I'm MINTY

So I've recently decided to mint myself...I signed up for Mint a website that tracks all of your finances and categorizes them and also analyzes your spending patterns. It compares them to other people in the U.S. as well as in your area too. Kind of neat, huh?

The only thing that worried me at first was the security. However, after watching the demo video I decided that since they don't know my name, SSN or anything personal, it'll be fine. They only know what I do with my money...and I also got the opinion of a friend who specializes in internet security who informed me that it's just as safe as anything else out there.

So with that said...I quickly set up my account (less than 5 minutes). The only issues that presented problems were trying to find my credit union account, and linking the correct sites with my logins. (i.e. some institutions have more than one link, so you have to figure out which one is correct in order to login). I also discovered that if security questions pop up when trying to login, you have to answer those security questions, you can't leave them blank. Meaning I had to set security questions for two of my accounts, as well as answer all of the questions for each account, not just one.

The way the site displays and categorizes your spending is phenomenal. It was great to be able to click and in seconds have a pie chart that breaks my spending down, even offering the option to adjust the time frame. Also being able to compare my spending with others in my area was also another feature that's great. Especially with me being in DC, things are more expensive than they'd be for someone in say...Dallas.

You can even send support an email if you're having issues and they'll attempt to work through them with you. Not bad, not bad at all. I invite you to check it out...get minted.