How Mint Changed My Life

A couple of weeks ago we signed up for Mint. Mint.com is a free, online personal financial site owned by Intuit. It consolidates all of your saving, checking, investment, and credit card accounts in one place. I have seen it recommended at other financial planning blogs and websites and had been meaning to try it. I'm so glad that I did. It's one of those things where I asked myself why I had waited so long to give it a try.

What I love about it is that I only have to remember one user name and password. I log on and Mint updates all of my accounts in one place. Before using Mint, I had to log into each account separately. There were some accounts like my 401K or IRA that I rarely checked because it was a pain to remember or look up the site, username, and password. Now, I log onto mint.com and I see an overview of all my accounts and their current value. I can click on any account and see all of the recent transactions.

Initially, it was a little bit of work entering all of our accounts. Craig entered his accounts too so that we can see his accounts, my accounts, and our joint accounts. We have also entered our mortgage, estimated home value, and car values. With all this info entered, Mint gives us an overview of all of our assets and debts with our net worth. This is a great motivator for saving. We want to see the net worth number go up so I hope that will make us spend less and save more. It goes back to the Suze's third rule from last week's post to "simply try to get as much pleasure out of saving as you do spending."

Mint has a Take a Tour function that will guide you through the following sections of the site:

• Alerts - Tells you when bills are due or when you have gone over budget. You can set it up to get an email and/or a text message. Coincidentally, when Craig signed up, he saw that some criminal had fraudulently charged tickets on Air India on his credit card. He called the credit card company and got it cleared up. If he hadn't noticed the charge on Mint, it would have been more of a headache to correct.
• Advice - Offers advice on saving opportunities and recommends ways to meet your goal. The explanation says, "As we get to know you, we'll begin to offer easy-to-follow advice based on your lifestyle and goals." The "as we get to know you" seems a bit creepy to me. I've been avoiding the "Advice" section because my feeling is that it's there to sell me products that they've identified I might be interested based on my buying/saving history. This is most likely their subtle advertising and what makes Mint free.
• Bills - Organizes your bills and sends email or text reminders about upcoming bills.
• Budget - Based on average amount spent on each category, Mint sets up a recommended budget.
• Taxes - Claims to help prepare taxes, estimate your refund, and find deductions. This is a tie-in to TurboTax which is also owned by Mint.
• Goal - You can set certain goals and use their calculators to see if you are on track to reach your goal.
• Investments - Gives you a high-level view of your investments with fancy charts.
• Ways to Save - Suggests best offers and ways to save. See the description for Advice.
• Trends - Shows charts and history of your accounts.
• Accounts - Shows you all of the balances for your accounts with your net worth.

The other cool thing is that Mint sends a weekly report of the changes for that week to your accounts. Although, I usually check it on a daily basis so the weekly report really doesn't tell me anything that I don't already know. Still, it's nice to effortlessly get a weekly summary of how your spending went for the week. Overall, I've really enjoyed using Mint and being able to view all of my accounts in one place.

People First, Then Money, Then Things, Then Jackets

 I have a confession to make: I watch the Suze Orman Show. I don't always agree with her advice, but I do like her fundamental advice to get people to face up and deal with their financial problems. I enjoy her "Can I Afford it" segments where she reviews a viewers finances to approve or deny a purchase that they want to make. She shouts, "You've been approved!" or "You've been denied!" depending on what the case may be. We like to guess which way she's going to go. Craig does a mean impression of her "You've been denied!" Suze has a very wacky personality. Kristin Wiig did a great impression of her in an SNL skit a few years back where she altered Suze's catch phrase to "People first, then money, then things, then jackets." Suze does have quite a unique collection of jackets. If you watch the show, you have to put up with Suze calling people, "Boyfriend," "Girlfriend" or cringe "Love Bug."

This week Suze gave the following three rules of financial advice to live by:

1. Ask yourself is this a want or a need:
   "If it is a need, then buy it. You have to buy something that you need. If it is a want, you are to walk away and let it go. Now you have to understand, you need food to survive. So you go to the grocery store and you buy food. You want to go to a restaurant. Get the difference?"
2. Simply lived below your means but within your needs:
   "If you can afford a 3,000 square foot house to buy, you don't need a 3,000 square foot house. Maybe all you need is a 2,000 square foot house. buy what you need not what you think you can afford. So live below your means but within your needs."
3. Simply try to get as much pleasure out of saving as you do spending:
   "Why is it when you're depressed you have to go out and buy something that you don't even really like after you purchased it? Why is it that you feel that the only pleasure you can get in life is when you go out to eat or spend money at a bar? Why can't you just simply get as much pleasure out of sending in that extra mortgage payment, sending in that payment to do what, deposit into your Roth IRA for your retirement?

The Magical Age of Six

Today Alex turned seven. As his birthday was rapidly approaching, I really did my best to savor the remaining days of life with a six-year-old. It seems like Alex's childhood is flying by making me so aware of how fleeting and sweet this time is. In December, we were cramming in as many fun, kid, holiday events as we could realizing that we may have very few Christmases left believing in Santa. Then the tragic shooting in Newtown, CT happened. It hit close to home because I know what six looks like.

Six is that magical time of toothless grins, laughter, singing, and playing from waking in the morning until going to sleep at night. It's the time of finding knock knock jokes hysterical and learning a new thing every day. It's the time of being independent enough to do things on your own, but young and innocent enough to carelessly enjoy everything before the reality and sometimes disappointing outside world takes that away.

