One of the biggest challenges facing separated and divorcing couples is budgeting. A hard reality of divorce is that it takes more money to support two single people than it does one married couple. And, incomes rarely go up when parties are separating or divorcing.
So, budgeting is crucial to determine whether and how the parties can support two households on the income that has only been supporting one. Mint.com (recently purchased by Intuit) is a relatively new website that is a tremendous resource for budgeting and staying on top of your financial picture. Users can link their online accounts to Mint.com. This includes bank accounts, retirement accounts, mortages, loans, HSA’s, credit cards, and investment accounts among others. Mint.com then updates your account information on a regular basis. You only have to go to one website to check all accounts instead of going to many sites to check on each account.
In addition Mint.com has tools that help you budget. It can send you alerts when you exeed a budget, tracks big expenditures or deposits, gives you warning when payments are due on accounts, and more. You can choose the situations in which you want to be alerted. The graphs and reports give you easily understood pictures of where your money is going.
This site and others like it have made it easier than ever to take control of your finances, even if you have never done it before.
I would encourage anyone who is trying to get a hold on their financial life to take a look at Mint.com.
* I am not affiliated with Mint.com in any way. I read about it and then investigated. I was thoroughly impressed. There are similar sites that I have not investigated.
