Money Blue Book

After finally returning home from an extended three month overseas trip to spend time with my parents, I was greeted back home by an overweight mail box stuffed to the brim and absolutely overflowing with junk mail. Although I had authorized my mail to be temporarily redirected to my brother’s address while I was away, a very great deal of unsolicited junk mailers, expired coupon booklets, and pre-approved credit card offers still mysteriously winded up in my inbox. All in all, the entire paper pile, weighing in excess of many pounds, ultimately found its way straight into my trash can in a matter of minutes – fulfilling its pointless life cycle as not only a complete waste of my personal time, but as a fruitless consumer of precious natural resources.

Save The Environment and De-clutter Your Life By Reducing Junk Mail Trash

According to online statistics from sources such as the Center for a New American Dream (CNAD), a non profit organization based in Maryland whose stated mission is to protect the environment by helping Americans develop sustainable consumption habits – simply by eliminating the amount of junk mail you receive every day can significantly reduce the amount of energy and natural resources you consume, as well as greatly reduce the landfill space usage and carbon footprint that you leave behind. For example, according to numbers provided by CNAD, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and various sources, did you know that:

• The average American household receives unsolicited junk mail equivalent to 1.5 trees every year, which comes out to more than 100 million trees for all U.S. households combined – the equivalent of deforesting the U.S. Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.
• 5.4 million tons of bulk catalogs and other direct mailings wind up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream every year – paper products which take as much energy to manufacture as 660,000 SUV’s consume in a single year, and not even including the energy needed to print and transport them all.
• American consumers throw away 44% of bulk mail unopened, while recycling only 32% of all that bulk mail – spending the equivalent of 8 months per lifetime opening junk mail letters and packages.
• The process of manufacturing and recycling bulk paper parcels wastes more than 28 billion gallons of water every year.
• Taxpayers spend more than $370 million every year just to collect and dispose of all the paper based junk mail that doesn’t get recycled.

While I’m by no means a tree-hugging hippy, at some point the issue of junk mail just gets to become too much of a colossal waste of environmental resources, not to mention a tremendous mis-allocation of time and money that could be better spent elsewhere. It’s time for each of us to cut back on the number of postal junk mail that we receive. Together in aggregate, we can indeed make a huge positive difference in the world. Besides, reducing junk mail solicitations can also greatly help us streamline and declutter our already complicated lives. Assuring that you only receive letters that are important to you, it also helps to reduce the chances that vital pieces of mail get lost in the shuffle amongst all of those weekly circulars, bulk catalogs, and credit card envelopes cramming up your mailbox.

Protect Your Mailbox Privacy and Prevent Identity Theft By Being Pro-Active

Because the whole concept of direct marketing is such an incredibly incentivized and lucrative business proposition for the mass mailing companies, it’s nearly impossible to stop the junk mail stream completely. Everytime you sign up for a new credit card, subscribe to a magazine, purchase an item from a catalog, donate money to a charity, fill out a product warranty card, or buy a new car – you are potentially offering up your name and address to the direct marketers. Not only do these casual exchanges have the potential to lead to more junk mail down the road if you allow your personal address to be used in that way, they are also breeding cesspools for potential identity fraud and privacy violations. To stem the flow requires a multi-pronged attack that entails that you not only take pro-active actions, but also adopt preventative measures. Remember, contrary to popular belief, there is no actual legal right to automatically opt out of all junk mail, however we do have the right to be free of unwanted solicitations once we’ve properly and duly notified the junk mail spammer.

For starters, I recommend that you not waste money on programs out there that purportedly offer to help you remove your name from the junk mail offers and mailing lists, as you can easily do it yourself for free and with minimal effort. But if you wish to automate the opt out process and perpetually keep yourself off such lists, you may wish to try out junk mail prevention services like Tonic Mail Stopper (formerly called Green Dimes). However, note that even with the use of online programs that automate the process, like trying to get rid of roaches, there is just no easy way to permanently halt the unwelcome torrent of junk mail that surges into your mail box on a daily basis. The nearly unstoppable junk mail solicitations simply have an uncanny way of showing up even after you’ve seemingly snuffed them out at their source. Fortunately, there are strategies and tactful ways to combat the junk mail problem.

Steps To Fight Back and Reduce The Junk Mail That You Receive

1) Remove Your Name From the Direct Marketing Association’s Mailing List: Consumers receive the vast majority of their unsolicited junk mail from just three sources: the DMA (advertising letters, flyers, and brochures), the Abacus Catalog Alliance (retail store and online catalogs), and the major credit report bureaus (credit card applications and insurance offers). If you do nothing else, I highly recommend that you at least take the time to visit the Direct Marketing Association’s DMA Choice registration page, and get your name placed onto their do-not-mail list. DMA member merchants are required to update their mailing lists regularly and stop marketing to consumers that have opted out.

