving up a good income, stock options and health insurance to learn how to fix teeth and help people with oral health.
Where does mint.com fit into this story, after finishing Dental School, my wife and I realized we have a huge amount of debt with 12 credit cards, as well as an IRA account, a few bank accounts, student loan accounts, and mutual fund account, I was desperate to find some way to keep track of all these accounts.
I tried quicken and that didn’t work very well as well as Money software and that didn’t work either. I knew I needed something online, that was secure and would give me a real time snapshot of our financial situation. During this search I was reading a tech magazine and saw the article on mint.com, “Eureka! I think I have found what I am looking for” I thought.
I signed on that day and linked all our accounts easily within minutes, since this time I have found many extra charges from credit card companies, where we are spending our money, and have devised a budget to get out of the debt that we owe. My wife says I am addicted to mint.com, because I am on it daily, but she likes the pie graphs and I can show her where our hard earned money is going, and where we can save money.
I am true believer in this technology and wanted to give my thanks to mint.com for creating the best financial tracking system available and helping us get a handle on our financial situation. This has enlightened our lives and it takes me back to that day in Australia when I found my calling.
Cheers,
Tod C. Anderson DDS.
It was 12:30am, and my wife was deeply asleep, when I gently shook her awake. “Hon, did you make a big transfer of money out of our checking account yesterday”?
“I dunno. Maybe I paid the rent online.” she answered sleepily.
“No”, I said, “I mean a real big transfer. $<>k?”
“No way”, she said, and now was fully awake.
I explained that “I was just checking all of our accounts online through Mint, and it showed that just yesterday a $<>k withdrawal was made in your name . No idea what it could be?”
It did not take long to realize we had been the vitims of some form of identity theft. Little sleep was had the rest of that night. But in the morning, we were able to call the bank first thing, and tell them that someone had clearly made an unauthorized withdrawal. Because we had noticed it so quickly, we had no problem from the bank and the funds were quickly restored. I think the bank might even have been able to get its own money back, because the money was still in the other account, but I can’t be sure. But I learned then that, in this day and age, it was really critical to have a way quickly, easily and regularly checking the activity in all of my accounts.
I can’t compete with @Dan Hassenplug. If anything he deserves to go. Hats off to you Dan very creative and I can’t see anyone but you winning.
@Mint.com thanks for creating a great product and I will continue to spread the good word to people I know and trust. I will also continue to advertise your service on my Blog because my readers (all 15) need to know how much I appreciate your product/service.
Good luck to everyone. You are going to need it.
To highlight how revolutionary Mint has been for me, I have to first explain my ridiculously horrible experience with it’s competitor, Quicken. It will go down as one of the worst customer experience of my life, and, ironically, a massive waste of the thing it was supposed to help me with, money.
So it’s the second week after I graduated from college. It’s really difficult to describe how clueless I was with regard to money. So I went to a computer store and bought Quicken 2007 for Mac. When I got home, I sat down with my dad and he started to show me how to MANUALLY enter the information, which is how he’s always done it. After an hour of trying to navigate the ugly and unintuitive interface, I thought, ‘there has to be an easier way.’ And it turns out there was, SUPPOSEDLY, an easier way. Quicken SUPPOSEDLY supports online syncing with your financial accounts and your whole financial life downloaded to the software (though I never saw any evidence of this). When I tried to sync my account, I got the most useless error message, which just said for all my accounts that some error XYZwhatever, has occured, with no explanation. I spent countless hours of Googling and Quicken “support” trying to figure out how to sync my accounts to Quicken. For some reason, this information is guarded by Intuit like a nuclear secret. As far as I could find, there was nothing written about it on the website or in the help. For such a primary function, you would think there would be some info in writing! I finally discovered that the way to sync this information is to contact EACH of your institutions and get a special passcode. Every institution has their own method for aquiring this information. I had to talk to literally five people from one bank, for example, to discover that they required me to send written snail-mail letter asking for the code, and THEN wait six weeks for approval and a letter back with said code! To add insult to injury, they actually charge you $10 a month for the service. When I finally got this code from them, I discovered that it didn’t even WORK and I was getting the same error message as before.
This was the last straw. I gave up comprehensive financial management, resigning myself to manually keeping tabs on my dozen or so accounts. In the coming year I managed to rack up thousands of dollars in debt, lacking the big picture a comprehensive balance sheet provides.
