These are tough economic times. The unemployment rate is at 9.7%. Dual income families are being reduced to single income families. We work harder than ever before to keep the money coming in. Part of the financial frustration is managing your money. Some of us use pen and paper. Many of us use our banks web site. Yet others use financial software like Intuit’s Quicken. There is one application that I have come to truly admire over the past year – Mint.com. This is a free web based financial service which was founded in 2006 by Aaron Patzer. Today, Mint is a subsidiary of Intuit and they plan to “combine the best of both Quicken Online and Mint.com into a single product: Mint.com from Quicken.”

For many — the thought of using a service like Mint.com is a bit unsettling. We have natural mistrust of giving our financial information over to a 3rd party. I know this feeling well because I had this same fear. So I did my research — Mint uses Yodlee which is a trusted service and is used by JP Morgan Chase, H&R Block, Fidelity and Amex. Yodlee is used as a secure method for account aggregation with all of your financial institutions. Additionally, the New York Times, GigaOM, VentureBeat and PCMagazine all give Mint high praise. Additionally, Mint users love the service.

“I just want to say Mint is AMAZING. I haven’t had a financial program that could sync ALL of my accounts without a hitch. You guys have something great here.”

Matt P, University of California Riverside

I was sold and I have been using Mint for a year. Setting up a Mint account is painless. Just head over to Mint.com sign up for an account and begin adding your financial information. You can add as little or as much information as you like. I strongly recommend adding all your financials since you will gain the best benefit from the service in that manner. There is a minor learning curve but one you get a feel for it you will be fine.

You can add as many accounts as you want — bank accounts, credit cards, loans, investments, property (house and automobile). Unfortunately, Mint can never find information  on my house. They use a service called Cyberhomes and they can not update the value of my house automatically — I need to do that manually. It’s no big deal just a little frustrating. Mint will give you a wealth of services, here are a few:

• list of your transactions
• alerts on over spending
• budget creation
• cost savings and on your financial history
• keeps track of your investments

Mint for the iPhone is a great companion piece. It’s a clean user interface. This app gives you quick access to your financial information.

1. Accounts — which summarizes cash on hand and credit card debit
2. Budget — which gives the status of your cash flow for the month
3. Investments — which summarizes your invetsments

There are only two icons

1. Overivew — which is your home screen
2. Alerts —  which notifies you of strange activity, large deposits, etc.

I think that Mint is a great application. I also think it gives you a sense of certainty. In one quick glance I can see if I am over budget, if my investments are doing well, if there is some strange activity on my account, etc. I know that my financial life would be far more complicated if it were not for Mint.