Getting onto the DMA do-no-mail list is one of the easiest things you can do to significantly reduce the junk mail that you receive. You will be able to remove your name and mailing address from the national mailing lists of a great number of direct marketing companies this way. While wiping your name and address from their roster is quick and easy, bear in mind that your online removal request is only valid for 3 years and you’ll have to re-register again after that time. There is absolutely no fee for online registration, but mail in submission requires a $1.00 check or money order processing charge.

• Register Names Of Deceased: The Direct Marketing Association also gives friends, relatives, and caregivers the ability to remove the names of deceased family members and other individuals from commercial marketing lists via the association’s Deceased Do Not Contact (DDNC) registrar (no verification fee). I haven’t tried myself, but I wonder if it’s possible for very-much alive consumers to intentionally placed themselves onto the list and pretend to have died to rid themselves of junk mail. It’s worth a shot I suppose although I haven’t really thought out the potential consequences of such a creative approach. If you’ve placed yourself onto the Deceased Do Not Contact list before, please share your results!

2) Remove Your Name From the Epsilon Abacus Cooperative Mailing List: Abacus, a division of Epsilon Data Services runs perhaps the largest database of mailing addresses out there for its members, mostly catalog and retail companies. Merchant members of the Abacus Cooperative contribute information about their customers and transactions  in exchange for information about other customers that may be interested in their products. As such, Abacus retains a pretty accurate database of consumer spending habits and personal contact information. Opting out is easy and signing up allows you to permanently halt the catalog mailers from the association’s members. Simply visit the Abacus Opt Out page and follow the appropriate instructions, or e-mail abacusoptout@epsilon.com with your full name and current address to request permanent removal.

3) Opt Out Of All Pre-Approved Credit Card Junk Mail: Visit OptOutPrescreen.com to stem the flow of pre-approved credit card solicitations clogging up your mail box. The website is the official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry homepage to accept and process requests from consumers to opt-in or opt-out of firm offers of credit or insurance. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the credit reporting companies of Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and even little known Innovis are permitted to include your name and address on marketing lists used by credit card issuers, mortgage brokers, and insurers to make offers of credit or insurance that are not necessarily initiated by you. However, they must also abide by your wish to opt out and put an end to these credit card pre-approvals if that is your wish. Simply visit the OptOutPrescreen.com website to get your name deleted from their lists for a period of 5 years or longer. If you desire permanent removal, simply select the mail-in option (I highly recommend this). To submit your request, you will need to provide your full name, mailing address, birth date, and social security number. Unfortunately, this service is not currently available for businesses or companies.

4) Opt Out Of All Flyers, Brochures, and Coupon Packs: Some people like receiving weekly flyers and monthly coupon books filled with assorted promotional offers from local stores and companies. I on the other hand hate receiving them and regard them as junk mail. These types of bulk mail bundles generally involve envelopes containing a wide array of ads and coupons for locally based stores and services such as window replacement, carpet cleaning, air duct services, car washing, restaurants, and even promotional leaflets for various acai berry scams. I have yet to find any of these coupons useful.

Most of these coupon booklets are usually generically addressed to “current resident” or “current occupant” and sent out en masse with no personalization of any sort. They also frequently contain postcards with ads, often accompanied by pictures of missing children. In almost all cases, the name, phone number, and sometimes even the website address of the company that issued the junk mailer will be printed on the bulk mail package itself or on the accompanying card that contains your mailing address. Simply call or send a letter to the company directly to have your name and address taken off the bulk mailing list. For your reference, here are several of the biggest bulk coupon book marketing companies out there:

• Valassis, aka. Red Plum Coupons: Get yourself removed from Valassis or Red Plum’s coupon book mailing list by filling out and submitting an opt out request at the Valassis Consumer Support page, or by calling 1-888-241-6760. It takes about 5-6 weeks to process.
• Val Pak Savings Coupons: You can opt out of Val-Pak’s ubiquitous blue envelope packs by visiting the Cox Target Media mailing list removal request page. Be sure to input your address information exactly as it is printed on your ValPak envelope to ensure proper removal.

5) Ask Magazines and Charities Not To Sell Your Name Or Address: Tell magazines that you subscribe to and charities that you donate to the magic words – that you don’t want them to “sell, rent, share, or trade your name and address” with other businesses or charity organizations. 

