I recently ran across a VERY cool financial planning/budgeting tool and thought I would share it with you. It paints a very clear picture of your finances and the best part is that it is FREE and online! There's nothing to download, update, etc. and your data is available anywhere with internet! I've been playing with it for several days now and, basically, it goes out whenever you log-in and pulls data from your checking and savings accounts, your credit cards, your investment accounts and more. Then, it makes the data all easy to see, either as individual accounts or combining all of your accounts/transactions into one view. It further breaks all of the transactions down into categories and even charts your spending! Have you ever wondered how much you spend at coffee shops or on gas? How about on fast food or shopping? This tool will tell you... Have you ever wondered if there were better credit cards with better interest rates and/or reawrds? This tool will tell you that too... Have you ever wondered if there were checking or savings accounts where you could make more interest on your money? This tool will tell you!!! Then it gets even cooler... you can see how your spending in any of the categories compares, on average, to other users in most major cities. You just pick the city and the spending category and it shows your spending in that category versus the selected city's average for that category (completely anomously). I can't say enough about this tool, it actually made starting a budget easy! In fact, it set-up a budget automatically based on my spending habits, income, or some magic formula. I just entered a few bits of account info, and presto... my transactions were imported and my budger created. Now all I have to do is monitor my budget over the next few weeks and months and adjust. It couldn't be easier; check it out at www.Mint.com. You won't be sorry...

Ryan Cave, The "Caveman"
Truth, Honor & Personal Integrity
214-789-9366
www.CaveRealty.com