Is Mint really for me?

[MrsThorsen]

As I'm making suggestions, I am beginning to wonder if I am among the target users for Mint or not. I thought I was, based on this clip from the main Mint site:

Mint's Elevator Pitch (http://mint.com/about.php#about)

Mint is building a free, simple, and secure personal finance web-app. Designed to be effortless, Mint consolidates your financial life in one place. Easily see how much you have, how much you owe, and where your money goes. Advanced alerts notify you before you bounce a check or forget to pay a bill. Patent pending algorithms even show you personalized ways to save and make more money. If your finances could use organization without effort, Mint is for you.

This all sounds great, and my finances sure could use some organization without effort. I would really appreciate advance alerts before I bounced a check or missed a bill. But now I wonder if, for clarity, the "simple" from the first sentence should be repeated after "your" in the last sentence.

I think Mint is brilliant for automatically keeping all the bank account transactions and balances up-to-date, and the "Ways to Save" tab is a really great innovation. The "Spending Trends" uses a really slick and appealing interface (oh so web 2.0), and I am shocked at how easy it is to add accounts.

But for me, organizing my finances to simplify tax time is more important than organizing to monitor my budget. And Mint is just not useful for this at all as long as transactions can't be split. Tracking the net amount of a paycheck is great for making & monitoring a cash budget, but useless for determining how much YTD withholding to apply toward the next estimated payment. I can't label an entire drugstore receipt medical expense if I purchased a magazine at the same time that I picked up a prescription. I don't care if I can split transactions via category or via label, but I need a split. And not a split as currently available where the full amount of the transaction appears in two different tags, but a split where part of the total appears in one category/tag and the remainder in another, or split between multiple categories as with a paycheck.

I've been using Quicken which suits my needs well EXCEPT that it's a pain-in-th. . .ahem, it's an irritating nuisance to keep it updated anymore now with all the banks requiring such security measures that only 25% of accounts can be "automatically updated" while the rest I've got to log into each and every one of them just to download a few transactions in most cases. Plus I consider Intuit :mad: one of the most coldly opportunistic vendors out there, ick. So Mint to the rescue! That's why my jaw dropped when I added over a dozen accounts so quickly and easily! And I never have to manually update again--new transactions just appear overnight! It doesn't even bother me that much that Mint can't update investment accounts, I wouldn't be surprised if Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/) at some point adds automatic updates to their "transaction portfolio" feature.

So now I'm just sad that it appears I may have to abandon this great product (Mint) because as much as I dislike my current solution (Quicken), it at least gets the job done (tracking income and expenses for taxes). But just to be sure, I officially ask,

Is Mint for me? Or is it intended for the exponentially larger user base of people who file Form 1040EZ and just add up a few numbers from their W-2s and 1099s each April and thus have no need for split transactions?

If I'm not the demographic I completely understand; I'll just move on and continue my search for a satisfying real-time online financial program. (If anyone out there can recommend something I'm all ears! Let me know!) But I'm curious if striking the word "free" from the elevator pitch would convince Mint to replace that sentence's "simple" with "highly sophisticated"? Perhaps Mint itself will remain free but the new more complicated "crème de menthe"/"Powermint"/"Supermint" product will have a monthly charge?

Does anyone else want a Powermint app or am I the only one? :confused:

[sparklerawk]

I feel your pain (so to speak). There are many many features that I would like (some that I expect) Mint to have, but unfortunately they're just not there yet. At first, it was frustrating that I couldn't use Mint the way that I wanted to use Mint, but I came to realize that this was the PERFECT web-app for me. It's essentially a tool that I get to design myself (or at least have as much of an influence as I feel like contributing) and have other people actually make it for me. :D

The split feature is one of the things that I expect Mint to have (I hope Mint feels the same way :)). When I first started using Mint I SWEAR that there was a split button/feature. It was when I was still tooling around with the site, so when I clicked on the split button and nothing happened I brushed it off and went on to see what DID work on the site. A couple of days ago I remember the split button and to my dismay the button was gone (I may have imagined it, but I swear I didn't, haha!). I sent in a suggestion for that feedback, so Mint knows about it (and that the people want it!).

Mint is letting it's users to play a big part in how the app functions, you just got to be willing to take advantage of that and use whatever you currently use in the meantime to keep everything in line.
And if you haven't checked it out already, go to www.yodlee.com, it might be less of a pain than Quicken. :)

[Damon]

Keep in mind that our product is still very much in "beta". If you have suggestions, whether you think they are silly or not, I can assure you that we will look at all feedback/suggestions very seriously.