Then, hiking with a friend this summer, she started talking about something which sounded too good to be true. Mint.com, which after a few minutes syncing your accounts, gives you a real-time view of your whole financial situation.
I signed up the second I got home and it really was that easy. There were absolutely no hitches and within five minutes I was looking at my entire financial story. I’ve used Mint every day for two months, and still can’t get over that giddy feeling of seeing my whole financial picture on one page. I’ve dramatically cut my debt since then, in the order of thousands of dollars, and am close to being debt-free! Also, by showing my net-worth with investments factored in, it gives me a much more realistic portrayal of my financial health, which is surprisingly heartening (Who knew I was in the black?). This would not have been possible without Mint.
SoCal Road Trip & Mint:
When I told my boyfriend I wanted to go on a picnic for our first anniversary, he surprised me by taking me on a “P.I.C.N.I.C” - that is, visiting cities/landmarks in Southern California that start with one of these letters. We flew down to San Diego and planned to drive back up to my apartment in the Bay Area. With my trusty laptop in tow, Mint rescued us in more ways than one during this fateful trip…
“P”oint Loma, San Diego: Got a notice from Mint that my Visa bill was due - thank goodness I got this notice! I completely forgot to pay it before I left San Francisco.
“I”nglewood: My boyfriend and I are originally from the East Coast, so we had no idea that Inglewood is as, well…rough as it is. Upon arriving at our hotel and speaking to the clerk behind a bullet-proof window, we decided to change reservations and book a room somewhere else - but we didn’t know how much money we could spend on a room (prices between Santa Monica and Valencia vary substantially). Logging on to Mint, I knew exactly how much we could spend, and we were Northbound.
“C”inderella’s Castle: Let’s face it, Disneyland can be expensive - even with just two people. My boyfriend lamented the days of tickets under $60. Using Mint in the hotel before we left, we were able to calculate how many Mickey Mouse ears, tinkerbell bells, and pirate action figures we could buy. The picture of us on Splash Mountain is the best - nothing says “happy anniversary” better than photos that will horrify our future grandchildren.
“N”ew Cuyama: I have to be honest, this town is so small that I don’t think they have Internet access anywhere within the city limits. I didn’t use Mint but desperately wished that I could.
Lake “I”sabella: The technological downward spiral continued - the hotel manager indicated we could get Internet access by using the telephone line. “And be sure to have your computer dial 9.” I missed Mint and was worried I might hear banjos as we waded in the river.
“Chulavista”: At the end of our trip we were strapped for a little cash. How many tacos could we buy? Mint told us!
Thanks Mint, especially for the help in Inglewood. You’re a lifesaver!
All I really wanted out of my 27th year on this planet was simple: unfettered access to the snack basket on Jetblue flights and a job I wouldn’t want to hit the snooze button for. In that order. Once I discovered that the flight attendants actually encourage their passengers to gorge themselves on those sweet Terra Blues, I knew I needed to start looking for a change in employment. Maybe somewhere with unlimited vending machines. The following day, after a dangerously close call with my alarm clock, I found myself at work trying to shirk the cloak of professional mediocrity that was as well-worn as my favorite hoodie, but far less attractive.
I began to explore Mint.com’s SpendSpace section. Until then, I’d reserved the name “Spend Space” for any retail outlet with more than 100 square feet of merchandise. But on Mint.com I kept my money in my pocket and compared monthly expenses with other users across the country. The site’s diagram illustrated how my monthly rent payments, in one of the world’s most expensive cities, were on par with pouring water into a Dixie cup with a massive hole poked through the bottom. My eyes newly opened, I began fantasizing about what it must be like to live in a place where restaurants menus don’t threaten your credit score and my bank account saw more black than red. Mint’s tally of my transactions showed me a minefield of wallet-draining habits while the Ways to Save section showed me the best way to diffuse those issues and reach the other side with my bank account intact. Joyful at the possibilities, I bordered on tears and considered investing in Kleenex, knowing how easy it would be to track my progress through Mint.
Having been raised on a steady diet of Apple-designed products and the minimalist Google aesthetic, I immediately noticed the sleek, rounded corners and backlit windows that pepper Mint.com’s interface. I started out a little skeptical- was this like South Beach for the Wall Street Journal set? But within minutes, I realized that the site’s content, message, and features were so efficient and intuitive that there was simply no need for the cyber-detritus that most companies pack into their sites. The experience of using Mint.com is outright calming, not only for the visual elements but because I know that each time I log off, I’m more financially sound than before. Not a bad return on just a few minutes of work a day.
