Pre-Intuit it was pretty decent, before banks had their own apps and before there was much competition. Once I could use my credit union’s app and it had all the usual features no more need for Mint.
These day-to-day budgeting apps with categories and stuff, it’s great when you’re spending in a similar manner or have specific goals. Once I had a mortgage and bills and stuff, I found the granularity of the information wasn’t as relevant, I kind of know what’s going on intuitively enough. Also you have a lot bigger unscheduled spending, like propane every 2-6 months which is gonna be like $1000 and seasonally dependent, yeah you can work it out per year to know you’re okay, but to have some alert that’s like “YOU WENT OVER YOUR AVERAGE ON BILLS THIS WEEK BY 300%!” is unnecessary. Similar with food, I’m gonna load up on meat and it’s gonna be like YOUR FOOD SPENDING IS OFF THE RAILS. Things like “you spent x more on gas this week” it’s like useless info, “okay I won’t buy gas and go to work then… thanks.” “You spent x more on vices,” sure, but I think people know they’re making a bad decision and it’s just a 2nd validation to “manage” the vice spending.
For useful reporting you can just export your data from your bank/cu and make your own reports. Apps that amalgamate your financial data are still useful but then you’re in to legit financial planning territory which is sort of a separate category of apps.
Pre-Intuit it was pretty decent, before banks had their own apps and before there was much competition. Once I could use my credit union’s app and it had all the usual features no more need for Mint.
These day-to-day budgeting apps with categories and stuff, it’s great when you’re spending in a similar manner or have specific goals. Once I had a mortgage and bills and stuff, I found the granularity of the information wasn’t as relevant, I kind of know what’s going on intuitively enough. Also you have a lot bigger unscheduled spending, like propane every 2-6 months which is gonna be like $1000 and seasonally dependent, yeah you can work it out per year to know you’re okay, but to have some alert that’s like “YOU WENT OVER YOUR AVERAGE ON BILLS THIS WEEK BY 300%!” is unnecessary. Similar with food, I’m gonna load up on meat and it’s gonna be like YOUR FOOD SPENDING IS OFF THE RAILS. Things like “you spent x more on gas this week” it’s like useless info, “okay I won’t buy gas and go to work then… thanks.” “You spent x more on vices,” sure, but I think people know they’re making a bad decision and it’s just a 2nd validation to “manage” the vice spending.
For useful reporting you can just export your data from your bank/cu and make your own reports. Apps that amalgamate your financial data are still useful but then you’re in to legit financial planning territory which is sort of a separate category of apps.