Mint.com is arguably one of the most popular personal finance management tools out there. For all that it has done well, up until this week, it hasn't been the best place to track financial goals. Now, with the introduction of Mint Goals you can link all of your financial goals with the accounts that you have connected to Mint to better track your progress.
Mint Goals improves on the Planning section, which Mint users had until now used for goal-setting. The new Mint Goals section provides users with eight goal areas which can be tailored to the individual so that the goal is realistic and achievable. These eight goals include getting out of debt, saving for an emergency, saving for retirement, buying a home, buying a car, saving for college, taking a trip and improving your home; you can also set a custom goal.
Mint Goals Video from the Wall Street Journal:
When you create a goal Mint will ask you a few questions to find out when you want to achieve it and suggest a monthly contribution to this account. If you have Mint connected to all of your accounts the service can use the data it already has to automate some of the planning process. For example, if you are setting up an emergency fund, Mint knows about how much you spend a month so it is easy to figure out how much you need to cover three months' worth of living expenses. If you are working to pay down debt, and have your credit cards linked, you'll get a look at what you owe and a pay-down plan based on that amount.
After you choose the amount you want to save, Mint allows you to link the goal to a specific account, add a new account or suggests an account to open that fits the goal's purpose. When I was setting up an emergency fund goal, Mint shared several high yield savings accounts.
If your goal is getting out of debt, Mint may suggest that you get a loan through a partner like Lending Club, a peer to peer lender that offers personal loans at rates more than 50% lower than the average credit card APR. The suggested accounts are not all encompassing and you should still take a few steps to find the best bank or account for you.
In addition to budgeting for your day-to-day expenses, setting a goal for purchases and events such as buying a new HDTV, a house or taking a vacation is an important step to getting out of debt and staying out. If you need help after setting up your goals, Mint provides a checklist of to-do items and advice. You can also come back to WalletPop to learn more about all topics personal finance.
What do you think about the new Mint Goals?
Earlier today Phandroid seemed to have off-contract pricing information on the upcoming T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant – the T-Mobile variant of the Samsung Galaxy S – as $329 without contract. Sounds great right? Well, that was taken down from the T-Mobile site promptly – turns out the actual off-contract pricing is set at $450.
T-Mobile contacted Phandroid and informed them that the actual off-contract price of the device was $450. The pricing makes sense. It would not be so smart for Magenta to have priced the device at such a low price, as that would encourage people to just buy the device outright and not get on a contract (the more lucrative option for any carrier). T-Mobile, the 4th largest carrier in the US needs all of the customers it can get, whether its on or off contract, but contracts are what make you stay with the carrier. As such, T-Mobile would like to wrangle you into paying them for two years of your life, as does every other carrier.
The $49 pricing applies to the Even More Plus plan T-Mobile offers, which is a contract free plan that offers the option to pay for your no-contract phone in installments – think of it as smartphone financing. I’ve been on this plan since it was debuted late last year, and the option to finance a phone is really convenient. Paying $20 extra dollars per month for a MyTouch 3G (that I never use, but still a decent back up) is no problem in my book. It gives the customer the option to leave T-Mobile, but would still have to pay the remainder of the financed device. I’d expect this option to be available for the Vibrant as well when it comes to this specific plan, but the monthly payment price is not yet known. In the picture below, it states that you can pay for the device over time for as little as $16.50 a month, but since it was taken down, the price could be higher.
After being in contracts for so long, and wanting a different phone almost every other month, I started buying smartphones unlocked or at full no-contract prices. I can leave any carrier of my own accord, and I can take my phone with me (to AT&T…..). $450 for a phone is not bad, especially for a Samsung Galaxy S. And, there’s no doubt that the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant will be the best Android phone T-Mobile has ever put in their line up.
I was planning on getting this device, but now I think I’m going to wait another six months until we start seeing some Gingerbread devices hitting market. Anyone else out there thinking the same thing?
[Via: Phandroid]
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