One Place to See It All

The 5 Basic Financial Categories – Part 1

Since we’re at the beginning of a new year, I thought I’d try to add a little something that most don’t cover related to setting financial goals and making financial resolutions.  In this article, I’d like to discuss the tools and processes that make the goal of having better finances possible.  

One Place to See It All
There are a couple problems we all run into when it comes to managing our finances: 1) not having a way to daily stay on top of it, and 2) no single place to see it all.  If I were to ask you, have all your bills for the month been paid and how many you have left, you’d [like most] have to go rambling through stacks of bills and other paperwork to determine.  If I were to ask, how much money you have available for use, you’d more than likely estimate or check the balance on a bank account.  The problem with this is there isn’t an accurate way of knowing with certainty what’s happening, but is there?  Today, I want to share with you one tool that can change the way to manage your finances.  This tool is called “Mint”.  BTW – it’s free and easy to use.  

Let’s discuss the process of seeing everything in one place.  

What’s Everything?
Mint provides a view of your finances in 5 categories:

• Cash – represents the money you have at your fingertips.  It’s the funds you can easy and normally use.
• Credit Cards – highlight what you’ve spent and are obligated to pay back.  Credit cards are like loans that you should be able to control.  
• Loans – constitute the debts you repay within a certain length of time.  It’s money borrowed with the intent of repaying over a lengthy period of time.
• Investments – depict the money you have that’s not easy to put your hands on.  It’s those funds that have been somewhat locked away for a future date and time.
• Property – reflects the value of property you own or the portion thereof.  This category is more important than you might realize.  It’s the one that’s not so easy to see and can be difficult to put your hands on.

Using Mint provides a process to be able to view these five categories all at once in a user-friendly interface.  While the categories sound like you might need a college degree to understand them, it’s not the case. This is what makes meant so powerful.  Plus the overview is real-time, which means the data is refreshed immediately.  

Today is Friday!
You need a way to see your financial disposition from a bird’s eye view.  It needs to be easy and available to you daily if you want to accomplish your New Year’s resolution of managing your finances better.  There are tools for this.  Mint is just one, but the key is to have a process to view your finances.

Question: What challenges are your facing when it comes to managing your finances?  Leave a comment below.

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