6 ways to get control over your cash flow

photo credit: nicely85

The September issue of ShopSmart recommends sites and software that can make tracking your budget easier. (ShopSmart is published by the same folks who bring us Consumer Reports, and manages to combine CR’s great research with a Real Simple-style clean design.)

Here are ShopSmart’s picks, with my comments in italics:

For people who “just need a quick look at my spending,” ShopSmart likes:

Mint, saying “You’ll get an easy-to-read snapshot of what’s in your bank account and what you’ve spent so far on your credit card. Mint also searches the Web for appealing deposit accounts, loans, and other deals.” My take: Mint’s the leader so far in this space, and has an active community of users.

Quicken Online, saying “Quicken Online lets you input checks that haven’t cleared, so you know how much cash is left. It can also project what you’ll have in your bank account in the next several weeks, based on info you provide on regular expenditures.” Quicken’s been at this transaction-tracking game the longest and has a solid reputation for support and security. Being able to add transactions that haven’t cleared is a great way to avoid bounced check fees, but either of these sites would be helpful to get a grip on your money.

For people who “want something more comprehensive,” ShopSmart recommends:

Microsoft Money plus Deluxe. Oops. Clearly, the magazine went to press before Microsoft announced it was pulling the plug on its downloadable personal finance software. You can no longer purchase Money and support will be going away as well. So the better choices would be:

Quicken Deluxe 2009. ShopSmart says, “Quicken might intimidate novices with its spreadsheet-like graphics and overwhelming options, but the program has endless ways to analyze data. You can set up Quicken to do automatic bill paying, write checks, and export your financial information to tax software.” My take: All this information lives on your computer, rather than on a third-party Web site, which is often a big selling feature for its users. If you’re comfortable online, though, check out:

Yodlee Money Center. ShopSmart says, “Yodlee, which is fully online, displays a complete list of expenses and lets you remove what you don’t want to track, which is a real plus. It lets you customize charts and graphs in ways the other free Web sites don’t. You also can input checks that haven’t cleared so you know what cash is still on hand. Yodlee is the only online service ShopSmart looked at that lets you set up automatic bill paying.” My take: Yodlee provides account aggregation for banks, and it’s the most robust expense-tracking site for those who are comfortable doing their finances “in the cloud.”

For people who want community support to reach their goals, ShopSmart liked:

Geezeo, noting that the site “lets you set up particular goals—say, paying off your credit-card debt or saving for a vacation—and share your experiences with other Geezeo participants.”  ShopSmart wasn’t fond of the busy layout or the fact that Geezeo doesn’t include check numbers in the account statements it downloads from your bank, but notes “it’s the only one of the four free online sites ShopSmart tried that doesn’t require you to store your passwords and account numbers on its server, which might be important to you.”

Finally, for those who “just can’t be bothered setting up another online account,” ShopSmart suggested:

Your own bank or credit card company. “Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Discover Card, and other financial-services companies offer their own versions of budgeting software for online customers. Usually they don’t allow you to add info from other accounts, but if most of your transactions reside in one place, you might prefer this system. Check with your financial institution to see if it offers such a service.”