Spend
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HelloWallet
Features
- Clean design and artistic graphics.
- Data aggregation.
- Tools and guidance to help you reduce your spending.
- Social mission: 300,000 economically disadvantaged families get free membership.
A consumer finance scholar founded this independent financial guidance site, which was recently honored by Clinton’s Global Initiative. Although it’s for-profit, it has a social mission to make financial education and information accessible to all. The $4-a-month charge helps provide free service to 300,000 economically disadvantaged families; every five paying users gives one HelloWallet membership.
The clean design of the site and the artistic graphics make it a joy to click through. The site aggregates all your financial data while also employing analytic tools to help you create individualized plans to minimize unnecessary spending and maximize results. The “Wallet Grower” feature offers suggestions on how to build your money.
HelloWallet searches through 90,000 different financial businesses to offer product recommendations. It also monitors what’s happening with the bank you’re currently using, as well as the financial products you have, to make sure you’re on top of any changes.
Beyond that, HelloWallet emphasizes saving. Not only does the site offer tools and progress-trackers for various savings goals but also gives recommendations on how you can do better.
The only HelloWallet negative is the price — considering all the free products being offered these days. But the social mission makes it much more palatable. We can all improve our financial picture together.
Xpenser
Features
- Record expenses on-the-go via email, Twitter and IM
- Tools to help you analyze your spending
- Use keywords, tags and search to organize
- Easy export to Excel
This site and accompanying application let you record spending via email, Twitter, voice, SMS, IM and Web to make sure that nothing ever gets omitted. Xpenser also offers easy exporting to such places as Excel in case that’s where you want to record and analyze your spending, or if you want to use it so submit your expense reports. The company is also constantly refining and responding to user needs — it is especially communicative through its blog — and welcomes any ideas on how to make the product better.
LifeTuner
Features
- Inviting, accessible financial planning content
- Robust use of community and social media to help younger users
- Guidance on managing your expenses
- Access to finance experts
LifeTuner is AARP.org’s financial planning site aimed at a new demographic — younger Americans. It gives users the opportunity to get advice from experts who would otherwise be out of reach. It also has a robust social community, useful content and a host of tools and resources to help users get control of their finances. LifeTuner is one of the most highly interactive of any of the personal finance sites.
About.com: Frugal Living
About.com offers experts to guide users through lots of topics. The About.com Frugal Living guide serves up everything you’d need to know about leading a frugal life, including how to make a budget.
CashCourse
This Web site, which is sponsored by the National Endowment for Financial Education, is designed to teach college students about personal finance, but the CashCourse information — particularly the worksheets — can come in handy for all users.
Charity Navigator
This is the online hub where potential givers can learn more about the financial health of more than 5,500 charities. You can find out, for instance, details about how specific charities operate on a day-to-day basis and whether they are likely to maintain programs over the long haul.
Institute of Consumer Financial Education’s "Mending Spending"
The Web site of this nonprofit, founded by the person who came up with the classification for a Certified Financial Planner, has much to offer, including a section on how to improve your spending techniques.
The New York Times’ Money Guide: Household Budgeting
The articles in this New York Times Money Guide can help you assess your daily spending, create a budget for your household and pick up new ways to save more money.
About NYSE Money Sense
A credible resource for basic financial education to help people better understand and manage their personal finances.