6) Remove Yourself From Sweepstakes and Prize Drawings: The chances of ever winning are incredibly slim and not worth the hassle of having to deal with future junk mail solicitations. Besides, the main purpose of these contests and reward promotions is for companies to compile mailing lists of prospective customers, not to award prizes. Always avoid participating in any such offers unless you have the option, based on contest rules, to completely opt out of being placed on a mailing list. To get yourself removed from the major sweepstakes and prevent your address from being passed on to other companies for the purpose of receiving future marketing offers, contact the following:

• Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes: Call: 1-800-645-9242 or e-mail privacychoices@pchmail.com
• Readers Digest Sweepstakes: Call 1-800-310-6261 or send a letter request to Reader’s Digest customer service at: Reader’s Digest, PO Box 50005, Prescott, AZ 86301-5005

7) Avoid Filling Out Product Warranty Or Buyer Registration Cards: Contrary to popular belief, those product warranty registration cards that come with the products you buy have less to do with warranty coverage than they have to do with allowing the company to update their mailing lists. A product warranty is effective the moment you purchase the product and is almost always valid whether or not you return the product warranty card (as long as you have a proper receipt). You may have noticed that many of these registration cards frequently ask for lifestyle and personal interest hobby type information, along with details about your household makeup, your income bracket, and other seemingly irrelevant data. This is to allow the company to better categorize you into the proper demographic list for future marketing solicitations, and has little to do with the underlying warranty.

8) Refuse To Accept Junk Mail By Returning To Sender: Here’s a tip to combat against other unsolicited junk mail offers not covered by the items listed above. When junk letters arrive in envelopes that specifically indicate “change service requested” or “address service requested”, it means that you can refuse to receive the letter and have it returned to the sender on demand. Simply write “Refused – Return To Sender” or “Return To Sender – Refused By Addressee” on the envelope and drop it unopened back into the outgoing mailbox to have it sent back to the sender. In most cases, this will cause the sender to remove the address from its bulk mailing list. Additionally for such letters or bulk mailers where there is indication on the face that return postage is guaranteed, you may also wish to write “Remove me from your mailing list immediately” on the face of the envelope to punctuate your point. Remember, all such returned letters to the sender must be unopened so be certain of the nature of the contents before rejecting them.

9) Beware Of The U.S. Postal Service’s Change of Address Cards: One of the biggest and sneakiest secret of all – is that the United States Postal Service is perhaps one of the biggest exploiters of your mailing information out there. The Post Office generates a very large amount of income from selling the mail forwarding database that it regularly updates. Every time you move and fill out one of those permanent change of address cards or mail forwarding forms at the Post Office, your new mailing address information is almost always immediately offered to prospective direct mail marketers for a price. I’ve tried contacting the post office to compel them to stop giving out my new addresses to companies – but it’s been a pretty futile gesture on my part.

One way to get around this is to submit a temporary change of address for a long period of time such as 6 months. Your new address information is not passed along to businesses for temporary moves, only permanent ones. If you are willing to manually contact all of the legitimate companies that you do business with or have accounts with to advise them of your new permanent address change, this is one way to prevent the Post Office from updating the junk mail marketers of your new location. Of course, make sure all of your friends, relatives, and bill collectors know of your new address.

For consumers who wish to forcibly stop the flood of sexually explicit mail to their residence, one way is to submit a USPS Form 1500 (Prohibitory Order Application), which notifies the senders to cease and desist their mailers to you. I have yet to hear of anyone using this powerful tool to stop an overly aggressive (but non-sexually based) bulk mailing company’s marketing attempts, but it certainly is another potential way to discourage junk mail companies from cluttering up your mailbox.

10) Opt For Electronic Statements, and Stop Receiving Paper Bills: It’s time for everyone to join the modern era and put an end to paper statements by banking online and accessing their monthly bills and statements via the Internet. Not only do paper statements generate an inordinate amount of trash and clutter, these paper based bills are yet another opportunity for businesses to send you more junk through the mail. Contact your banks, credit card issuers, insurance companies, and utility providers – and sign up for automatic debit payments and electronic billing as soon as possible. Along with the reduction in clutter and paper usage, you’ll also save a lot of money on stamps by going paperless.

Review Of Free Online Programs To Help You Budget And Track Spending

Unless you are a billionaire like Warren Buffett with an endless supply of cash to draw upon, chances are you’re operating under a monthly budget like the rest of us are. In most cases, the best way to keep your finances in order and save money for the long haul is to devise a sensible budget, track your monthly spending habits, and stick to your laid out plans without frequent deviations. The problem with offering suggestions about setting personal spending budgets is that there usually isn’t one way that works best for everyone. It’s a highly personal and customized affair due to the great differences in how we all each handle tasks and micro manage events in our lives.

