Mint.com question

[sblatner]

Our high school senior is trying to figure out Mint.com. I use Quicken so can only help so much.

He would like his "cash" to be included in his net worth - in Quicken, I would set up a "cash" account and then enter transactions when I spend money. He can't figure out how to get his "cash" to be an account - like a credit card or bank account. It looks like if you want to add an "account", you have to have online access to your bank.

Any ideas?

[jpg7n16]

You can add "cash" on mint. It's just not a "financial" account.

The pathway to get there is:

Edit accounts
Click "other"
Add : Money (or Debt)
Cash (positive)

That will create an "account" for cash on hand.

[thesimplemoneyblog]

Quicken is much better than Mint.com for this type of thing. On Mint.com, you are able to add a cash account as jpg described, but you can't really add transactions to a manual account like that.

What you can do though is go to the 'Transactions' part of Mint.com and click 'Add Transaction' and then set it as a 'cash' transaction. Then, the expense is included in the budget and other expenses, but it isn't necessarily tied to any particular account, so he would have to periodically update the balance of the manual account in the 'Your Accounts' > 'Other' part of the website. That will force it to show up in Net Worth (note that it shows up at the bottom of the list of accounts and not with regular accounts that are linked to an actual financial institution).

[phantom]

What jpg7n16 and thesimplemoneyblog describe really is the only way to keep track of cash in Mint. I would also suggest tagging the cash transactions with a custom tag like "cash." That way, if you search for things marked with that tag, Mint will be able to tell you how much cash you have.

Of course, Mint really just isn't built to handle money that isn't related to an account that it can link to very well. If your son makes a lot of cash transactions, I would suggest trying out some different software to find something better suited to his needs.

[Slug]

Kudos on having a kid with an interest in personal finance. He/she could easily switch to a debit card to eliminate the cash transaction issue AND then the $ would be in a bank account at least earning nominal interest rather than burning a hole in his/her pocket.

[lewiskelly]

In mint.com we can add cash and exchange money.Its for financial purpose also.But can we used for Forex trading?

[Slug]

In mint.com we can add cash and exchange money.Its for financial purpose also.But can we used for Forex trading?

Completely dependent on whether Mint supports the site. For my purposes, Yodlee supports more of the sites that matter to me to track than does Mint.

[jaine]

Your Accounts > Other > Add > Money or Debt > Cash

There you go...you can enter the amount of cash and it'll be included in the net worth chart.

ETA: oops, I see someone already suggested this. Great minds think alike? :P

[MKKShah]

Just wanted to add this. Last year, for the first time in my life, I was able to successfully categorize ALL my spending in one sitting (over a weekend). This was possible in large measure due to mint.com. I love the site.

I have also tried money, and quicken on previous occasions, and while they are good programs mint makes things a whole lot more easier, and is appealing to look at as well.

btw, quicken now owns mint. Also, Microsoft has discontinued MS money.