The Simple Living Network Website

The Simple Living Network is an admirable website. It preaches minimalist living to persuade you to live modestly but happily. While I really buy into the idea I don't think I'm ready to totally commit to that life style. I absolutely believe in spending your money where it will give you the most fulfillment. You really need to determine where that is and then adjust your spending to match your desires. The key is figuring out where all your money is currently going and then adjust your spending and your thoughts accordingly. This site has some great ideas on how to spend your money and be more eco-friendly.

Online money management sites

I have been looking for a good site to manage my savings. I have tried Mint.com, Quicken Online, and Wesabe. Quicken online had the most connections with different financial institutions to make downloading your data very easy. The problem was that the reporting and the ability to analyze your data were very poor. Mint had the best web site and neatest graphs. They also have a unique idea of offering outside vendors products (like low interest credit cards or cash back offers) that could save you money. They recommended that I look at an American Express Blue card for cash back. I signed up for the American Express card since it looks like it will give me more cash back and there is no annual fee. The problem I had with Mint was that I couldn't get my data from my Credit union accounts. My checking accounts, along with Bill Payment, is all with Credit unions. I couldn't get that data input into Mint. Without that data it's useless. I'll keep monitoring it to see if they make a way to enter my data. The site I liked the best was Wesabe. I didn't at first. It seemed a little less flashy than the other sites, but don't let that fool you. They have a method to get the data from all your financial institutions either automatically, manually or through a slick little add-on for Firefox web browsers (although I question whether this is secure enough). The thing that didn't jump out at me at first was the use of tagging. Start tagging your expenses and income and things start to happen. It will automatically start tagging all transactions from that vendor. Then everytime this expense comes in it automatically gets tagged. Now use those tags to start seeing how you are spending your money. How much do I spend on Utilities? How about Electric Utilities. It's really powerful.

My Pick: Wesabe