Jun
30

WSJ: Best Online Tools for Personal Finance

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal published a special insert called “The Best Online Tools for Personal Finance.” I have shared a few tools on this blog in the past, but wanted to make sure I pass along a few more gems from the article for your financial management arsenal.

(The Best of) WSJ’s Best Online Tools for Personal Finance:

Article: Best and worst advice for recent grads from prominent experts

A personal favorite not listed in the article: Kiva.org – Kiva allows you to finance micro-loans for entrepreneurs around the globe (for as low as $25). When your loan is repaid, you can either get the money back or reinvest with someone else. A brilliant system if you ask me. (See my previous post: A Lesson in Micro-Credit and Loans that Change Lives)

Am I (and by proxy, the Wall Street Journal) missing any good online money management tools? Let me know!

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Posted by Jenny Money Subscribe to RSS feed Print This Post Print This Post
  • AJ
    My personal fav is mint.com It is great!
  • Great post, thanks for the list. But remember that these are only tools to help you make things easier and that building the habit of monitoring your finances is the key.
  • Ryan
    I'm a little hesitant to use Mint...does storing your financial information on the cloud scare anyone else?!

    I just don't feel that the security is that strong. Please tell me if anyone disagrees!
  • Hi Jenny, great list. Another tool I recommend you check out is moneyStrands. We are a free, web-based tool that helps people manage their money. It allows you to track your spending and income, create budgets and compare yourself to other users with similar traits. We've also got a mobile version and iPhone app as well. You can check it out at www.moneyStrands.com.
  • Thanks Lucia! MoneyStrands sounds great - one question I have is how it differs from Mint.com. Any insights you can share with us?
  • Of course! In an effort to keep this comment short, I'll just go over a few differentiators:

    -User interface: We have a great widget-based user interface (think Netvibes) that allow you to customize your view. You can also add RSS news feeds to your dashboard if you want to stay up to date on industry news.
    -PDF Reports: We have a feature that allows you to create PDF reports of your finances. This gives users the opportunity to create a "backup" record of their finances.
    -Compare: Our comparison feature allows you to compare your income and expenses to others like you, not just by location, but by a variety of other factors such as age, gender, marital status, occupation and so forth.

    I hope you can check us out and let us know about your experience.

    Best,

    Lucia @ moneyStrands
  • Hi Pritesh - thanks for your great comment. Annual Credit Report is a great site - a must have for the more official annual credit check (in addition to CreditKarma's monthly updates). I love the idea of Bill Shrink - can't wait to check it out - thanks so much for the link!
  • Jenny:

    It's a great list of online tools for Personal Finance. I have been using most of the sites for my finances and site like zimplemoney.com is new to me. Thanks for providing the link.

    Along with some useful sites mentioned above, I have also been using following sites:

    www.annualcreditreport.com - the official website for free reports from the 3 major credit reporting agencies: Equifax (EFX), TransUnion and Experian.

    www.billshrink.com - it makes it simple to compare vast number of complex offers and plans, such as those from the major mobile carriers and credit card issuers.

    Cheers..
    Pritesh
    http://twitter.com/mehta1p
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