I personally use a variety of online based financial tools to help me chart out my monthly net worth reports and personal balance sheets. They help to encourage me to make better financial decisions for myself and to continuously plan for the future. As a strong advocate of using streamlined software based tools that automate and aggregate one’s finances, I particularly recommend using programs like Quicken Online and Yodlee. Both budgeting programs are free and offer great convenience – automatically pulling income and expense data from your bank and credit card accounts into a single viewable source without requiring you to manually compile the data by hand.

But at the same time, I understand that there are lots of people out there who prefer to lay out their budgets and plans the old fashioned way. Those who shun online automation and prefer to do their budgeting by hand may want to try out some of the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet based budgeting tools below. Many have found that by having to manually enter transactions into their checkbooks and budget programs every week, that they tend to more careful in monitoring their spending habits. To credit financial guru Dave Ramsey’s spoken philosophy involving cash versus credit card spending, it simply hurts more when you have to write out your expenses by hand as opposed to having the spending transactions automatically populated into a computer program. For some people, this forces them to think long and harder about certain spending choices during the budget building process.

Test Try Each Free Budget Software Out To Find The Best Personal Fit

Over the years, I’ve attempted to come up with the best way to budget, but I don’t think there is any single one tool or popular method that works for everyone completely. But while I realize that everyone has their own unique way of doing things, I’ve decided to provide a list below of some of the best free online budgeting tools (in my opinion) to help get you started. All of the software tools listed below are available off the Internet free of cost (or available for a free test trial) to help just about anyone set up a working budget for his or her home, or small business. I recommend tinkering with each one for a few minutes to get some ideas on on how you can make it your own. Many of the account aggregation and online budgeting programs reviewed are customizable to your individual needs and I’m confident you’ll find something that works for you.

As the whole notion behind budgeting and smart financial planning is to cut costs and save money, it seems sort of counter-intuitive to go out and spend a lot of money on expensive accounting or budgeting software. While premium software packages like Microsoft Money, Quicken, and QuickBooks are highly recommended accounting and budgeting solutions for those who can afford them, there are plenty of free alternatives available for those with modest budgeting needs. Those with simpler needs can easily establish monthly and yearly budgets for their business or home by turning to free budget software programs online to chart their finances and track their net worth changes. At the very least, utilizing budgeting software tools may help to encourage you to take a more pro-active approach to personal financial planning.

In terms of the ones I’ve selected as recommended programs, just so you are aware, I’m highly partial to online software tools that are not only great for budgeting purposes, but are also cleanly designed and pretty on the eye in terms of graphics and website layout. Feel free to provide some suggestions and recommendations of your own!

List Of Popular Free Online Budgeting Software Programs and Excel Spreadsheet Templates (Not ranked in any particular order)

1) Quicken Online (Free) – I absolutely love Quicken products as they always seem to nicely meld form with function. Quicken Online in particular is a free, web based budgeting tool run by popular software maker Intuit that helps users chart their net worth progress and spending habits. With Quicken Online, users get access to a one stop source for all of their account aggregation needs. By having their bank account balances and credit card transactions automatically pulled into the Quicken online system, users can chart their financial progression over time and plan out monthly budgets with the aid of Quicken-fied charts and graphs.

2) Mvelopes Personal (Free Trial) – Taking financial guru Dave Ramsey’s cash envelope system to heart, the Mvelopes system provides users an online envelope budget management solution. By dividing your income into online envelope spending accounts for expenses like groceries, entertainment, and bills, you can budget for the future by setting money aside in advance and increase the money you save. The Mvelopes Personal tool is not free, but they do offer a free trial offer to give you a chance to kick the tires a bit before driving it off the lot.

3) YNAB – You Need A Budget (Free Trial) – YNAB, aka the You Need A Budget spreadsheet program, is a popular budgeting tool for those struggling to get out of debt and attain financial peace. The downloadable YNAB spreadsheet software offer is not free, but does offer a 60 days free refundable deal if you decide to return after the test trial. Aside from getting a host of powerful budgeting tools, you’ll also get additional bonus spreadsheets to help you get acquainted with using a debt snowball, a mortgage analyzer, and even a handy car maintenance scheduler.

4) Yodlee MoneyCenter (Free) - Yodlee offers the best account aggregation technology available in the market today. With its well honed account consolidator service, users are able to automatically sort their account transactions into specific categories to meet their budget planning needs. Currently the company has major partnerships with numerous corporate banks, brokerages, and credit institutions like Fidelity, HSBC, Mint, Scottrade, and Capital One. This one is a must have and must use. Highly recommended.

5) Pear Budget (Free) – Calling itself easier to use than Quicken or Microsoft Money, Pear Budget’s a popular and highly touted intuitive budgeting and expense tracking tool (with over 100,000 claimed downloads). Pear Budget’s original free program is still available for download in Excel spreadsheet format, but those desiring a more “pretty-fied” version may want to try out the new web-based version, which offers a free introductory 30 day trial period but then costs $3 a month (still very affordable however).

