Ready to start tracking your finances?  I was amazed a few years ago, when I started talking to people, and most had no idea how much money they had.  Things I heard were “I have some stock”, “I put a little in my 401K”, and then my favorite “I’m not saving anything”. These all made me shudder.  For years I have used some of the mainstream financial software.  However I’ve always found it cumbersome.  They all require manual intervention.  Some of them would give good detailed reports, some were so-so. 

So first of all, everyone and I mean everyone needs to go to a Dave Ramsey class, before you do anything else financially.  This is one of the single most important steps you could ever do in your life.  Sit, listen and do the exercises, it will more than pay for itself, in stress relief, and in the $$$. 

Alright well one of the first things you need to do is to figure out what you own, what you have and where it’s going.  Instead of putting down $$$ on that finacial software, go over to Mint.com they offer a $FREE and secure way to track your finances.  Start simple, setup your checking accounts.  As you can start adding your credit cards, saving accounts, loans, mortgages, IRA’s, 401K’s and any other finacial center you work with. 

You give them one time permission to access your account, and they are then able to query your data from that finacial center.  This keeps you updated on your complete financies.  Tracking where your money goes and what you have.  It monitors the growth of your savings and investments.  However best of call it has “Plans” you can setup to help you make finacial planning easier.  These plans can be to pay for college for your children, save up for a car, emergency fund growing, or retirement savings.

Over all it’s a solid website that provides you with excellent resources, that I think fits in well with the teaches of Dave Ramsey.