Things at a high level that I would like to see

[Schro]

As a new beta user of Mint (I've been fiddling with it for about an hour now), there are a few glaring things that I'd like to see you guys put together into the product in order to have something that is truely useful.

1. Account type: Investment account coverage. Saving for retirement is a large portion of of someone's personal finance.

2. Account type: Mortgages / other lines of credit. These are also key elements of a person's financial picture.

2a. Ability to add an asset to offset the mortgage for the net worth calculation (i.e. a house value to offset the mortgage). This would likely be manually entered.

2b. For those mortgages/lines of credit that do not have online access, add the ability to manually track it. Reminding the user to update it monthly would be a plus.

3. Functionality: Bill due date reminders. Given the flavor of the site, it could look for discrepancies in the bills and present potential savings to the end users.

4. Functionality: Rewards account tracking (Hotel points, airline miles, etc)

5. Functionality: When adding all the above features in, adding a net worth calculation would be interesting to see.

6. Functionality: Set alerts by account, not just by catagory (i.e. I have a checking account that I use every few years that maintains a $5 balance. I don't want Mint to raise an alert on it unless it dips below $5).

6a. Allow alerts to be set with more granularity.

7. Functionality: Where possible, enable a one click logon to an account from Mint (i.e. One click on Wachovia to open up Wachovia Online Banking to see pending transacations, use online bill pay, etc.)

I'm rattling these off rather quickly, as Wachovia used to offer these same things as part of their Online Banking suite that was powered by the same engine that powers Mint. Their discontinuation of the service is what led me to your vendor's site and ultimatly here to apply for the beta. My 401k provider currently provides about half the features that Wachovia did, which is sufficient for now, but I would like to see Mint integrate everything into the same site. This shouldnt' be a huge stretch to make it work from a programming perspective, as your vendor already supports these data types - I see your true issue will be integrating the information into a presentation that will fit the site.

[ATark]

Great list of suggestions - I completely agree. I know Mint is still in Beta, but it doesn't even look like there are placeholders for much of this type of functionality.
Without all the features of Yodlee's MoneyCenter, it's going to be difficult to get users (me) to switch from Money/Quicken/Yodlee...

[pheller]

1. Account type: Investment account coverage. Saving for retirement is a large portion of of someone's personal finance.

4. Functionality: Rewards account tracking (Hotel points, airline miles, etc)

5. Functionality: When adding all the above features in, adding a net worth calculation would be interesting to see.



This definitely needs budget support, much like implemented in Yodlee moneycenter, just with a web2.0 ajaxy spin.

In addition to the above 3 bits, I would also like to see a debt reduction planner, retirement planner, and balance forecaster, ala Microsoft Money.

It would be useful to be able to flag a transaction as recurring and give it a frequency, if only for the balance forecast.

I mostly use Safari 3 beta, but it seems to have issues with the javascript within the pages. For example, I cannot click the magnifying glass for Merchant or Category within Safari 3, but I can from Firefox.

Also, it is not so user-friendly to need to highlight transaction, then scroll back up to click rename or recategorize. I'd prefer something in place.

I'd also like to see category customizability. I have some transactions which don't fit into the available categories.

I'd also like to see something a little more condensed than the giant category selection screen. Something with the possibility to enter freeform text, with ajaxified autocompletion, or perhaps a recommended category result list.

The spending trends flash is *excellent*, however I'd like to see it continue to drill down, such that I get a tabular list of spending by a leaf category.

Oh, and what is the URL to the iPhone friendly version ;-)

There's a ways to go yet, but this is definitely looking very good!

--phil

[Damon]

Awesome feedback and suggestions! Thanks!

[Damon]

Note: Safari 3 is most certainly going to have problems with the site right now (Safari 3 is still in beta & we haven't optimized our site for use with it).

[MrsThorsen]

2a. Ability to add an asset to offset the mortgage for the net worth calculation (i.e. a house value to offset the mortgage). This would likely be manually entered.

2b. For those mortgages/lines of credit that do not have online access, add the ability to manually track it. Reminding the user to update it monthly would be a plus.



Now here's an extremely hopeful request:

Update these sorts of things automatically from either formulas or outside data. Or maybe a manual-assist update.

