Alternatives to MINT.com

Have a question about your personal investments? No matter how simple or complex, you can ask it here.
Post Reply
Topic Author
rag_g
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2013 11:35 am

Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by rag_g »

what are good alternatives to MINT.com? I have been using MINT.com for a couple of years, however it keeps adding my vanguard account twice and is screwing up my net worth graph.
negreenfield
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 9:53 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by negreenfield »

I'm a fan of Yodlee, but the old version. 9.X. The new version is terrible IMO.
MoneyMythsSolved
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 5:14 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by MoneyMythsSolved »

Deleted
Last edited by MoneyMythsSolved on Thu Dec 04, 2014 3:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Epocrates
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Nov 07, 2013 3:06 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by Epocrates »

I use mint and I have gone into the settings and made it such that all of my retirement accounts do not show up on budgets and trends. You can go one step further and just hide those selected accounts 'From Everywhere.' It helped me avoid having redundant transactions and skewing my trends/budgeting. Hope that helps; MINT is the best I've seen around.
MindTheGAAP
Posts: 318
Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2014 11:44 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by MindTheGAAP »

We switched from Mint to You Need A Budget (YNAB) since we wanted something that was a bit more active. We have loved YNAB and think it definitely makes one more intentional. Just my $0.02, YMMV.
"One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute" - William Feather
OatmealAddict
Posts: 1197
Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 4:03 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by OatmealAddict »

rag_g wrote:what are good alternatives to MINT.com? I have been using MINT.com for a couple of years, however it keeps adding my vanguard account twice and is screwing up my net worth graph.
I've been a huge fan of mint.com for years as well and as you alluded to, I've had to give up on its investment and net worth reporting functionality for those same reasons. Deleting and re-adding accounts completely throws off reports to the point that they become useless, so I developed a Google spreadsheet for investment and net worth tracking that fits my needs. Yes, I have to update it manually, but it does what I need it to do and does it flawlessly.

Where Mint really excels, in my opinion, is budgeting. All other functionality is just too buggy for me to consistently count on.
mlipps
Posts: 1099
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2012 9:35 am

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by mlipps »

I've switched from Mint to Personal Capital. If you have taxable investments, Personal Capital will try to make sales pitches for their investment "theories" (which aren't terrible, just not necessary of course), but since all I have is 401k's and IRA's so far, they haven't bothered me once.
gte939h
Posts: 163
Joined: Fri Dec 20, 2013 7:39 pm
Contact:

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by gte939h »

I use personal capital for my investment portfolio tracking. Beware though, if you have over $100k in your accounts they will try to get you to do a risk free financial analysis to tempt you into having them manage your money. I told them thanks but no thanks as I am happy with running my own low cost portfolio. One feature I like is the weekly email with overall portfolio performance, some bogleheads may not like those frequent of updates.

Edit: There are some good threads on here about personal capital. I remember seeing one about a month ago with the full slideshow they produced for one of the bogleheads...
bungalow10
Posts: 2311
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2011 6:28 am
Location: Chicago North Shore

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by bungalow10 »

I use Yodlee for networth and YNAB for budgeting. I love YNAB, my only regret is that it took me two years to commit to buying/using it.
An elephant for a dime is only a good deal if you need an elephant and have a dime.
ras4250
Posts: 197
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 12:25 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by ras4250 »

I use Mint for budgeting and Personal Capital for all investments.
User avatar
avenger
Posts: 963
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2013 11:11 am

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by avenger »

MoneyMythsSolved wrote:Anytime I've had a problem with Mint connecting to an account or double posting, I just delete the account entirely, then re-add it. That's solved the problem every time, though your results may be different.

If you still want another alternative, PersonalCapital.com is to investments what Mint.com is to budgeting.
If you delete the account on mint, all transactions and as a result trend graphs (net worth, etc) are way off. Instead, hide the duplicate account. Usually in a couple of days the duplicate account goes away.
cheers ... -Mark | "Our life is frittered away with detail. Simplify. Simplify." -Henry David Thoreau | [VTI, VXUS, BND, VTEB, SV fund]
User avatar
bogleblitz
Posts: 506
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 2:51 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by bogleblitz »

I use both personalcapital for investments and mint for credit cards/banks/everything else.
Topic Author
rag_g
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2013 11:35 am

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by rag_g »

Thanks for all your responses. I have already deleted, hid accounts on MINT.com, but it reappeared. I don't like it as it screws up the net worth trend.

