Can Mint.com solve one of my personal finance goals for 2009? I’m a little late with one of my goals for 2008, so it’s now become my new 2009 goal. Finding a free or relatively inexpensive software program to track personal finance transactions and establish a budget for my wife and I. Since transparency seems to be the catch phrase of 2009 with banks and financial institutions, I thought it would be important to focus on this same issue with family finances. I seem to be the keeper of passwords, bank accounts, and financial records, so it was important to find a way to share this info efficiently with my wife. It also helps that she has an iphone for work and has access to one of the coolest applications ever.

Yes, Mint.com has an application for the iphone that allows you to see your daily net worth and track your spending plans. It’s actually killing me that I don’t have an iphone right now, so I’m trying hard to justify why I need one. One word, I don’t. Can I afford $70 a month for cell service? Yes. Should I spend $70 on cell service? Nope. When can I purchase an iphone? When I create another stream of passive income that nets at least $70 a month.

Time to put the iphone out of my mind for now. Mint.com has the ability to track all of your bank accounts, investment accounts, credit cards, car loans and more. I was even surprised to see my paypal account and Prosper.com account could be linked to Mint. The most powerful part is the ability to track daily transactions through credit cards and bank accounts. Mint will even give you suggestions for saving additional money on credit card offers or higher interest rates through savings accounts. This is how Mint makes money on this service, and it’s an option that you don’t have to accept. I’m perfectly happy with one of my banks, but I could choose to open an HSBC account and earn slightly higher interest. Is it worth jumping from bank to bank, chasing higher interest rates? It could be.

I did have one major issue when trying to link my ING Orange account with Mint. I kept receiving an error message that an invalid username or password were used. I finally reset my 5 personal questions on ING, answered them, then saved. In a separate web browser I answered the same 5 questions on Mint in the same order and pressed enter. Success, finally the ING Orange account was linked to Mint.

I’m still working on establishing a budget through Mint and creating user defined categories for transactions. Many of the categories I had on my Excel spreadsheet can be utilized on Mint. Easy to create custom categories for things like 529 savings plan or Preschool tuition.

What do I wish Mint had? More reports for financial planning. Reports that showed future growth of savings at current interest rates or growth of my retirement account. I realize this can be done on other investment sites as well, but would be nice to have in one place.

What’s the best feature of Mint? The fact that my wife and I can have access to the same personal finance information in real time is amazing. Total transparency and the ability to have access to this information quickly is priceless. Many hours I have spent trying to manually update our budget spreadsheet and transactions are now available for more family time.

Have you used Mint or another personal finance software for your family budget?

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photo credit: ILoveButter

We are all trying to cut expenses and make the most of each paycheck, but what if you could increase your take home pay another way? Would you relocate and move your family to make your dollar stretch even further? Do you have a dream of moving your family to a small town where the pace of life is slower? Worried that the local shopping mall is tempting for you or your teenage kids?

What if you could relocate with your current employer and drastically cut your home mortgage payment? Add to that, your home insurance, car insurance, and many other expenses. Where would I first look? Lot’s of places online such as Realtor.com can allow you to daydream or research what a home would cost in smaller towns. I started researching towns outside of the Bay Area to find out where the dollar would go a little further.

Some things I kept in mind during my research:

1. Schools. Check schools test scores and see how they compare to your current district. It might be better. If you home school, this won’t be an issue.

2. Property tax. If you are moving out of state, be sure to check the local property tax rates. If you are moving from California, you might be surprised to see rates higher in Texas or New Jersey.

3. Insurance. Your home insurance and car insurance rates may decline as you are moving to a smaller town. Less crime, lower rates.

4. Public transportation. Here in Northern California we have Bart and train service to Sacramento area. New Jersey and New York have a great train system as well. Could you extend your commute to your current job? Would the trade-off in time and expense outweigh the cheaper mortgage payment? You also might be able to telecommute on the train.

5. Friends. Maybe you have a friend that recently moved and they love the new home. You could allow them to get settled and test out the new community before you make the plunge. Keep in touch with them and find out what they like about the new town and what they don’t.

How much would you have to save on your home mortgage or rent in order for moving to make financial sense to you? $500 a month or $1,000 off your mortgage payment? Maybe you love your friends, family, and town and could never move.

Need more inspiration? Here’s an article from MSN where people have made the move to small towns.

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I have discussed home mortgages modification, mortgage bailout, credit scores, and even bankruptcy with several friends over the last few weeks. All of them have a similar question and that is “How do I negotiate with a lender if I can’t make my mortgage payment?” It looks like many lenders will work with borrowers, but the fine details are a bit tricky to maneuver. One friend is going through a bankruptcy but wants to keep his home, and now the mortgage lender is trying to work with him. Interesting that the lender did not want to negotiate prior to the bankruptcy. Unfortunately, it appears that you need to be late on your payments in order to qualify for help from some lenders. I found an interesting article that interviewed a family that recently negotiated with a lender.

Indymac has established some rules for qualifying for a loan modification:

1. Mortgage loan needs to be at least 60 days past due.

2. You can’t pay your mortgage and don’t have any way to make your payment. No savings accounts.

3. You can’t file for bankruptcy.

4. A loan modification must make sense to your bank or investor holding your note. The bank won’t modify the terms if you still can’t afford the new monthly payment.

5. Bank will pull your current credit score and also evaluate if you would be a qualified candidate.

It’s unfortunate that you need to be at least 60 days past due to get the attention of your bank. What the family in this MSN article did accomplish is to reduce the monthly payment by a few hundred dollars. The couple still won’t be able to afford the new monthly payment as they have had some serious health problems and job cuts.

Have you tried to negotiate with your lender? Have you been successful with a loan modification?

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It was an interesting week as President Bush gave his last speech as President and Congress has made more money available for banks through the Tarp program. Two more homes are in foreclosure in our sunny Northern California neighborhood and prices continue to drop. I will be contacting some real estate friends this coming week to begin my investment property research.

Here are some great articles I found this week:

GoTo Retirement wrote Best Waterfront Living and Property: Lake or Ocean? A fantastic set of questions to help you analyze your primary or secondary residence as you plan for retirement.

My Dollar Plan lists 16 Ways to Do It Yourself and save money. My wife has cut my hair for years and saved us a bunch of money.

Free Money Finance wrote It’s Budgeting Time of the Year. A great reminder to work on those pesky finances. Have you tried the cash envelope system?

Binary Dollar wrote 10 Mortgage Lessons From 12 Phone Calls and shares some great insight when dealing with mortgage brokers or lenders.

Passive Family Income wrote Are the Rules of Retirement Changing? We recently met with a financial planner and when asked when we wanted to retire, my wife answered 68. I said “what”? My answer was 40.

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In case you needed another reason to check credit card statements. Reports of a mysterious 25 cent fee are hitting card holders from a fake company out of New York. I always check my credit card statement and ask my wife if she was aware of any purchases before contacting American Express or Visa. It’s difficult to track some online retailers as they tend to do business all over the U.S., but please be sure to double check. You never want to give money away for free.

I was surprised to read in The Boston Globe article that the credit card issuers didn’t take action before the 25 cent fees hit accounts. I would imagine that a duplicate amount hitting millions of accounts for 25 cents would raise a red flag. Maybe 25 cents goes below the radar for major card companies like Amex or Visa. I recall receiving a call from fraud prevention at Amex last year as my card number was stolen and used in Korea. The amount was $260 and they tried to buy clothing. Amex was proactive and took measure to get me a new card within 48 hours.

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