7 Reasons Why Mint by Intuit is Dope!
I have always used some type of application to assist me with money management, but I had an urge to try something new. On May 25th, 2018, I made the decision to make that change for the month of June. This change is what resulted in me switching from the EveryDollar App by Ramsey Solutions (Dave Ramsey's Corporation) to try out Mint by Intuit. Now, there are many people that know about Mint, including myself, but I was committed to my old ways. However, after being convinced by a good friend, Austin Hope, I decided to try it out again. I took a chance and I loved it. As a result, here are 7 solid reasons that Mint is super duper dope.
Mint allows you to have all of your financial accounts in one place. Whether it be your banking accounts, credit card accounts, student loans, personal loans, investments, it is all there for you to see in one place. It is such a major convenience to be able to have all of your information in one application. This helps prevent the need to go from one app or website to the other when getting a status of your accounts.
WIth all of your accounts being linked on Mint, it automatically tracks all of your expenses. I have, personally, used other apps to manually track expenses because I wanted to maintain complete control. This became cumbersome and very tedious. The dreadfulness of the task was increased exponentially if I got even a few days behind. So, I asked myself, "Rod, what's wrong with putting a little AUTO-MA-TIC-NESS in yo' life brutha?!" The key is to not DEPEND on Mint but to use it as a tool to assist with being "in the know" about your money. Additionally, it categorizes your expenses for you based on the vendor/company you've paid. For example, if you buy tools from Home Depot, it automatically categorizes this expense in 'home improvement'. Now, that's dope.
Another benefit to your accounts being linked is that any accounts that are associated with bills or payments are assigned to a bill pay calendar. It extracts your due date from your linked account and keeps you updated when it's time for your money to be taken away *sad face emoji*. Furthermore, you also have the ability to add utility accounts to this calendar such as utilities, cell service, insurances, and cable/internet. Even if Mint doesn't have your certain utility or company, you can add them manually. I don't know about you, but I am not able to use autopay for all of my accounts. Therefore, I have to create reminders in other places to keep me "on my toes" regarding on-time bill payments. It's not an extreme hassle, but Mint removes this issue.
The budget feature is how the previously mentioned features are wrapped up into a nice package. This feature takes some setting up, but it is absolutely awesome. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know that I love budgeting. The effort that was put into this feature is magical to me...lol. When your expenses are automatically tracked, the budget feature is where that expense is reported to keep you informed about the different budget categories you set up. For instance, when you set up a $500.00 'food and dining' budget, it is decreased with any expenses reported by the automated expense tracker. You don't have to be financially lost and this feature certainly helps.
Your net worth is tracked with ease. Your net worth is your assets minus your liabilities. Basically, that is the value of all things that you own minus all things that have debt associated with it. Due to all of your accounts being linked in this application, Mint is easily able to keep you informed about your net worth. It is a very important factor in your life. As a matter of fact, your net worth is how you determine if you're a thousandaire, millionaire, billionaire, couple-dollars-aire, etc....lol. I'd like to note that just because a person has a million dollar salary DOES NOT mean they're a millionaire. Many people don't even care to know what their net worth is, but knowing this about yourself is a major key.
The cash flow feature is also one of my favorites and I check it just as frequently as I check my budget. Your cash flow keeps you updated on the comparison of how much you've made against how much you've spent. It is a very important factor in determining if you will excel financially. You always want your cash flow to be positive. You never want to get to the end of the month looking crazy and confused because all of your money is gone and you have no idea why. Imagine daydreaming about the Oreos you have in the pantry at home. You get home and get a couple to eat. You bite in and realize that your #boothang replaced the cream center with toothpaste. Imagine the face you'll make. That's the face you'll have when you get to the end of the month and your cash flow is negative. We have to tighten up. You want to have more money at the end of the month, not more month at the end of your money.
Income - Expenses = Cash Flow
The last reason that Mint is super dope is that it allows you to track to your credit score. There are many people out there that have no idea of what their credit score. They are being intentional about improving their credit score by doing the right things to increase it. However, they are not in the know about what their score is because they aren't consistently tracking it.
CREDIT KARMA IS NOT AN ACCURATE WAY TO TRACK YOUR CREDIT SCORE!
There are better ways to track your credit score for free using one of the 3 credit bureaus. I, specifically, use Transunion via my credit card. Now I use Mint, too!
Those are 7 reasons that mint is dope! I hope that this convinces you to use Mint or something similar. We are in the era of instant access and being able to instantly access your financial information is very beneficial. This is where Mint shines because all of that information is in one place.
So, until next time, remember that there is no detour or roadblock that you can't overcome financially. Swerve around the unnecessary debt; stay away from it. Stay on your route. Stay on track. Don't get lost.....until you reach your