Now that I officially have a full-time job after graduation, I'm starting to plan for the real world. I will be moving back home for a few months to save some money and get settled into my new job.
While I don't need to jump and find a new place to live right away, I will eventually want to move out of Mom and Dad's house. In addition to that, I am looking to buy a new car in the near future. Regardless of what I buy first, I will need to save money over the next few months. I've never been a budgeter but I've always been good about saving money and being careful with what I spend.
But now with a new job, I will have a nice salary... which will make it harder to justify sticking to a budget. Lately I've been doing a lot of research on ways to effectively budget. I've found a number of great articles and blogs with several different tips and suggestions including using the budgeting tool Mint.com.
Mint.com is a cloud based budgeting tool that pulls from your bank accounts to create interactive graphics to help you manage your money. It sounds like a great idea and that it will be very useful to visualize how you're spending your money, but what makes me nervous is the way the website pulls from your accounts.
In order to access Mint.com you have add your usernames and passwords for your credit card, savings and checking accounts - which is a risk concern for me. I have read several reviews such as this one from the New York Times, but none have actually helped me make up my mind about the site.
Does any one use Mint.com or another budgeting tool? What are your thoughts about these tools and would you recommend signing up?
I like Expense Manager, which is just a free app I found on my phone. You have to enter in everything manually, but I like that because it makes me think before I buy. I've heard about Mint as well, but giving up those passwords would make me a little hesitant, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your suggestion Heather- I will have to check out Expense Manager!
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