The beauty of Mint.com is that it’s made for mere mortals, and young ones at that. It lets me spot broader trends while keeping tabs on the daily expenses that get away from you faster than the last seat on the subway. With other sites and programs, I had to choose between tracking my long-term, generalized needs or getting bogged down in the minutiae of everyday finances. Mint.com bridges that gap by illuminating how the two impact each other. I can operationalize my larger financial aims into smaller increments while still keeping my eyes trained on the ultimate goal of financial empowerment. With my new job, Mint lets me fashion my own fiscal strategy with a little guidance and snark thrown in for good measure. Because there’s nothing more mind-numbing than a humorless accountant.
Mint for President!
I am submitting my story not to win the trip (although that would be wonderful). I have to absolutely be the worlds worst budgeter. I looked at life with little care about the future. I was a Grad Student in college, not because I was trying to better myself, but mainly due to the fact that I wasn’t ready to face the real world. I began to try and flip houses to make some extra money so I could stay in college forever. Well, very long story short I got in with some really terrible people and ended up haveing almost $200,000 stolen out of my construction account from the developer. The developer, of course, filed for bankruptcy leaving me with absolutely no clue how to fix this mess. I have negelected to tell you that this wasn’t the only dumb thing I was doing at the time. I also managed to buy a $94,000 BMW, and two other homes which were $176,000 each. I used $75,000 in student loans to finance all of this stupidity. I was truly the poster child of stupid. So here I am $828,000 in DEBT and no real job to speak of, and in to my life walks the woman of my dreams. I think the BMW caught her eye. LOL. Well, 6 months later we were engaged and I knew I, the non budgeter, had to get my act straight. I tried everything I could find and none of the software or financial gurus could help me implement a solid buget that was easy enough for me to follow. I heard about Mint.com in May and have since gotten myself and my wife on a budget that we are excited about. I now work in finacial services and it allows me the opportuntiy to help my clients and co workers place parameters around their budgets. I know of at least 40 people in the last two months that we’ve gotten on the program and it is already impacting their lives. Amazing. Well, to update you on where we are at. My wife and I still have $378,476 in debt (2 houses and 2 student loans) But we also have no more credit card debt and no car payments. To wrap this up we have $10,000 in savings for the first time in our lives and a super aggressive plan to be debt free in 3.5 years. Thank you mint.com for taking the sting out of the word budget and making it an enjoyable activity. Forever greatful. Rusty Secrist
I have no complicated personal finance story where I maxed out 3 credit cards or depleted my savings. I actually did know how to balance a checkbook and implement a budget. But what I didn’t have before, was this website. My story is very simple, just like Mint.
Mint has helped me combine all my beautiful financial information into one place. It is the one place where I can go to see my most updated account info and plan my spending or saving accordingly. The consolidation of the ins and outs of my money can be viewed so eloquently on my main page and I can now see the bigger picture with what I have financially.
I also have learned to budget smarter. Being a college student, tracking where I am spending has become a lot easier and more revealing. I have now reduced my IKEA visits and increased my Jamba Juice visits. I can also say that Mint has helped not only doctor my internal finances but afflict my dependency on my parents for chump charity. After being able to look at the trends of my spending I was able to set a realistic budget that I could actually monitor. Mint has definitely changed the way I think about my consuming. The pie charts are bar graphs show me more honesty than anything. If only my economics class was this easy! Lastly, the Minterviews and Money 101 articles have shown me and given me the added confidence I need to travel through college without gathering debt and regret. All-in-all, I feel that my finances are minty clean thanks to you guys.
So cheers to a prosperous future! (For the both of us)
Three years ago, I graduated university with a hunk of school debit and promptly decided to chase a girl I met shortly a few months before in Beijing all the way to Australia. I bought a last minute ticket to Melbourne stayed there for two weeks and completely failed to meet the girl (Hint: when it seems like the girl isn’t interested, chances are she really isn’t interested). I kept extending my stay because Melbourne is a great place (a nice Seattle-ish feel) and there is always Visa. After almost maxing-out one of my cards, I finally bought my ticket to my waiting job in Singapore.
