Value of my liabilities

[tleishman]

I'm glad to see there will be loan accounts and investment accounts coming. One thing I would especially like to see is the estimated current value of my liabilities. i.e. my car loan is for 12K but the car would sell for 13K; And/or would trade in for 11,500. Same thing with any other liabilities.

[JamMasterCD]

I would generally agree with the enhancement to value the difference between a liability (i.e. loan) and an asset (e.g. car or home). However, what I think would work better is to list the loan and associated asset as separate account items. Thus, a good enhancement would be to add the ability to enter asset account items, such as homes and cars. Then possibly add the ability to link the two, providing a net worth value.

[ufpspock]

I would generally agree with the enhancement to value the difference between a liability (i.e. loan) and an asset (e.g. car or home). However, what I think would work better is to list the loan and associated asset as separate account items. Thus, a good enhancement would be to add the ability to enter asset account items, such as homes and cars. Then possibly add the ability to link the two, providing a net worth value.

OK, so who determines the amount that your car will be worth at trade in? And who is responsible for updating that value, and how often?

I don't want to see Mint taking responsibility for any of that. I want them to make the software better!

I think that if users want to add those values and keep them updated themselves, that would be a great option.

On a personal note, I think that's a pretty silly thing to keep track of, and exactly the sort of thinking that has led to many home foreclosures. Your trade in is worth---exactly what the dealer will give you **when** you trade it in. It is not worth what it was when you bought it, it is not worth what it would have been if you had traded it in last year, and it is not necessarily worth what Google says it has been trading for.

The worth of an item can only be determined at sale. Oh, sure, you can *say* it's worth $13,500. That's still meaningless unless you manage to sell it for that amount. How many homes out there are for sale for an amount more than anyone is willing to pay? Guess what. Those homes get NOTHING for their owners until someone is willing to pay it. If no one's buying, then just maybe the owners guessed wrong on its value (I'm not saying that's always the case, just that many times it is). So how did "knowing" that the home was worth $600,000 help the owners when they can't even sell it for $500,000?

And does that really matter if you're not planning on trading it in?

[richehome]

I think this would be a good opportunity for MINT to partner with someone like KBB or Edmunds to give an updated value when you enter in your mileage and model for car loans. Then MINT could offer link to those site to sell your used car.

Then you would get a true updated value for a car asset. Same could be true for a home loan, based on home listing prices for homes with addresses that are close and could be modified based on square footage. MINT could then have links to realtors to sell the asset.

[bmilton]

Adding a mortgage with a $0 balance for the asset (the house) truly does distort the net worth.

There are several possibilites to correct this.

a) Allow me to add my "house" account and link to Zillow (to get the "zestimate" of it value as you do for stock and bonds through my broker.

b) Allow me to add my "house" and set the default balance to the value of the mortgage and allow me to update it manually.

c) all of the above.

Cool site...making real progress...still have a long way to go...but you are doing well.

[Willy]

ditto on those. It would be great to show an asset value. Of course it would be an estimate, but my house and cars do *have* value. Otherwise, financially it looks like I took out a big loan for nothing!

[Notorious]

I think it is in Mint's best interest to add an option to track assets - because it could be an additional revenue source down the road.

Initially they could just offer an additional Tab so that end users could add their larger assets (Home, Car, Boat, RV) and manually enter the estimated values using many free services like Edmunds, KBB, Zillow, etc. This would give Mint a good indicator if additional services and partnerships could be developed down the road to bring in additional revenue streams.

Eventually I would like to see the functionality to keep track of all my personal assets from this site (something similar to Quickens Home Inventory Manager). I would be willing to pay for this service - because in the event of natural disaster, accident or death - having access to all the information at one location would be a huge convenience, especially for insurance claims.

Anyway - I am not sure if this is the direction Mint would like to go - but it is something I would be interested in.

[rdlugosz]

Thought I'd add a "me too" on this.

It would be *fantastic* if Mint could track my cars via KBB, etc. and my home via Zillow. Of course neither are 100% accurate, but it is a reasonable approximation.

Gives a nice clear look at the whole picture.

Would also be great if (per the last post) you could keep everything here & even pay for a "break glass in case of emergency" kind of thing. Sucks to think about, but it'd be one way to make things easier for a spouse, etc. if you were to die suddenly. In case of this happening they could have one place to go and see all the accounts with login info (or at least phone number + account number).