Personal finances are something that a lot of folks don't take lightly. As a service provider, Mint is really going to look at *what* we can do for our customers to help them simplify their finances.

[mlebarron]

I think is goes to the point that I mentioned in another post about a roadmap. While a detailed roadmap might not be good for competitive reasons, at least an overview of planned features would be good.

That way, if splits is a showstopper for MrsThorsen, and it's not planned, participating in the private beta might just be a huge waste of time (might... there's always just doing it for the fun of it)

[mintlover]

I'm hoping that Mint will add some of the features you mention. It sounds like you are less concerned with the free price and more concerned with features. That begs the question: "How much would you pay each month for these features..."

[atish]

MrsThorsen, splitting transactions is on the shortlist of new features coming to Mint after launch...I want the feature (almost) as badly as you do. It will come

[hpbrad]

so is the basic plan to try to create a polished subset of Yodlee's functionality? or eventually to eclipse it...

i already love the reporting features and slick interface, but i do miss being able to add all sorts of accounts (though maybe that is not as important as it appears so far...).

I guess I'm just curious as to how much of Yodlee's MoneyCenter features will be incorporated into Mint... (I'm hoping it will eventually have everything that Yodlee could do, but with your pretty interface and more useful reporting/tagging features... kind of a blend between Wesabe and Yodlee). Is this too far a stretch?

[Damon]

Just to clarify...

I generally make it a point not to discuss upcoming features in detail because of the following:

a) competitive reasons
b) feature release dates change all the time
c) features may be scrubbed as well
d) If Mint ever went public, which I am obviously not speculating on, there are some guidelines about posting about items that could influence the stock price (silly, I know).

Long-term:
I assume that we would post new product releases in the blog or forums. I would also take a guess that we would probably invite some folks to test out feature ideas.

The best thing to do, at least from a company perspective, is to let folks know that we seriously consider all feedback about product requests. It can just take a little time to actually build new products. The thing that helps us identify what features customers want: incoming feedback (customer service, forums, etc.).

[rasheed]

Hello,

I think most people have investments. Whether be a 401k or other small savings account held in a non-bank that is not covered/provided by Mint.

This is an important part and leaves out a bigger, more important picture.

And, then you want the *real* answer, there is more money in referral banking for these types of accounts than the standard savings and checking accounts.

Rasheed

[MrsThorsen]

Hello,

I think most people have investments. Whether be a 401k or other small savings account held in a non-bank that is not covered/provided by Mint.

This is an important part and leaves out a bigger, more important picture.

And, then you want the *real* answer, there is more money in referral banking for these types of accounts than the standard savings and checking accounts.

Rasheed

Using real data to refer online brokers, how great would that be?

If Mint got all the transactions from your current accounts, it would be an easy algorithm to compare # of trades per month, average acct balance, and type of trades (long, short, options) to figure out if you'd save money using another online broker (ex: Scottrade vs etrade vs tdameriwatertradehouse).

Mutual funds seems a more complicated endeavor, but I think fund A would pay to be recommended to people who are invested in fund X if fund A had a similar investment strategy to fund X but lower management fees. Or lower risk. It's win-win for fund A plus the consumer. Or if Mint could set up a fund x-ray and could recommend other funds to help consumers diversify their portfolios. That functionality could probably be private-labeled and sold to enterprise employers who want their employees to succeed in 401k investing and help them diversify within their plan. And thus subsidize free service for everyone else. . . Services like this already exist through some brokerages, but wouldn't the fund families & brokerages love to reach everyone with a savings account who doesn't already have a broker or a 401K?

[cap]

Hey guys, just wanted to supplement on what Damon said about features. In yesterday's launch post (http://blog.mint.com/blog/updates/mintcom-free-personal-finance-web-app-now-live/):

Private Beta Feedback:

We’ve received nearly 3,000 emails in the past few weeks with product suggestions, bug reports, and requests. We read every single one of them, and I just want to say: Thank you; you’re helping make Mint better in a very real way.

While it may take us some time to add all the banks and credit unions requested, we’re working on it. Here are some user suggested features we will be rolling out in the next few months:


Transaction-level drill-down from the spending pie graph
Rename / nick-name an account
Exclude accounts (e.g. don’t show my business account, just my checking)
Support for student loans, mortgages, and brokerages.



As Damon said, we seriously read and consider all feedback, so keep them coming!

[konnoraiden]

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Make a video of your business or website, and in the video make a tutorial something based about your business or website.
Ex: If you have a pizzeria, show in the video your pizzeria give your address and number. Then the tutorial part you will show how to make a pizza, or give some tips of what you have to do. You will have lots of fun doing this video