I touched down in Singapore with another big hunk of travel debt on my credit cards. For the next three years, I danced a fancy game of juggling state-side debt with Singapore accounts. It was a mess. I could easily transfer money to my bank accounts stateside, but keeping track of due dates, cards without auto-payments and whether my overall debt was actually going down was close to impossible.
For a while I threw money at some money management tools like Quicken and Microsoft Money only to get lost in the mess of features. Then I tried to simplify with Excel spreadsheets and lovely data-entry. And boy did that work well for about a week before I started considering sending hate-mail to Bill Gates.
In the end, I decided to not do anything. I standardized a payment schedule for my non-auto pay cards. I budgeted a standard monthly transfer to my accounts in the USA and left the rest to fate. But at the back of my head, I hoped for a better solution, something that could link it all together. And one day a few months back, I found it - http://www.mint.com. Now on one screen I can see the status of all my accounts, I get friendly emails when my bills are due and best of all, I can track whether my debt is really going down or not. (also thanks for the kick-ass recommendation on saving money).
I don’t really care about the tickets. I can’t afford the ticket to the USA to attend the seminar, but I really want to thank the people at Mint for coming up with such a kickass helpful tool. Your tool has helped me get a handle on something I had pretty much given up on really managing - my money.
Thank you!
Unfortunately I tried to use Mint’s services and have great stories but my credit union is too small to bother with. So I get a weekly email for over a month now with nothing in them because they are unwilling to contact my credit union and figure out how to get my online statements. Too bad, so sad for me.
Wow! All great stories; thanks for sharing these with us. We’re still accepting entries through midnight Sunday, so if you haven’t already, enter now!
Update on the leaders in our simultaneous competition for the Most Referrals: Our leaders are:
1. R**n
2. Superv*******
3. Alexd*******
4. Parav********
5. A tie between Michaeli******** and jana.b*****
We’ll announce the story and referral winners on Tuesday. Thank you all for supporting Mint.com!
@Steve I’m sorry to hear that we don’t have your credit union. We’re up to 7,000 US financial institutions now, but we don’t have every one yet. If you’ve already told our customer support team the name of your CU, that’s the right step. If not, please email me directly at donna@mint.com with the name of the CU you want to add and I’ll check it out.
Mint instantly saves time and money. It gives me a full perspective and ability to analyze, and therefore tactile incentive to save more money for my future.
@Lisa V. I’d be interested to talk to any businesses you know who are using mint.com, just doing some research. Could you email me directly at donna@mint.com and let me know if you know of some who might be willing to chat? Many thanks. Donna
Minty Fresh - A Money Management True Tale
Back in ‘92, the only choice
A single money manager with a lonely voice
Then came along, a slightly different song
Billy G introduced a new offering to help us with our money woes
It was much of the same from the Redmond foe
As time came and went, the Internet offered a different light
Online banking was a better way to manage our money fight
Still however, there were no clear answers ever
Money management got harder and harder and not so clever
Then came along something new, fresh and different
Mint was here to offer a new bent on this thing called money management
Not a “geezy” offering nor complex tool
But rather a online and simple app even for a Motley Fool
Mint is now my money manager of choice
Now I have power, now I have a voice
As I approach my 1 year anniversary on Mint and have been certified “100% Minty”, it seems appropriate to take a look back.
For most of my college days, financial tracking was a side thought. Sometime during my third year, I realized I was spending way too much on eating out by looking at my debit card bill (~$200+/mo). Being a responsible engineer-in-training and fearing what the rest of my expenses might look like, I decided to start tracking everything. I custom made an Excel spreadsheet with categorized expenses that I manually input after collecting and toting around receipts in my wallet. For the next two years, I went through my expenses bi-weekly for about 1 hour on the weekend, spent at least 10 hours of Christmas break calculating my net worth and yearly cash flow, and spent another few trying to figure out some trends. The books never seemed to balance, but I guess this process did give me some ability to adapt in a sloth-like manner.
Starting in September of 2007 I embarked on a journey to incorporate Web2.0 into my life. In the midst of setting up multitudinous accounts, blogs and RSS feeds, I found Mint. It was undeniably love at first sight. Despite objections from friends about giving my personal information away, I recognized the value Mint offered and abandoned my Excel file/receipt system within a week. Mint was so easy to use it was almost addictive (a bit like some other mints a little while back…). While at first it required a bit more time, now I spend about 15 minutes every week or two making sure my expenses are categorized correctly and ensuring that I stay on budget.