I have setup personal capital.
terrabiped
Posts: 160
Joined: Mon Dec 30, 2013 1:29 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by terrabiped »

How do you (meaning anybody reading this) know you can trust these free services with the user name and passwords to your actual financial custodians? I'm concerned that someone could hack the free services and get my passwords. I realize the services keep passwords in encrypted files, but even encrypted files have been hacked before. I'm just curious how people decide they can trust the security of these services.
User avatar
serbeer
Posts: 1304
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:09 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by serbeer »

Yodlee Moneycenter or Fidelity Fullview if you are customer of Fidelity (based on Yodlee engine too btw)
skeptical1
Posts: 97
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2011 10:16 pm
Location: Sacramento

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by skeptical1 »

I gave up having Quicken, Mint, etc track investments as they always seem to have challenges reconciling with the fund’s records. I do use Mint; however, I use it only for tracking checking, savings, and credit card accounts. This way, I have two stop "shopping.” Mint to keep abreast of spending and Vanguard to track investments. It’s only slightly more work and I’m very satisfied with this setup. If your investments are spread amongst multiple institutions, this may not be viable for you.
DonDraper
Posts: 149
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 3:34 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by DonDraper »

terrabiped wrote:How do you (meaning anybody reading this) know you can trust these free services with the user name and passwords to your actual financial custodians? I'm concerned that someone could hack the free services and get my passwords. I realize the services keep passwords in encrypted files, but even encrypted files have been hacked before. I'm just curious how people decide they can trust the security of these services.
That's how I feel. I've been very tempted to try mint but then I think I must be nuts to give one website the passwords to every dollar I own. I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with the idea.
User avatar
abuss368
Posts: 27850
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:33 pm
Location: Where the water is warm, the drinks are cold, and I don't know the names of the players!
Contact:

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by abuss368 »

jimday1982 wrote:
rag_g wrote:what are good alternatives to MINT.com? I have been using MINT.com for a couple of years, however it keeps adding my vanguard account twice and is screwing up my net worth graph.
I've been a huge fan of mint.com for years as well and as you alluded to, I've had to give up on its investment and net worth reporting functionality for those same reasons. Deleting and re-adding accounts completely throws off reports to the point that they become useless, so I developed a Google spreadsheet for investment and net worth tracking that fits my needs. Yes, I have to update it manually, but it does what I need it to do and does it flawlessly.

Where Mint really excels, in my opinion, is budgeting. All other functionality is just too buggy for me to consistently count on.
Had a problem with Quicken in terms of admiral share conversions. Designed a simple Excel spreadsheet that really works.
John C. Bogle: “Simplicity is the master key to financial success."
Downtown
Posts: 46
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 6:48 am
Location: San Diego, CA

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by Downtown »

Personal Capital. I long ago gave up on Mint. I also use NetworthIQ, though there really haven't been any enhancements there in a very long time.
User avatar
Badger007
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2013 12:27 am

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by Badger007 »

We used Quicken for the last fews years. This is the year we would need to repurchase in order for the bank auto update. I really don't like having to purchase the software every fews years. Then our computer crashed (everyone should back up their computers in the next few days if you don't regularly). While looking for the best alternative on here I found YNAB.

We are switching tonight! I think YNAB will be perfect for us and everything that we need. As we use index funds and hold for the long term, we don't really need the investment functionality of Quicken. From what I have read, YNAB is perfect for budgeting and monthly expenses etc, but not really for tracking investments.
The most important work you will ever do will be within the walls of your home.
User avatar
bogleblitz
Posts: 506
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 2:51 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by bogleblitz »

terrabiped wrote:How do you (meaning anybody reading this) know you can trust these free services with the user name and passwords to your actual financial custodians? I'm concerned that someone could hack the free services and get my passwords. I realize the services keep passwords in encrypted files, but even encrypted files have been hacked before. I'm just curious how people decide they can trust the security of these services.
-- All these services are pretty secure, like bank accounts. I used to be afraid but actually not that afraid anymore.

-- If mint.com was hacked, They will make an announcement and we can change passwords to all our bank accounts.

-- If someone did get access to my vanguard or bank account. I think they won't be able to steal any money and transfer it to their own account. There are a few accounts that I don't link to mint.com because it contains alot more money.

--Vangaurd or bank accounts send me email whenever there is any transactions. I setup 2 factor authentication on my gmail so hopefully both my bank accounts and gmail won't be hacked at the same time.
Puzz_1
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Boston

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by Puzz_1 »

terrabiped wrote:How do you (meaning anybody reading this) know you can trust these free services with the user name and passwords to your actual financial custodians? I'm concerned that someone could hack the free services and get my passwords. I realize the services keep passwords in encrypted files, but even encrypted files have been hacked before. I'm just curious how people decide they can trust the security of these services.

Mint doesn't really save any username or passwords, they just ask you to login once to create a "connection" with your financial institution. If they are ever hacked, sure your financial data could be vulnerable but not your logins. It's in their FAQ.

