Keeping your finances all in order in one central location has never been easier. The app Mint makes this possible. If you’ve read 5 Simple Steps to Improve Your Financial Situation then you know that I use this app and absolutely love it. Mint provides you with so many awesome features that will help you control your finances and it’s super simple to set up. Here are 5 of my favorite features that should make you want to use Mint as well.
#1. Account Balances
After you have linked all of your accounts Mint with have an entire page with your account balances to include any of your debt. On this page Mint will break out your cash account, credit card accounts, and loan accounts.
Having the information of all your accounts consolidated until one location is flat out awesome. Before using Mint it was much more difficult to keep track of everything. If I wanted to see my bank account balances I would have to use their app, if I wanted to see my student loan balances I would have to access their website. Everything felt disorganized and it definitely caused some stress, however with Mint my accounts are all organized in one place and I don’t have to stress anymore. If you feel this way then I highly recommend trying out Mint..
#2. Credit Score
Having all of your account balances in a consolidated location is so great, but how awesome would it be to have your credit score as well? Yup that’s right, Mint displays your credit score every time you log in so you’ll always know your score. Mint will even notify you if your score has gone down or up.
When your on the credit score page MInt will show you stats that affect your personal credit score. Mint shows you your on time payment percentage, your credit usage percentage, the average age of your credit, the amount of accounts that you have, the number of your credit inquiries, and the number of your derogatory accounts.
The additional credit score information that Mint provides allows you to focus on the areas that you need to improve on. While having your credit score and your account balances all in one app is awesome and super efficient Mint still has more features that will make you want to sign up immediately.
Learn how to evaluate your credit score here!
#3. Transaction History
Mint fully syncs with all of your account and not only provides you with your account balances but also keeps track of all your transactions. Having this information all in the same place is super efficient and will save you huge amounts of time. Seeing your transactions is important, it allows you to review your accounts and make sure there is no fraudulent activity.
Although the transaction history feature is awesome Mint takes it a step further by categorizing your transactions. This information leads to the next feature that I want to discuss, your monthly budget.
#4. Monthly Budget
On the budgets page of the Mint app you can create a monthly budget that can be broken down by a number of categories. Some of the main categories that you can select from are education, entertainment, food & dining, auto & transport, and health & fitness. It’s important to note that there are many more primary categories and multiple sub categories.
After you have selected all the necessary categories for your budget you then select the amounts that you are willing to spend each month in that category and boom you’ve just created your monthly budget. This feature may actually be my personal favorite because it allows you to really track your monthly spending and saving in such an easy fashion. Being able to track and identify your spending habits in a precise way will allow you to analyze your habits and make adjustments accordingly. If you decide to use this app or already are using it, make sure that you take advantage of this feature. Take the 5-10 minutes that it takes to set up your budget and you won’t be disappointed, and don’t worry if your not positive with your spending for each category because you can always edit your budget.
Want to know more about how to budget? Check out these posts!
#5. Cash Flow
Last but not least is the cash flow feature, Mint uses the information from your transaction history and breaks down your monthly earnings and monthly expenditures. Mint even takes a step further and creates three graphs (net income over time, earnings over time, and spending over time). I really like seeing the ‘spending over time’ graph because it allows me to visualize how much my spending is fluctuating month after month. In a perfect world, you would want your spending to be similar month to month. However, unforeseen expenses may occur and can have a big impact on your monthly spending.
Closing Thoughts
Well there you have it the top 5 features that I believe makes Mint well worth the download. Mint allows you to be more efficient and organized with your finances, which in turn will lead to you having a stronger grasp of your financial health.
If you do decide to try out Mint be sure to take full advantage of all the benefits it has to offer. Take the time to sync up all your accounts and set your budget, this will benefit you in the future. Also if you do decide to give it a try be sure to leave us a comment and let us know what you think!