Mint has saved me time and money as well as just making my life generally better. Here’s the top 11 ways based on this past year:
1. My expenses for restaurants are half what they were the past two years. (+$600/yr)
2. My other cost of living expenses and impulse buys were kept under close scrutiny with Mint’s auto-budgeting providing feedback during the month. (+~$240/yr, +Knowing you are buying assets that are useful and that you really want, not just accumulating “stuff”)
3. I set up an online high interest savings account because of Mint’s recommendation. (+$70/yr)
4. I identified overcharges by my cable/internet company even though the bill was on autopay. (+50/yr)
5. Mint notified me by e-mail that I had overdrawn my checking account within a day of me doing it, enabling me to ensure that a fee did not start growing. A week later I received the banking companies’ note by snail mail, by which time I would have owed twice the original penalty. (+$30/yr)
6. Before I hesitated to get involved with my investment accounts online because I didn’t want to have to keep up with multiple sites. Now I use Mint to keep an eye on both my Roth IRA and a few mutual fund investments and I am considering adding an online trading account. This enabled me to see that my Roth IRA was being managed too actively, allowing me to adjust and reduce transaction fees. (+$?/yr so far, +Ability to ID needed asset reallocation, +Confidence from knowing where you’re investments are at)
7. I no longer have to balance my checkbook biweekly; I just scan a list of expenditures and categorize them correctly. (+25 hrs or more/yr, +Slimmer wallet without receipts piled everywhere)
8. I now accurately track my charitable giving, utilities expenses, and rental income for when tax season comes around. (+10 hrs/yr, -Headaches of compiling detailed records)
9. Mint has helped me manage having a low income in graduate school yet be able to buy a first house in a turbulent market. (+Confidence I’m making responsible financial decisions on big choices going in and cash flow management after I’ve made the decision).
10. I used Mint’s monthly cash flow monitor to ensure I’m staying out of the red each month. (+Having a low income yet maintaining positive cash flow so I can make sure I’m saving and reducing my debt)
11. I know my net worth at any time. (+Christmas break without year end financial muddles, +Confidence from knowing you’ve got your financial ducks in a perfect line behind you)
That adds up to about $1000 and 40 hours savings this year as a direct result of joining Mint, in addition to numerous other qualitative benefits! Mint has literally become my financial conscience, showing me if I am buying impulsively or investing toward the future, as well as if I am spending selfishly or giving generously.
As you can see, Mint has been THE most valuable tool I have discovered in my quest to find usable technology on the internet, so it’s one of the first things I talk about when people ask me what I’m excited about. Since I discovered Mint, I’ve told just about everyone I know, whether by Facebook, my blog, or by word of mouth. Even my dad and mom, who barely know how to move files around a computer, are seriously considering joining Mint. Mint’s expense tracking/categorizing, cash flow assessment, automatic budgeting and instantaneous assessment of net worth are life-changing tools. Thanks to all who have helped develop Mint!
Perhaps needless to say, but I will anyway: I’d be delighted to attend TechCrunch carrying the Mint banner! Thanks for your time and consideration!
My Father is an entrepreneur (along with my brother and myself), owns 2 of his own companies, and has always taught me the importance of money management skills. He currently uses Quicken and Quickbooks - personally and professionally. A few months ago, he tried to sit me down and TEACH me how to use Quicken for my own personal sake. When I saw him MANUALLY input all kinds of information to do simple bookkeeping - I said, “whoa, whoa, whoa - stop.” I grabbed the mouse and made him sign up for Mint.com for HIS own personal sake. He was truly amazed at how simple (yet powerful) the service was. No more inputting store names, no more trying to guess what that purchase was - Mint.com automatically does the expense categorization for BOTH of us now (I converted him)!
As a young entrepreneur with my own Web 2.0 startup company (looking to be ready to present to TechCrunch60? next year) - I would absolutely LOVE to be lucky enough to attend TechCrunch50! If you select me, I’ll buy a plane ticket ASAP and have flowers/candy/balloons (maybe even some teddy bears) delivered to Mint HQ (I promise!)
- Michael
How has Mint Helped Me – 1,2,3.
