Balance Trend Graph

[lostalpinist]

I am pretty sure someone has already mentioned this, but a cursory search of the forums didn't yield any quick hits.

An awesome feature that some other financial software packages have done, especially for those who are trying to eliminate debt, is to visually display the balances of accounts over time in a line graph format. I'd love to see my savings accounts and debt balances improve in the directions desired, but having the graph show me my progress really helps to reinforce the behavior of saving or debt reduction.

[da bum]

I second the request for a trend graph. The Spending Space page isn't really useful. It doesn't matter to me how much I spend compared to someone else.

[averad]

Would be nice if we could have custom reporting (be it visual charting or txt output) instead of locked in templates. Thus allowing each user to get what they want. If Mint is able to data mine user information to calculate trends etc it should allow the user to data mine the same information and output innovative and custom reporting.

[mintfeedback]

It seems like being able to trend any statistic tracked on mint over any amount of time would be feasible and very useful.
Of course you'd need to be able to compare the trend lines of many different categories.

For example, it could be useful to compare spending on all of the subcategories in the "food" category.

[jttraino]

This would be a really good feature. You could do a simple version first. If you could just plot the snapshot of Cash vs Debt, over time, that would be awesome.

Just seeing that lets you know when you spend during the month and whether you are achieving your overall savings/debts goals.

Then, it could get fancier over time.

[quantumslip]

i second this. would be cool to see your "net worth" go up/down

[blackc2004]

I agree. it'd be really nice to be able to do more custom reporting on mint!

[ellaris]

Yes, yes, that's what I tried to describe somewhere else on here. And then if we could check off bills we're thinking of paying and income we're expecting to get and see how the line graph changes accordingly, that would be really helpful for those of us who are, alas, still living very close to our limits.

[swanwick]

The feature that kept me coming back to Quicken on a regular basis was to see how the net worth was trending.

I like the better classification of transactions than Quicken, but really need improved charting before I can say that Mint is better. Going to stick with it because it seems that it is on the right track.

[kryan82]

I'd like to throw my two cents in, in support of the balance trend graph.
My bank used to offer this feature, and it was really helpful to be able to look back over years of financial data. It helped motivate me to get out of debt.

I also agree with an earlier poster that the spending comparison feature does absolutely nothing for me.
In fact, I've heard that the comparison feature is actually one of the problems holding back custom categories.
I say we should just eliminate this feature and channel the resources to the balance trend graph and custom categories. :)

[o0(GoldTrader)0o]

I say we should just eliminate this feature and channel the resources to the balance trend graph and custom categories :)If that’s what it is going to take to strengthen our financial positions Great!!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/12/06/movies/07strength-600.jpg

[kmlorenz]

I agree! I am one of those nerdy types that doesn't spend a whole lot - I am much more interested in my savings and investment trends. Being able to trend savings vs spending for any and all accounts would be really nice.

[ioda006]

I'd also love to see this feature. I think it would be great to have a line or bar graph showing aggregated balance and also balance per account.

What would be extra cool would be if it were something like google finance (http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=INDEXDJX:DJI). You could scroll to different time frames and see how much you made during that time. Maybe also you could have items like google does (A, B, C, etc) to click on to see major transactions during the history (would be especially useful in viewing aggregated balance).

[Jonas]

I'd like to throw my two cents in, in support of the balance trend graph.
My bank used to offer this feature, and it was really helpful to be able to look back over years of financial data. It helped motivate me to get out of debt.

I also agree with an earlier poster that the spending comparison feature does absolutely nothing for me.
In fact, I've heard that the comparison feature is actually one of the problems holding back custom categories.
I say we should just eliminate this feature and channel the resources to the balance trend graph and custom categories. :)
Agreed 100%