Mint, the web 2.0 online money management system, went live today.  Mint had been in development for quite some time, and I was excited to see how they planned to simplify personal finance.  I had a chance to take it for a test drive, and I have some good news - it is incredibly useful.  Best of all, it’s free!

What Can Mint Do?

Mint Transactions Screenshot

When you sign up with Mint, you will enter all of your bank accounts and credit cards.  Not to worry, they use bank-grade security to protect your information.  A few minutes later, Mint will pull data from all of your accounts to give you a “snapshot” of your financial state.  You can quickly see how much debt and credit you have, where your money has been going, trend data, and get mobile text messages sent with various alerts.

Mint Accounts Screenshot

In Addition, a neat component built into Mint is the “Ways To Save” section, which compares your current credit card, savings account, utility rates and bills, and offers alternatives that should save you money.  This could potentially save you $2,000 or more, according to Mint.

Who Should Use Mint?

Mint can help several groups of people:

• Those who have many credit cards and/or bank accounts save time by only logging in once to get all the data, and by giving a “bird’s-eye” view of their finances.
• Those who are new to taking care of their finances (e.x. - college students) and want free advice on making the most of their money.
• Those who are looking to save money by making use of the Mint feature which automatically categorizes their transactions and gives a breakdown of what money went toward gas, restaurants, etc.

You can access mint from any computer, anywhere, anytime, and even use a mobile phone.

The folks at Mint seem very responsive, and even answered my email within an hour.  In their email newsletter Mint mentions they are planning many new features, so this online finance tool (which could easily replace Quicken for most people) looks like it has a bright future.