To the OP, try mint.com support or their forums. Don't give up on it just for a single problem or you would be forever looking for the perfect solution.
tidalwave10
Posts: 554
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2012 1:48 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by tidalwave10 »

Puzz_1 wrote:
terrabiped wrote:How do you (meaning anybody reading this) know you can trust these free services with the user name and passwords to your actual financial custodians? I'm concerned that someone could hack the free services and get my passwords. I realize the services keep passwords in encrypted files, but even encrypted files have been hacked before. I'm just curious how people decide they can trust the security of these services.

Mint doesn't really save any username or passwords, they just ask you to login once to create a "connection" with your financial institution. If they are ever hacked, sure your financial data could be vulnerable but not your logins. It's in their FAQ.

To the OP, try mint.com support or their forums. Don't give up on it just for a single problem or you would be forever looking for the perfect solution.
While hearing many good things about the utility of Mint.com, I too haven't signed-up for concern about breaches. Not at all concerned about my "financial data" leaking--if by that is meant what the balances are in my accounts. Very concerned about having account balances drained illicitly--but then I've probably seen this dramatized once too often in action films or on TV.

Would like to hear more about what the Real Potential Risk of using Mint.com might be / more details. Do you mean to say, when you refer to Logins, that no credentials are stored with Mint, whether with password hashing or not?

I will +1 on the thought that I wouldn't be too concerned about Vanguard accounts. Seemed like to took a near Act of Congress to get a house down payment out of my Vanguard Money Market Account. Frustrating then. But comforting in hindsight.
thenameishersch
Posts: 29
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 10:33 am

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by thenameishersch »

I used to manage both banking and investment accounts with Mint. However, there were always
a lot of issues with investment accounts (incorrect cost basis, counting unvested ESPP/RSUs, etc).
My net worth was grossly inflated, and it was great showing off to the wife.

I switched to spreadsheets for a while, but it became too cumbersome (401k dollar-cost averaging,
employer matching, etc).

Just last month, I deleted all my investment accounts in Mint and moved them to SigFig and Personal Capital.
Both are easy to use, and do a fairly good job of showing net worth/allocation/holdings. Both handle employee
stock plans well and have mobile apps with pretty graphs.

+1 to SigFig, like their new website design too. So far no promotional calls/emails from them.
I got a few marketing calls/emails from Personal Capital. I spoke to an investment adviser and was
asked how I found them and I replied "Bogleheads.org". No more follow-up calls ever since ;).
placeholder
Posts: 8421
Joined: Tue Aug 06, 2013 12:43 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by placeholder »

Puzz_1 wrote:Mint doesn't really save any username or passwords, they just ask you to login once to create a "connection" with your financial institution.
How are they able to update the information is this something they set up with the custodians?
User avatar
wilpat
Posts: 534
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:30 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by wilpat »

Excel 2013.
Contrary to the belief of many, profit is not a four letter word!
Shredder
Posts: 216
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:00 am

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by Shredder »

I tried to use Personal Capital to try it out but I can't add Aon Hewitt to it since I have a weird login route through my HR site. I asked for help but they never responded.

I use Mint and my only complaints were regarding investment accounts. I use it for nothing more than just looking at totals so I just hide from budgets and trends and it does fine. I'm mostly interested in it from a cash flow perspective.

I use a self made excel sheet to track my AA over time.

For those that use You Need a Budget...you're really going to have to sell me on that. $60 for a manual budgeting app? I just don't see the value-add over Mint which does the work for you. If you're just looking for an envelope budgeting system for your mobile there are plenty of other ones out there on the cheap. Not to mention that YNAB still uses Drop Box to cloud sync which is buggy most of the time. My wife and I could not get it to work using the Ivelopes app on iOS.
User avatar
abuss368
Posts: 27850
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:33 pm
Location: Where the water is warm, the drinks are cold, and I don't know the names of the players!
Contact:

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by abuss368 »

After 10 years of Quicken and other personal financial software programs, we finally gave it up 5 years ago and have never gone back. We built a simple spreadsheet that works so much better for us. Over the last 5 years we have saved a lot of money and time from not having to purchase upgrades or enter transactions.
John C. Bogle: “Simplicity is the master key to financial success."
ASUGrad
Posts: 259
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 8:09 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by ASUGrad »

Use Mint for budgets, but it does have problems with investment accounts. It tracks them just fine for me in the overview, but if I click on the investments tab it shows double everything and says my returns are 0%. It also screws up my HSA. It shows the amount in the cash account, but nothing regarding the investment accounts. The Vanguard site actually does the same thing on the overview page but then it corrects it once I go into balance & holdings/portfolio analysis/performance/etc. The Vanguard app on the other hand doesn't have that problem... odd.