6) SimpleD Budget (Free) – SimpleD is a simple, open source budgeting software designed for personal household financial management. The free downloadable program allows users to plan out personal budgets and track expenses by allocating income into specific spending categories. The application is quite customizable and allows for the use of multiple currencies and language types.

7) AceMoney Lite (Free) - This is the freeware version of a more premium personal finance manager. It’s equipped with all of the fancier features of its bigger sibling except multiple accounts management. AceMoney Lite supports all of the basic features needed to help any beginner to personal finance get started with financial budgeting, expense accounting, and investment tracking. AceMoney Lite even offers a special eBay feature to help small businesses manage their eBay auction transactions.

8) Mint (Free) – Mint is a very popular and rapidly growing online money management tool. This minty fresh online service uses well-established Yodlee account consolidation technology to power its account aggregation feature, but pairs it with a variety of free online budgeting tools. If you’re looking for a very beautiful online interface with easy to understand charts and graphics for your budget planning needs, Mint should be one of your top picks. However, as the service runs off of affiliate advertising income, be prepared to receive a fair share of product pitches on occasion.

9) Buxfer (Free) – Offering a beautiful online budgeting interface, Buxfer’s an online personal finance software you should take a look at. Buxfer offers the usual account aggregation functions and free budgeting tools for users, but even throws in useful features like group shared expense tracking for friends or roommates that share bills. The basic version is free but you’ll need to upgrade your membership to get unlimited account access to other more enhanced features. But even then, we’re only talking about $1 to $3 a month for the extra budgeting perks.

10) BudgetTracker (Free) – The free limited version of Budget Tracker allows for basic budget tracking, bill payment, and transaction recordation tied to calendar dates. However, more enhanced account data import and export functions and stock chart access does require the user to upgrade to a paid $2.95 per month subscription version. Still, it’s a fairly cheap, and feature-rich way to budget.

11) BudgetPulse (Free) – Developed with simplicity in mind, BudgetPulse touts its user friendliness and comprehensiveness in providing budgeting value for its customers. Best of all, the web based budget tracking software is indeed free. The company is also uniquely fanatical about privacy and user data security (big pluses), indicating on its website that for security reasons, the company has no  intention of ever linking directly to user banking accounts or credit cards.

12) My Spending Plan (Free) – MySpendingPlan’s currently a free online budgeting software for users who need help managing their budgets and reaching their financial savings goals. The online site can be used to plan out entire household budgets or just for specific tasks like weddings or home improvement projects. The free tool allows you to create shopping lists, set up bill payment dates, and create savings goals. The site even offers an interesting predictive Auto-Assign Budget technology to help recommend ongoing budgets based on past and present spending habits, matching them with your income limits.

13) Expensr (Free) - Acquired by MoneyStrands not too long ago, Expensr is currently a free online personal finance application, still operating in beta mode it seems. Resembling somewhat of a Quicken and Microsoft Money lite of sorts, it looks to be a fairly basic but useful tool for those with simple finances and budgeting needs. The service is free so worth at least a quick peak.

14) Money Trackin’ (Free) – Yes the domain name’s missing a letter “g” at the end, but that’s to make it sound hip I guess. Money Trackin’s a free online webapp that allows you to track all of your expenses and income sources automatically, thus allowing you to have a clear view of your financial situation at all times. Along with the usual household budgeting tools, the free site also offers functions to help track shared expenses and provides accounting tools for small business needs.

15) Buddi (Free) – On its website, the developers of Buddi references the program as a personal finance and budgeting program aimed at those who have little to no financial background – perfect for beginners. Simplicity with basic functionality’s the name of the game here. While offering nothing too fancy, it does offer the essentials of budgeting, account tracking, and financial progress report generation. As an open source budgeting software tool, Buddi will run on any machine with Java installed. The software is indeed absolutely free but does welcome donations and contributions from happy customers.

16) GnuCash (Free) – Compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, GnuCash is a deceptively complete personal finance tool for ordinary consumers and small businesses alike. This freely available budgeting and accounting tool offers users a very powerful and flexible software-based platform to track bank accounts, stocks, income sources, and expenses. GnuCash is indeed free to use and offers much of the same professional accounting features you would expect from premium paid personal finance packages – such as balanced double entry notations and accurate financial reports. The free budgeting software program’s regularly updated and maintained so the program’s bound to continuously improve over time.