For example: When person adds a house, include a form to record pertinent facts (house: sq feet, # baths, # bedrooms, features, etc.). Send a reminder every year to update value of house. Include link to MLS site with a search already filled in for recent sales with similar characteristics in owner's zip code or city. Make it very easy for homeowner to find out approximate market value of their home. If the person enters their mortgage, all they really have to enter is amount, rate, and term for Mint to calculate their monthly split, and escrow items can be manually added & updated annually.

Cars would be another great use for this--after basic (make/model/year/miles) info is entered, Mint can ask for a mileage & condition update every year and pull the blue-book value from the web and update the vehicle value for the user.

*NON-MINT Political Commentary* (remove if inappropriate. . .)
Frankly I think the government should be providing this type of software to its citizens so everyone, even people unskilled in math or financial research, can get a handle on their financial situation. Planning tools including actual projected costs by college, current CPI levels, and actual short & long-term savings rates should be available to all, instead of only to people who can afford financial advisors to do the work for them. If Mint can supply an excellent yet easy-to-use product for free I think Mint should apply for government grants to develop it.

[akss]

I really can't express how much I'd like to see the list above fulfilled.
Couple comments on it though: for the assets like houses, you mentioned having some way to represent equity in the asset. For real estate, I would think this could be pulled from zillow or some other accessible site with property values.

But truly to cover the whole financial picture requires the observation of mortgages, other debts (personal or auto loans for instance), investment accounts (IRA, 401k, brokerage accts, etc).

[EarlyAdopter64]

Here, here. Mortgages, investment -- there's not even a "property tax" category among the other taxes. I really like the idea of this site and what you've done so far, but it looks designed exclusively for twentysomethings. Adding brokerages and real estate assets -- i.e., accommodating users more than a few years out of college -- should be an urgent priority. I think your natural subscribers are those who pay attention to their household spending (which Mint helps with), and therefore accumulate such assets (where Mint abruptly leaves off).

[mgautreaux@kyphon.com]

I don't want to use my brain any more than absolutely necessary. I love the fact i get a weekly report, but I want a weekly and monthly cash flow. I want to know if I have overspent or not. The house and car implentation would be amazing.

I ask people how they manage their finances, and I recommend this to everyone I know.

Keep up the Good Work!

[samcvic]

I have seen this posted in a few threads but I would "second" a vote to pull in some kind of property valuation (zillow)to create a larger picture of assets/liabilities

[irishtim]

Awesome list. Well done!

[KMcCowan03]

I have seen this posted in a few threads but I would "second" a vote to pull in some kind of property valuation (zillow)to create a larger picture of assets/liabilities

First of all, great job on continuing improvements on this web site. I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to add my mortgage account, but to get a better net worth, home value should be included. This could be manually imputed after an appraisal or just visit zillow.com to get an estimate. :)

[sstruce]

I agree with KMcCowan03 - adding home value will give a more accurate picture of net worth. Thanks for all of the additions and improvements. Keep up the good work!

[Benson]

hi, thanks for sharing such nice information, well i have also invested some money in real estate (http://www.ira-401k-realestate.com/IYF-Video-Opt-In/) and I think it is the most safe field to invest your money as it has very less chances of getting loss. Many of my frnds have also invested in it.

[jonez176]

hi, thanks for sharing such nice information, well i have also invested some money in real estate (http://www.ira-401k-realestate.com/IYF-Video-Opt-In/) and I think it is the most safe field to invest your money as it has very less chances of getting loss. Many of my frnds have also invested in it.

Seriously now? Have you been sleeping the past 12 months?

[meucciwarlock]

Well, I must be honest here, I'm not looking to get into a nice safe investment like real estate today, but I would like a way to add a debt.

Let's say I borrowed money from a friend (or have a mortgage/auto loan from a bank that isn't supported by Mint). Is there a way to register that debt on Mint? I don't need to be able to enter tiny detail or payments, but I would like to be able to put a number up there (that I could periodically edit) that represents a debt.

My guess is no, after reading through a couple of threads with lots of folks grousing about manual entry... but maybe someone knows something I don't?

[mburdsall]

Currently this is not a feature that Mint supports. If you review the Forum threads and request that is often made is for the addition of manual accounts to represent assets or liabilities like:

cars,
jewlery,
homes,
paper stocks
commodities,
etc....