How To Keep Track of Your Money

I've been a user of mint.com for years now to keep track of my money. I linked all my credit cards, banks, investments online accounts so it could pull the latest data live whenever I wanted to know what my money situation was. The problem with mint is they don't have a way to manually enter an account. There are some accounts like my 457b state retirement fund that they don't link up with, so I can't see how that account is growing. They also don't link up with stuff like annuities, or real value house values through zillow.com. So, I could kinda guess what my net worth was, but not really.

 

But, yesterday I learned of another site called www.adaptu.com which is the same sort of financial budget management site. It is simple and secure to use and it links up with all my accounts successfully (which mint constantly doesn't). I was able to enter the 457b accounts in manually to be considered in my networth, but I'll have to update the values every quarter since its not live linked. It also links your home value live to current market values on zillow. I love it! Now, I know exactly what my net worth is.

 

Disclosure: I am not being compensated in any way to say any of this, it is my personal recommendation only.

 

The Best Way To Manage Your Money

 

One of the most helpful tools I've found to track my spending is MINT.  Mint is a free online service that allows you to link up your credit cards, banks, investments and input assets to determine your net worth. It is read only and in the last year I've used it, I've never had any issues.

 

I love that I can log into ONE account to see an update of my expenditures and I can categorize and analyze them. For example, yesterday I realized that we're on track to spend $1643 this year on beer (we have a kegerator). That's more than we'll spend on groceries, which is on track to be about $1100 for the year. I also can see how much I make from rebates and secret shops by categorizing the payment checks.

 

So if you don't already use a budget tracker, I would highly recommend MINT.COM. You can sign up by clicking the banner or the link. Its free too.

Quizzle

Another great tool I use to monitor my finances. Every 6 months you can check in, and get your FREE credit score (not just your report) on Quizzle.com 
Your home, money and credit go hand in hand in life, here you can manage it all. At Quizzle, you'll get access to helpful tools and information that will help you make smart decisions about your life, including:

• Free Credit Report
• Free Credit Score
• Credit Improvement Tool
• Home Value Estimate
• Home Loan Recommendations
• Personal Budget
• Advice on How to Improve

Knowing your home value and the prices of homes recently sold in your neighborhood will come in handy when you want to sell your home, refinance your home loan or make home improvements. Staying on top of your money situation will allow you to cover life's expenses and save for your future. Understanding what's on your credit report and what your credit score is will put you in a position to qualify for the best mortgage rates, get that dream job or snag the lowest rate and payment on your new car.

It is a secure site where you can enter your debt and income, and it will calculate your grade, A B or C in financial health. It's handy to see how your credit score changes based on how you spend or save your money. Mine actually went down to 797 (the range is 350 to 850) from 819 in the last quarter. I think its because we have less debt and have been spending less. Credit scores are really strange in how they are determined, and healthy financial choices don't always help your credit score.

 

So give Quizzle.com a try for the new year.