It’s kind of crazy to go to Mint’s home page and see it shut down. They’re redirecting people to Credit Karma which doesn’t really make sense to me. While I like Credit Karma as an easy way to check your credit score, it certainly isn’t a full-fledged personal finance app.
Understandably, I’ve been getting the question, which app should you use? Well, luckily, I’ve been using something better than Mint for the last nine years! It’s YNAB!
YNAB originally stood for “You Need A Budget”, but somewhat ironically both they and I aren’t a big fan of the word “budget”. Budgeting sounds like creating artificial spending limits then inevitably failing and giving up. YNAB is more about planning and transparency. Instead of wondering where all your money is going, you can make a plan and adjust as you go.
The part about the first dates is absolutely true. I’m currently scrolling through archived texts that mention YNAB and there are a LOT of them. YNAB does have a bit of a learning curve, so I highly recommend attending at least one of their free training sessions. But once it clicks, it’s super exciting and you may find yourself ranting about it too.
When I founded PFC, I made the decision not to do ads or sponsored posts. I worried it would be a conflict of interest with the education I was trying to provide. But a couple years ago, as a bit of a stunt, we decided to auction off our first ever sponsored post with a starting bid of $1. Thankfully, YNAB won that auction. Since then we’ve done a couple more partnerships with YNAB but still, over five years into PFC YNAB is the ONLY company we have ever worked with! So while YNAB IS paying me for this post, that may make me a paid shill, but at least I’m a loyal paid shill. And it’s clearly a product I’ve used since LONG before PFC even started and I happily ranted about it for free for many years. Getting paid is just icing on the cake.
Try YNAB for free for a month at ynab.com/pfc.
As always, reminding you to build wealth by following the two PFC rules: 1.) Live below your means and 2.) Invest early and often.
-Jeremy