1. It’s an inspiration! I’ve been following Mint for about a year, a few months after the launch at TC. I used to work at a company that created financial software – and a great idea like this would have most likely remained that, a great idea – solely because you’re providing us with TONS of personal value (virtually effortless money management) – for FREE! Mint, you made me remember how fun it is to be the innovator/disruptor/risktaker/dreamer/entreprenuer by creating something that people really love (see Dan above), that impacts their lives positively (see almost all posts), and really has all the big guys talking!
2. It’s helping me plan for the future. Since my “web 1.0” experiences didn’t exactly leave me a millionaire, I’ve actually started to plan more seriously for my retirement. Sure, I’m in my 30’s and have a while, but when you have: 4 401(k) plans, a 403(b), and company stock that’s being held hostage in a few different brokerage firms – Mint is the perfect online filing solution. A REAL eye-opener, Mint makes finances INTERESTING, simple to understand, and dare I say it – FUN. Plus, Mint was a great way to break the money talk ice with my better half - we can both literally see how much dinners out is costing us!
3. It’s a great employee. As part of start up in “bootstrapping” mode (read: no corporate credit card, no vc funding yet, you remember what that was like right?) – Mint helps keep the accounts payables straight. I can quickly see my expenses – travel, equipment, domain names, Starbucks meetings, and business cards ($300 ouch) - compared to my income (not much). In fact, I’m hoping that I won’t have to blow my budget this month on a TC50 ticket, but we’ll have to see how that turns out (I’m sure Mint will notify me either way - :)) And, when Spring rolls around, like any great accountant, I’m looking forward to seeing if Mint adds any new features to help save me time when I go to itemize all of my deductions!
So, that’s my quick 123 on how Mint has helped me…
- Good luck to all the other folks that posted as well!
Everything you are about to read is true. This is a no bullsh*t rags to riches story that probably wouldn’t have happened without Mint.
A couple of years ago my wife and I were so broke we had to borrow money from the neighbors to buy milk for our newborn baby. I had no job and we had tens of thousands in debt and a $25,000 payment to the IRS to deal with. Today we have practically no debt, a thriving million-dollar web design business and are about to start building a new ‘green’ home. I know it sounds like a marketing pitch but I don’t think we could have done it without Mint.com.
I should also explain that I came to the U.S. a few years earlier from South Africa with no money and knowing nobody. I had met my wife through work and we had decided to be married so we could be together. At first things went well. We both were working, we had a beautiful house outside Boston and it seemed as if we were living the American Dream. Unfortunately we had really bad financial habits. We spent over our income and maxed out our credit cards every month. My wife became pregnant just as the start-up we were both working for folded and we were both left without jobs.
My wife managed to get a job but with a newborn baby in the house one of us had to stay home. During the day I was being a stay-at-home dad and on weekends I was mowing lawns to make ends meet. We had no savings to fall back on and because we had bad financial habits we continued to slip further into debt. After some very uncomfortable conversations with the IRS and our credit card companies we entered into a debt recovery program. That stopped the debt mounting up but didn’t really give us any insight into why we kept repeating the same financial mistakes.
At about the same time I started doing small web design projects in the evenings and while surfing the web for inspiration discovered Mint.com. Back then it was just the blog with advice on getting out of debt and understanding your spending habits. As soon as the application launched I added our credit cards and bank accounts. One look at the cool graphs were all my wife and I needed to get the wake up call we should have got a few years earlier. As cheesy as it sounds we owe so much to the guys at Mint for helping us get our sh*t together.
The best part has been our new spending habits translated into better financial management of my web design business. Over the last two years growth has been so fast that we broke through the million dollar revenue mark. We’ve paid off almost all our debt and even managed to take a few much needed vacations. It’s hard to believe we were living off pasta and corn bread a few years ago.
The only thing my wife doesn’t like about Mint.com is the text alerts that tell me she just spent $90 on a pair of shoes!
We thank all of you for sharing your experiences in prose and even poetry. It was a close and tough call, but the team at Mint voted Robert Love’s story as the winner. Ryan was our Most Referrals winner and we awarded a third TC50 pass to Dan, the MintFanatic, who was clearly in a class by himself!
Wanted to pass along that Aaron Patzer, our founder and CEO, read every story and told the whole company today how great it was to be reminded that Mint.com is helping a lot of people. Thanks for your willingness to share your stories.
Donna