17) PLCash (Free) – Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of home made budgeting tools, but PLCash is a very well put together budgeting program. Plus it’s also completely free and routinely updated and maintained. PLCash offers the basics of what you would need in any budget tracking tool – the ability to manage multiple accounts, juggle balances, allow for the importing and exporting of financial data to other programs like Quicken, with even extra bonus features like the ability to print checks in a variety of ways. As a Java based program, this free budget software tool is compatible with almost all computer operating systems.

18) Microsoft Office Accounting 2009 (Free Trial) – This free software download is provided courtesy of Microsoft, so we can expect a pretty well put together budgeting software program. This rather extensive small business accounting package may be a bit much for ordinary household consumers looking for a free/cheap budgeting software tool, but the free 60 day trial offer is worth a test run at the very least. Keep in mind though, it’s not cheap.

19) Microsoft Office Online (Windows) – Excel Budget Templates (Free) – If you prefer to run your personal budget projections by hand and track your expense estimations and actuals manually, Microsoft provides a wealth of freely available Excel spreadsheets and Word based tables for your budget downloading pleasure. Many of the freely available templates are compatible for running complete household budgets and even for specific budget plans for special events like weddings. Did I mention that they’re all free?

20) Microsoft Office Mactopia (Mac) Budget Templates (Free) – For the Apple Mac fans out there, there are also free Excel spreadsheet budget templates for you as well, however your pickings via the Mactopia site are significantly slimmer compared to the wider variety available to Windows users. Thus it’s time to ditch the Apple and switch to the PC. Just kidding.

Search Online For More Free Budgeting Software Options To Download

Visit Download.com and SourceForge.net for even more assorted free downloadable home and small business budgeting tools. In particular, I recommend checking out the ones that have garnered the most positive approval from users and editors – usually denoted with exceptionally high review rankings and star ratings.

Quicken 2009 Discount Coupons and Promo Codes Listed Below

The editors at CNN Money recently examined and reviewed several of the top online personal finance tools – and ultimately decided to award its highest honors to four winners – Mint, Yodlee MoneyCenter, Wesabe, and Quicken Online. In the editorial review, all four personal financial management websites were highly regarded and praised for their innovative money management features that offered Internet consumers an introductory and accessible way to manage their saving, spending, and retirement portfolio online, all for free.

However, of the four highly regarded and mentioned personal finance sites, Quicken Online perhaps has the most impressive historical lineage, having been created and spun off as an online web app by Intuit, the same financial software maker that brought us the popular desktop money management tool Quicken, and ubiquitous tax preparation program Turbo Tax. While Quicken Online has been around for some time, it wasn’t until recently that the financial tool was finally available online for free (previously, Quicken Online cost $2.99 per month after the end of the initial free trial period). While Intuit’s bread and butter has historically been its comprehensive suite of Quicken desktop programs, it’s clear the era of Internet based financial web tools is at hand. With the slow demise of print media as well as the end of newspapers, it seems the former stalwart money management tool has been forced to go online to match the emergence of new free competing tools. With the emergence of competing companies offering similar web-based money management tools for free, it’s no wonder Quicken Online appears to be signaling a shift away from the paid desktop software model, and towards an ad-driven or subscription based online service.

Why Use Quicken Online’s Free Service? Simple – Proven Brand Name And Guarantee Of Future Support and Upgrades

Perhaps one of the top reasons to go with Quicken Online for your money management needs is because of the Quicken brand name and the future anticipated cross compatibility with other Quicken products as well as with other Intuit programs like Turbo Tax. While Quicken Online’s current plug and play compatibility with the entire software lineup of Intuit is still rudimentary, it stands to reason that as time goes by, it is a positive feature that will most definitely be offered sometime in the near future.

As interoperability rapidly advances at the speed of the Net, I eagerly anticipate the day I will be able to automatically populate my Intuit Quicken Online account with detailed tax data and deduction information from my Intuit Turbo Tax online account to better assist me with improving my all around financial planning. In fact, while complete cross compatibility among the desktop versions of Quicken and the web based Quicken Online is still being developed, shortcut features are already available for Intuit’s online customers via password interoperability. Currently, if you are a Turbo Tax or any other online Intuit product customer, you can bypass the usual Quicken Online sign up process by logging in with your existing TurboTax ID and password for immediate access. The benefit of using Intuit’s online products is the convenient ability to access all its services with just one account identity. Certainly when it comes to having to create new passwords and login names, the fewer the better.

In the area of troubleshooting and web assistance, Quicken Online’s customer support has received high marks and lofty commendations by online commentators such as CNN Money for providing “solid customer support” to its users. As a proven brand leader in the world of personal financial products, the Quicken brand offers consumers such as myself a proven degree of quality, account security, customer service reliability, and reasonable expectation of continued technical support. These days, many new online upstarts seem to come and go, going bust as quickly as they jumped onto the scene, leaving existing customers hanging with a tool that will no longer enjoy future development support. However, it’s almost a given that established and historically entrenched companies like Quicken are inevitably going to stay around for the long haul, transitioning their existing and established products onto the new medium (the Internet) rather than have to develop a new unproven product from the ground up.