So i just use the vanguard site for investments & the HSA. I've plugged in outside accounts and it tracks them just fine minus the slight problem with the HSA.

I also have a google doc spreadsheet, but I only use it for tracking net worth and emergency fund. I go in and update it on the first of every month and it takes 5 minutes so not a lot of work. When I update it I just pull up mint and vanguard and copy all the important information into the spreadsheet. I prefer this because Mint loses old information when you close accounts.... a nightmare if you ever switch banks.
abuss368 wrote:After 10 years of Quicken and other personal financial software programs, we finally gave it up 5 years ago and have never gone back. We built a simple spreadsheet that works so much better for us. Over the last 5 years we have saved a lot of money and time from not having to purchase upgrades or enter transactions.
Mint is free and does all the tracking for you.
bewildering
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2013 3:37 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by bewildering »

I heard that using MINT (or something comparable) contravenes the TOS to which you agree when signing up for online services. And may impact restitution if somehow your online service was compromised. True or not?

I also wonder what is the advantage over using these services over a simple spreadsheet?
ras4250
Posts: 197
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 12:25 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by ras4250 »

I haven't read the TOS but the banks know Mint is accessing the data. If it was against the TOS I would presume they would block it. Mint is owned by Intuit which is a big player, so again if there was an issue it probably would have been out there already and I haven't seen one.

Second, I guess it is personal preference but why manually input all your transactions into a simple spreadsheet when you can get Mint to do it for you. If I had to manually input everything, it wouldn't get done.
Shredder
Posts: 216
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:00 am

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by Shredder »

bewildering wrote:I also wonder what is the advantage over using these services over a simple spreadsheet?
It really depends on your use case. I use it to monitor cash flow and monitor all my credit/checking/saving/loan accounts in one place rather than going to each site regularly. It remembers how I categorize things so it makes budgeting for discretionary spending pretty easy since most of mine comes from the bowling alley or eating out.

When it comes to investments, Mint is pretty poor. It will give you totals and it tries to do things like buys and sells but sometimes it only captures one or the other so I just use the 'Hide from budgets and trends' option for all of my investment accounts (on the site, not app) and it does exactly what I want.

It's not perfect, the connections need to be fixed once in a while but it's a free so I can't complain.
deikel
Posts: 1616
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2014 6:13 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by deikel »

I am surprised by the good comments of Personal Capitol here, I find they have some serious flaws - eg when you have dividend paying funds, the graph selection only goes by the fund price a day and does NOT take into account total value of reinvested money.

Meaning, any divident paying fund will have strange bumps in November time frame and look worse over years thn a non-div paying fund - I reported to PC but saw no action; thats a major flaw to me and makes the thing close to useless for investing purposes

But I have not found anything better either.
Everything you read in this post is my personal opinion. If you disagree with this disclaimer, please un-read the text immediately and destroy any copy or remembrance of it.
deikel
Posts: 1616
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2014 6:13 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by deikel »

I might add that Mint is pretty good with expenses and day to day stuff - invaluable to keep a close eye on your credit cards as well in case you have multiple accounts - I just love the overview function and having everything on one side - makes planning so much easier.

I also find the Vanguard account site quite useful for tracking and graphing assets - obviously only for assets you have with them...
Everything you read in this post is my personal opinion. If you disagree with this disclaimer, please un-read the text immediately and destroy any copy or remembrance of it.
Hope
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 12:57 pm

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by Hope »

I have been using mint for over 6 years now. I have found it to be probably the best tool to keep track of your budget and day-to-day expenses. I briefly used yodlee but its not on par with mint in terms of features, ease of use (both website and mobile app) and support. I agree with others that its not the ideal tool to keep track of your investments and personal capital might be a good alternativeyou’re your investments’ tracking (just created an account to see how it is and will give it a try for a few months before deciding).
I wish mint would implement 2 factor security. I would like to hear from others about mint experience and their security concerns.
Thanks.
User avatar
SmileyFace
Posts: 9184
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2014 9:11 am

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by SmileyFace »

Quicken. I know folks would rather go with a free option and don't like forced upgrades but for as much as I use it I feel it is money well spent.
VorreiPiuSoldi
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:57 am

Re: Alternatives to MINT.com

Post by VorreiPiuSoldi »

terrabiped wrote:How do you (meaning anybody reading this) know you can trust these free services with the user name and passwords to your actual financial custodians?
I don't and would never use any of them. If you look at your brokerage terms you may not have any recourse if your account is cracked and money is removed from your account. As I understand it, I shouldn't share my password with anyone ... not even my spouse.

I use StockMarketEye to track my investments and MoneyDance to track my other finances. They both have mac and window versions. They both can handle most data formats that you download from your financial institutions.
Post Reply