Mint provides a chart for you to visualize your net worth over time. If you have a negative net worth, what you owe is outpacing what you own. Ideally, your assets will outweigh your liabilities (forms of debt) so you have a positive net worth. Net worth = assets - liabilities and serves as a remarkable data point for understanding where you are on your financial journey. Net Worth: Tracking this metric is key to building wealth. I had no idea I was spending so much on home and dining until I saw the proportion of those categories on my Trends pie chart! While tags are helpful, I find that keeping an eye on which category is outpacing the others is most important when taking control of your financial well-being. Mint will give you the option to tag a transaction as "reimbursable" or "tax-related" (refer to image in “Budget” section above ). The Trends tab will break down your spending by category, merchant, and by tag over time. Trends: They say ignorance is bliss, but not when it comes to your spending habits. Once you've got your transactions appropriately assigned, setting up a budget is as easy as selecting a category, listing an amount, and deciding if you want to start the following month's budget with the previous month's unused budget (if any). This is a quick and easy update to make that will help to keep your dashboard organized in almost real-time. Updating your uncategorized categories is easy - you’ll simply edit the description and select “Always rename X and categorize as Y.” You don’t need to rename transactions unless you’d like to, but once you’ve created a rule to always categorize a certain transaction as Y, the platform will retroactively and proactively apply that category. If Mint is unable to assign a category, it will default to "uncategorized," and then you'll be able to filter and update the category as needed. Mint is a great piece of technology, but it does need help from you to function effectively. It's important to regularly review your transactions if you plan to utilize the budgeting feature. If you notice a particular purchase is mislabeled, you can assign a new category and set a rule. Review your purchase descriptions and the category Mint has assigned to that purchase to ensure everything is properly categorized. To properly set up your budget, you'll want to start by auditing your "Transactions" tab. Each category allows you to assign a dollar limit and, if you sign up for notifications, you'll get a text or email alert any time you're getting close to exceeding that category's budget. Whether you are a Mint novice or expert, Smart Sister Finance has some tips to help you to get the most out of Mint and stay on track financially.īudgeting: Setting up a budget category, such as groceries, is a quick and easy way to stay on-track and under budget. Until recently, they have only had a free version but we've heard a premium version will be coming soon. Mint is one of the oldest and most popular personal finance tools on the market. It can be hard to get a full picture of where you stand financially when your savings account may be with Marcus while your brokerage account may be with Schwab or Fidelity, which is why services like are helpful to help you visualize your entire financial picture. Financial consolidation tools are key to understanding your spending habits and tracking your net worth over time.
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