Three Cheers to New Personal Finance Toy!!!

What was your favorite toy as a child? Mine was, I must admit, Barbie. She was hot babe, and I had many of her as well as the full accouterments of all of her houses, cars, outfits, not-as-cute-friends, and even an assortment of weird Kens. (Not bad for city life -- except for the Kens.)

For LMF4HMW readers, the Barbie and Cabbage Patch Kid days are long gone. (Which is fine for the latter -- I hated those things with a passion and remember skipping friends' slumber parties with Cabbage themes -- eew.) Our toys these days consist of clothing, sports equipment, travel plans, and other "lifestyle" items that cost a significant deal more than Barbie's Corvette.

So I'm happy to write about a "toy" from a new(ish) website: Mint.com's online personal financial management system. The site is easy to use, quick to set up, has pleasing graphics and best of all, allows users a free web-based application in which to manage their personal finances. I read about it in Fortune magazine, and I'm happy to report that it exceeded my expectations.

Ok, ok. So a personal finance site's application is hardly a real "toy", but it does allow you to spend more time with the people and activities you love!

Simply go to Mint.com, set up an account with your email address, and then enter financial information on its secure platform. (If you don't yet use your bank's online banking platform, you'll need to set that up, which will take a few minutes per account.) Mint will give you a "trends" overview of your spending and allows you to see everything -- bank accounts, loans, investments, credit cards, etc. in one, easy place. If you elect to enter your credit score (which I didn't), you may receive offerings that could save you money, such as competing lower rates on cards and loans.

The beauty of Mint is that if offers Quicken or Money-like management in a much easier, less time-consuming format. It's fast, free, fresh, fabulous and for an admitted personal finance dork, fun. Which means that it's perfect for LMF4HMW readers!

WARNING: if you overspend in one or more areas, you will be "punished" by some red ink. I spent a good deal of money on business shipping last month and Mint quickly picked up on this. I'm thinking the site might not "approve" of Prada shoes on a less than stellar cash inflow, so beware!