Recently, a family member suggested I check out Mint.com to help track my personal finances. I was quite skeptical at first, simply because you have to use your bank login information to acces the site. However, you don’t put in personal information, so I went ahead and went with it. If you’re more skeptical, check out their How We Keep You Safe page.

I’m extremely satisfied with the site’s ability to categorize my spending and show it in charts and graphs. You can’t move money or anything like that, it’s really just a way to track your spending and suggest ways to save more money. I’m guessing that’s how they make their money.

For example, if you click on the Ways to Save tab, they’ll show you what you are spending money on and other companies that can save you money or make you earn more. The site reminded me about one that I had forgotten was to change my savings to a max-rate checking to earn more interest on Etrade.

It’s not as powerful as Quicken or other financial software products, but it gets the job done for our household needs.