Comments on: WSJ: Best Online Tools for Personal Finance

By: September Monthly Goal Meet-Up | Life in the Middle Lane

September Monthly Goal Meet-Up | Life in the Middle Lane — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:09:03 +0000

[...] have created a budget and a mint.com account (thanks, Jenny Blake). I’ve called all my creditors about why I didn’t pay them all summer, and I’ve set up [...]

By: AJ

AJ — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:53:46 +0000

My personal fav is mint.com It is great!

By: John Traveler

John Traveler — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:46:58 +0000

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.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:53:07 +0000

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!

By: Lucia @ moneyStrands

Lucia @ moneyStrands — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:45:34 +0000

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

By: Jenny

Jenny — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:53:13 +0000

Thanks Lucia! MoneyStrands sounds great – one question I have is how it differs from Mint.com. Any insights you can share with us?

By: Lucia @ moneyStrands

Lucia @ moneyStrands — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:16:43 +0000

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 http://www.moneyStrands.com.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:58:47 +0000

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!

By: Pritesh

Pritesh — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:46:22 +0000

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:

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

http://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