There’s an enormous number of websites trying to get your attention, especially about your money. Below is a list of the 5 that I find myself recommending the most often.
1. Tracking your spending – Mint.com – The most common issue I run across with clients is feeling a lack of control around their spending. Mint uses your online banking information to automatically download and categorize your transactions, making this process much simpler for you to manage. You can share an account with your spouse so you can both access your information. They’ve also great smartphone apps (although a lack of an iPad app is a negative).
2-4. Keeping an eye on your credit score – There are a few sites that I like for checking out your credit score. CreditKarma.com is my personal favorite. You can check your credit score monthly for free. In exchange, they advertise offers to you for credit cards, insurance, loans, etc. It’s a worthwhile tradeoff to be able to regularly and easily keep an eye on your credit score. A similar site is CreditSesame.com. A third site, Quizzle.com allows you to also check your credit score, but only once every 6 months.
5. Reviewing your credit reports – AnnualCreditReport.com is the government site that actually allows you to get a truly free credit report from each reporting bureau once per year. Not the site with free in the name and all of the annoying songs. I have a reminder in my calendar every four months to download one of our bureau’s credit reports. This allows us to keep a rolling history of our credit files, and it spreads out our review of these rather than looking at them all at once.
Are there any other sites that you recommend to help manage your money?
