I am in a pickle here. My real life has started, and I am fully responsible for both my income and my “outcome”. I need a way to track my expense, my budget and all my money stuff. Since I’m a tech guy, I’m in the know. I’ve heard about two applications that will help me out.
I have heard good things about Microsoft Money (full disclosure: I work for Microsoft, but in no way on Money). Not great things, but good things. One issue people had was with some expense reporting, I couldn’t really understand what they were talking about though.
I have heard very good things about Mint.com, and especially in their usefulness for people like me, that is young people who don’t have a lot of experience managing there money. But here’s my issue: how can I trust them? What data of mine do they keep? What data of mine that they do take is secure? And, most importantly, what data of mine that I know that they have could be used to mess up my financial situation (credit, bank accounts, etc.)?
Of course, this is just another example of the Web 2.0 debate. How much privacy are people willing to give up for the features they want? And it seems that I am no different.
I want to try both apps, but for now, I will be trying neither. I want to read some more about how trustworthy these applications are. I will keep you posted though. And if you know anything…let me know!
2 Comments
What added value does the app have over a simple spreadsheet with a couple clever macros, that I’m sure you cold write in your sleep?
The key difference is that mint.com pulls in the info for me. That means I don’t have to download my monthly bills, which are now in about 4 places and in 4 different formats. Rather, I would just go online and the most recent bills, charts etc would be there.
As an historical point, I tried to do the spreadsheet thing but with a real program that connected to the internet to download my stuff, but Bank of America told me I would have to pay $30/month or something absurd.
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