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Mint.com My New BFF (Best Financial Friend)

June 9, 2011 in Personal

Okay, I admit it. I’ve gone crazy in love with Mint.com

This little web app is the financial management tool I’ve always wished for and never quite had.

Until I found Mint, I had a ten sheet Numbers spreadsheet that kept me on top of my finances. At least it did when I remembered to update the information. And therein lies the problem with my financial summary and I suspect most people’s attempts at understanding their overall financial picture. You have to constantly update the information.

Mint makes that easy with its ability to extract information from nearly every financial institution that allows online banking. In my case, I have accounts at four banks and credit cards from four or five providers. Mint is able to (with my permission) download all my data into one central place. From there it automatically combines the information and categorizes it for me. It even starts me off with a suggested budget based on my historical spending. I have two accounts that are not available online. One is a mortgage and the other is my LIRA with Investors Group. I am able to manually enter those amounts as well as other assets like my house value and automobiles.

If that’s not enough to make you do cartwheels and jump up and down, Mint even helps you stay on budget by sending alerts. These alerts can be customized for everything from a low balance in an account to more spending than normal in a category. Used strategically, the alerts alone are worth the price of getting Mint. Additionally these features are available in their own iPhone app. I love it!

Speaking of price…. there isn’t one. Mint is free. I’m not sure yet how they make their money but I suspect it has something to do with the credit card, insurance and other financial offers that are suggested from time to time. Of course only products that will save me money ever come up in the suggestion box. I have noticed though that most of the suggestions are from only one or two sources. There’s probably some sort of commission in there.

Mint.com is not limited to just providing a framework for managing your money, their blog is full of very useful information. Taking the time to read it along with using their service provides the best combination possible.

But it doesn’t matter because Mint.com is my new financial best friend and should be yours too. If you haven’t already, check it out and come back here and tell me how much you love it. Of course a tweet or two would be great as well. :-)

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To Win You’ve Got To Keep Things In Perspective

June 7, 2011 in Personal Development

I don’t know how many of you have watched hockey lately. There’s a bit of a big final going on now. My apologies if you live in a country where people don’t go absolutely crazy over adult men dressing up in funny costumes with padding in all the right places. These adults (sic) strap metal blades to the bottom of their feet and race around on ice chasing a small rubber disc with curved sticks. I know, it makes about as much sense to you as the Indian commentator during the World Cup cricket final does to me.

Anyway…. my team at least for the playoffs are the Canucks. They would be my team the rest of the year but I only watch hockey during the playoffs. It’s a deal I made with my wife when we first got married. Long story…

So last night the Canucks got roasted by the Bruins. They lost 8 to 1. A dreadful showing. However, that’s not the main thing. In the Stanley Cup finals, the winner is the team who wins the most games, not gets the most goals. A small but incredibly important distinction. The Bruins could win the game 100 to 1 and still not win the cup if they don’t win the most games. Goals only count in one game.

To me that raises an important question about life. How often do we focus on the wrong score?

I remember hearing a story about a young couple and their son riding his swing in the back yard. Every time, he swung over the ground he would drag his feet and tear a little of the grass. His dad was pushing, the son was laughing and they were enjoying the moment. All of a sudden mom yelled at the boy to lift his feet because he was ruining the grass. The dad stopped for a moment, walked over to his wife and held her in his arms. He whispered in her ear, ‘sweetheart, we’re not raising grass, we’re raising a son’. Perspective strikes again!

We all probably realize that winning is important, but you’ve gotta win at the things that count. How does that play out in your life? I know that I have to remind myself that somethings just aren’t that important. I almost always win when I shrug off the unimportant concessions so I can focus on the important battles. Is there a time when you focussed on the wrong thing and lost? How about a time when realizing what was important made you a winner?

As always comments are open below and on Twitter

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Chain Stores Should Have Consistent Policies

June 2, 2011 in Business

No complaint here, but if you go into a big box store that is part of a chain, don’t you expect them to have the same policies? I mean, isn’t that part of what makes a chain a… chain?

It would seem to me that one of the key things a chain store does is offer a consistent user experience. If it doesn’t do that, then it fails in a very important area. Now I’m not talking about policies that reflect significant differences in the country of operation. I’m actually talking about different policies in two stores that were only 45km apart. Not significant enough in my mind to justify a difference in a financial policy.

It seems like a legitimate thought for any small business with more than one site. If you’re going to grow big, then your organization must be scalable. One way that happens is thinking about whether your policies (systems, processes, etc.) apply in all locations. Consistency is crucial if you want to grow.

Maybe it’s just me. What do you think? Should you be able to expect the same policies in two stores in the same chain? Is it even necessary? Comment below or tweet your response.

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