Wesabe has a new feature - Spending Targets

Wesabe has added a new feature that I really like. It's called Spending Targets. You can pick up to 5 categories/tags to monitor. After you pick these tags you then put in a target amount that you want to spend or budget for the month. It then shows you how you are doing as the month progresses. I use this to keep track of some of the more variable expenses we have each month like clothing or other non-essential expenses. As I have said in earlier posts I pay all my fixed expenses like utilities from a separate checking account and fund that with direct deposit. I then pay all my variable expenses out of another account. I then just watch my spending on these items to determine whether I will spend less than I make. This is the key! To spend less than you make.

Click here to see my online money management site comparisons

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