It's the sweet spot of parenting. Your child is old enough not to be watched every second and to do things on his own like get dressed. He's also still young enough to sit on your lap and cuddle. You can still hold his hand while you are walking home from school without him pulling away so as not to be embarrassed in front of his friends. I feel like these are the golden years and that I should cherish them.

As Alex gets older, I grieve the previous age. I realize, though, if we didn't move onto the next age that we would miss out on experiencing Alex and what he's like at each age. Sure, we miss how cute he was as a baby and toddler. (Although, I'd happily skip age three which Alex spent in a permanent state of time out.) If we didn't move on from the baby and toddler age, we'd miss out on the fun of the early elementary years. We'll have to say goodbye to Alex at this age to see what he's like in middle school and during the dreaded teen years. We'll have to get through the teen years to see how he turns out as an adult. Until that happens, I'm going to savor these early years. Happy 7th birthday, Alex!

MFA on MLK Day

Yesterday, Alex and I had the day off. We took the T into Boston and went to the Museum of Fine Arts. On these days when we both have the day off, I like to make a special day of it for some one-on-one time. Our lives are so busy and scheduled during a normal weekday that it's nice to spend our day off doing something fun. I also like to take him into Boston at least a couple of times a year.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the MFA is one of their free open house days. The other open house days for 2013 are: Monday, May 27, 2013 (Memorial Day) and Monday, October 14, 2013 (Fall Open House). Another way to visit the MFA or other museums is to get a pass from you local library. If you visit a certain museum regularly, it could be worth is to get a membership. Some memberships have reciprocal admission with other museums. For example, Boston's Museum of Science has a reciprocal admission with the Roger Williams Park Zoo and the Providence Children's Museum. I think that my parents my have used their MOS membership more at the Roger Williams Park Zoo when Alex is visiting than they have at the MOS.

Alex and I had a great day at the MFA. We saw ancient musical instruments, mummies, Egyptian artifacts, impressionist paintings by Manet and Van Gogh, portraits of the Royal family by a famous fashion photographer, and contemporary art. After the museum, we went to Copley Square and had some subs for lunch. Then, we caught the T home. I made Alex watch some of the inaugural coverage until he made me switch over to the end of the Bruins game. We had a great day.

Of the several MLK Day quotes that I saw posted on Facebook yesterday, this is my favorite and seems fitting for Inauguration Day and how important it is now for our government to work together to fix the problems that we face:

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now." - MLK, Jr.

And, if you own a computer, smartphone, or television, I'm sure that you have already seen this clip of Malia Obama photobombing her sister's picture during the inauguration. It was my favorite moment so I'm sharing it anyway.

Free Family Circle Cookbook

To get a free Family Circle Good-for-you 20 minute meals cookbook, like Family Circle's Facebook page. Then, click on the green banner to download the cookbook.

Amazon Mom Appreciation Event

If you are a member of Amazon Mom or are interested in becoming a member, Amazon is having a Mom Appreciation Event to get 20% off select baby items.

Amazon Mom is similar to Amazon's Prime membership. It's a membership program that provides ways to save on products your family needs. Benefits include 20% off diapers and wipes with Subscribe & Save, free two-Day Shipping on millions of items with Amazon Prime shipping, as well as exclusive deals for members. If I was still in the diaper phase of life, I would probably be using this with Amazon's subscribe and save program for the cheapest way to get diapers delivered to our door.

The Mom Appreciation Event allows you to use Amazon Mom-exclusive promo code BABY2013 and get 20% off. Save on thousands of eligible baby products in select colors and styles, for up to $100 in total savings. Qualifying Amazon Mom members can use this code on eligible items from January 18, 2013 until 11:59 PM PST February 1, 2013. For more information, see their FAQ.

Get Your Stuff Together

I read this article in last Sunday's Boston Globe that stresses the importance of having a will and getting your financial documents in order. The article talks about Chanel Reynolds, a widow who created a website, Get Your *Stuff* Together, in the aftermath of her husband's untimely death in a bicycle accident. She created the site to help others avoid the struggles she faced after his death by not having their will signed and financial affairs settled. Her site includes useful checklists for what to do to get your financial documents in order.

The Boston Globe article includes a statistic that 57% of adults in the US don't have a will. Why is this? I think it's simply that fact that we don't want to admit that we are going to die. I'm sorry to be Debbie Downer, but the fact is that we are all going to die eventually. Hopefully, it will not happen for a very long time. When it does happen, it's nice to leave your loved ones a will and your finances in an organized state. This way, they can grieve your loss without hunting down all of your financial accounts and figuring out who should get what. Also, depending on your assets, setting up a trust will help those you leave behind to avoid paying estate taxes. 

Craig and I just finalized our estate plan a few months ago. I'm embarrassed to admit that we put it off for as long as we did. (Again, it's the whole not wanting to admit that we are going to die thing.) In addition to our will and estate documents, our lawyer gave us a checklist for how to set up the beneficiaries of our accounts. She also advised us to make each other joint owners of all of our accounts so that we can access them right away. It's reassuring that we have everything written down and decided should the unthinkable happen and one or both of us pass away which will most likely not happen for a very, very long time...