Quicken Online Can Aggregate and Track All Of Your Bank, Credit Card, and Stock Broker Accounts From One Location

Quicken Online’s primary feature is to allow you to track your various online financial accounts without having to manually log into each one to check your balances or transactions. As someone who has probably well over 50 bank checking accounts, high yield savings accounts, credit cards, and multiple online discount brokers, having to go around logging into each account one by one can be quite a nightmarish and arduous task. With a money management and account aggregation tool like Quicken Online, you can track your bank accounts, credit cards, investments, PayPal logins, student loans, and mortgage loans from one place. After inputting all of your various account login and password information into Quicken Online’s secure and 128-bit encrypted system, the website will automatically pull and scrape the desired financial data from all of your accounts into one easy to view webpage for you to analyze with the benefit of fancy charts and graphs for budgeting and planning purposes. The data is refreshed and re-pulled every night, providing Quicken customers a continuously updated way to calculate net worth and track their financial progress.

Track and Chart Your Bank and Credit Card Transactions To Help You Budget

By pulling and consolidating all of your spending data from your bank checking and credit card accounts, Quicken Online can help you chart your ongoing expenditures and assist you in managing your money better. Quicken Online allows you to view your account invoices, transaction details, and account balances from one online source with the functionality to create charts and graphs that quickly analyze your spending and basic investing habits. On its main account page, Quicken Online calculates your cash flow and tracks whether you are living within your means on its aptly named webpage – Am I Living Within My Means? Users can also set monthly target budgets using the My Budget tab for categories they want to track and improve on.

While the system takes a little bit of additional manual tweaking to get it perfect, once the Quicken Online system has pulled all relevant financial data from your numerous accounts, it automatically sorts your various expenditures into purchase and expense categories such as groceries, dining, or utilities – complete with computer generated pie charts and graphs for visual inspection and analysis. While the Quicken Online automatic category sorting tool is compatible with over 5,000 financial institutions from banks, brokerages, to credit card issuers, it also offers you the ability to create your own custom tags, and the ability to add or rename your own categories as you see fit. Along with the category customization features, Quicken Online also takes a page from Terminator’s Skynet computer (without the whole evil aspect) as it learns and adapts to the category corrections and edits that you make as well as those made by other fellow online users. The automatic learning system is touted by Quicken Online as one that improves with experience and enhances with use over time.

For the personal finance novice or beginner, the entire concept of account aggregation may seem intimidating, but Quicken Online truly simplifies and automates the process for newbies and experts alike. In fact, Quicken Online was probably designed with personal finance beginners in mind as most of the sophisticated and more complex features found in the desktop software are not available in the free online version. While the desktop versions of Quicken are much more comprehensive and effective as all-in-one inclusive money management and investment programs, Quicken Online’s more of an entry-level account aggregation tool designed to help people manage their basic bills and live within their means via daily account snapshots without having to be too versed in personal finance lingo.

Useful Quicken Online Mobile Features, Bill Reminders, and Payment Alerts

As a one-stop account aggregation tool, Quicken Online also provides its users the ability set up online email reminders and wireless telephone text message alerts for billing due dates and other financial reminders. Those who are always on the go and addicted to the crack berries (Blackberry or hand held personal data phone devices) will greatly benefit from the free Quicken Beam service, which allows users to view their Quicken Online account information on their wireless cellphones, Apple iPhones, or other PDA devices. Simply access your Quicken Online account summary on your smartphone or handheld device by visiting – m.quicken.com or texting BAL to 636363 to instantly view your combined online balances and transactions.

Differences Between Free Quicken Online (Basic) Vs. Paid Desktop Quicken (More Features)

While Quicken Online is a great foray into the online personal money management realm by software maker Intuit, it’s currently lacking most of the more comprehensive accounting, investing, and tax planning tools that the desktop versions of Quicken provide. As it currently stands, free Quicken Online’s more for mainstream run-of-the-mill consumers who want a basic budgeting and account snapshot gadget with little need for more complex financial planning tools. Quicken Online’s best suited for your average paycheck to paycheck consumer who wants to learn how to improve his or her finances without having to dive too deeply into financial geek speak.

