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Have you ever wanted to manage your personal finances but didn’t want to pay the price for some expensive software? Mint.com was made just for you. Mint.com is many things….personal finance software, budget software, online money management, and a budget planner, but best of all…it’s FREE!

The best things about Mint.com:

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Easy to Set up: Unlike some other sites, Mint.com only needs you to input your information once. It takes about 5 minutes to give Mint.com access to your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, etc. And from then on, Mint.com will automatically update as things change. Now, I know what you are thinking…”Give access to my bank account, online? I don’t think so!” But that brings me to the next point…

Safe & Secure: Mint.com prides itself in having the same encryption and data security that banks use. On top of that, while Mint.com automatically updates your accounts using your log-in information, it never knows your account numbers, SSN, or other personal information. In the super rare chance that someone could get through to your Mint.com account, they still could do no harm, as there is no moving of money at all in Mint.com.

Simple Budgeting: Whatever type of life you might lead, Mint.com makes it super easy to create a budget that works for you. It calculates your average spending in all different categories (car related, groceries, entertainment, etc.) so that you can see what you typically have been spending. You can then set a budget for each category and get updates on how you are meeting that budget as each month progresses. It even shows you a predicted amount that you will save each month by sticking to your budget.

Awesome Graphs: Mint.com uses great, easy-to-read graphs to show you the big pictures, such as a pie graph showing what percentage of your money is spent where. Other graphs let you compare your spending from one month to another, or from one year to another. Mint.com also shows you in real time how your net worth is growing or shrinking.

Find Savings: You might even find that Mint.com will show you places where you could save even more money than you are! It might find a better credit card for you, or make a suggestion on a savings account that you save you more money than your current one. Word of Warning here…I’ve noticed that if you already have a great thing going, it might suggest something that is actually worse, but it’s easy to spot. Just make sure to read over everything before making any such decision.

New Features: Now Mint.com has some even newer features such as an iPhone app so you can access your account right from your phone. If you use Yahoo! a lot, you can also add Mint to Yahoo! so that you can access your information straight from your Yahoo! home page.

Check Out some videos from Mint.com:
Budget Tips, Security