You Could Use a Mint, Part I

Last year sometime, I heard an article similar to this one, and thought about using a site like Mint.com to help manage our finances.  I signed up, but when it got to the point of asking for usernames and passwords to get access to my bank accounts, credit cards, and brokerages, I took a step back to make sure I wanted to put all that information into one place.  It is now ten months later, and that account is just sitting there.

Today, though, I got a message from a friend asking what I thought about sites like this, and I remembered my account.  I'm going to give it a try, and document my experience here.

I don't need Mint.com to manage our finances.  I do it pretty well with a spreadsheet, a check register, and my brain.  That said, those tools have some disadvantages:

• I sometimes find myself doing the same cash flow calculations multiple times during a complicated month; perhaps a site that put all our accounts together could help there.  
• We have money sitting in a savings account for Nicole's maternity leave that might earn a better return at our brokerage invested in Treasuries or CDs, but I often think about savings and brokerage accounts as being holders of money for different uses (a common behavioral finance trap).  Perhaps seeing these accounts together would make me more efficient with our cash and liquidity management. 

I think Mint.com will be most useful, though, if I get hit by a truck (a useful potential scenario for lots of life planning).  Nicole has access to all the usernames and passwords for all the accounts, but she doesn't interact with them as often as I do (such as my Roth IRA or student loans).  I hope that having all that information listed in one place will allow her to more easily see our overall financial status, and take over as the primary money manager if needed.

Sociological Disclosure: Yes, I am a man, and currently the primary money manager in our family.  Nicole is currently the primary breadwinner.  We both keep house.  Don't judge.

I'll start entering my information, and will post about the process as I go.