Intuit’s lineup of paid Quicken programs for desktop users on the other hand is well suited for those who desire the complex financial tools needed to help budget their expenditures and track their investments with actual tax planning analysis. Those running their own small businesses from home or those wanting to handle more complex accounting tasks like rental property income tracking will definitely find the paid desktop versions of Quicken to be much more substantive and appropriate for their needs than the user friendly but feature-lacking Quicken Online version. As Quicken Online does not support detailed investment tracking nor does it currently export financial data to Quicken desktop versions or integrate with TurboTax, users accustomed to the comprehensiveness of Quicken desktop may find Quicken Online to be somewhat insufficient to meet their growing needs. Of course, as Quicken Online continues to compete with Mint, Wesabe, and Yodlee, and as mainstream customers become more and more comfortable with online banking and used to the idea of sharing confidential financial information over the Internet, it’s inevitable that the premium Quicken features will be added to the online version sometime in the future, perhaps in paid subscription form.

For small business owners and those with a significant number of investments, Quicken Online is not a complete personal finance solution at the present time – at least not yet. Currently it doesn’t offer any sort of substantive investment tracking, and its reporting functions are much more limited and rudimentary than what existing Quicken Deluxe or Quicken Premier users may be accustomed to. While it remains what the future holds for the comprehensive Quicken desktop programs, at the present time the paid desktop Quicken programs currently provide the best fit for consumers desiring the most out of their financial planning tools and the best value for small business owners who want a complete business accounting platform.

Quicken 2009 Desktop Promotional Coupon Codes For $20 Off Savings

While compared to the previous Quicken 2008 version, there are few substantive changes, Quicken 2009 has slightly re-tooled its program navigational features, improved its bill payment reminders, and improved some of its help functions.

As always, the Quicken desktop version comes in different packages with the free Quicken Online version being the most basic and bare bones. The Quicken 2009 Deluxe version provides excellent financial tracking features with goal setting, investment tracking, and Turbo Tax data sharing. The 2009 Quicken Premier version is very popular and provides all of the features of Quicken Deluxe but with many more tools and charting features for analyzing your investments in greater detail. The Quicken Home Business and Quicken Rental Property Manager programs obviously appeal more to those engaged in those types of enterprises.

Those that want to buy or upgrade to Quicken 2009 desktop at the follow promotional rates may wish to consider using the following limited time Quicken coupon codes:

• Quicken Deluxe 2009 ($59.99 $39.99)
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• Quicken Rental Property Manager ($149.99 $129.99)
• Quicken Mac ($49.99 $33.99)
• Quicken Medical Expense Manager ($69.99 $44.79)
• Quicken Online (FREE)

Recently, I made the decision to start tracking my personal net worth and financial status in a very public and revealing way – by posting my financial numbers online for all to see. The point of doing this was not to boast, demonstrate some fanciful financial bravado, or unnecessarily parade my personal finance publicly to satisfy the whims of voyeuristic readers. In actuality, the objective was to have a way to show people the importance of proper statistical tracking when it comes to smart financial planning. The purpose of calculating and tracking your personal financial net worth on a regular basis is not just so you can match yourself against others to see how you’re doing in comparison, but it’s also to help you evaluate the current health of your finances. Like using a gauge to take your blood pressure reading or running blood tests to get a nutritional analysis, the point of net worth tracking is to use snapshots of your financial condition to help you make better decisions in furtherance of your personal financial goals.

I don’t think it’s an over-emphasis to stress that proper money management is a very critical component of responsible living. Other than how you handle your family, friends, personal relationships, or perhaps religious views, how you manage your money probably has the greatest effect on the quality of your daily life. The abundance or the lack thereof of money can determine whether you live an existence of paycheck to paycheck living or determine whether you are able to live a life of complete financial freedom. It can also determine the type of home you can afford and the type of neighborhoods you can afford to move into. With its powerful trickle down effects, the way you handle your money also has far reaching influence on family relationships as well, affecting how your children are raised and possibly even determining their futures. Knowing how to calculate your current financial net worth and knowing how to track it on a regular basis will help you make better saving and investment decisions for yourself and your family. At the very least, it will force you to actively interact and stay abreast of your financial affairs, and stay knowledgeable and motivated about where you are on the road of life.

Calculate Your Personal Net Worth On A Periodic, But Continuous Basis

Your financial net worth is basically a snapshot of your current financial health at a moment in time expressed by a dollar denominated amount. In the world of personal finance, your personal net worth is akin to what corporations and accountants refer to as the balance sheet. Contrast that with something like a cash flow statement, neither your financial net worth statement nor your personal balance sheet contain numerical data like your salary or how much money you are spending on grocery expenses every month. However, such information is indirectly represented by changes in the net worth figures.

Net worth is simply the numerical figure you get when you take all of your assets, and minus all of your liabilities. Assets can be defined as everything you own that has value and can be expressed in terms of price or current market value. Liabilities can be defined as everything that you owe, including debt and payment obligations to another.

To calculate your net worth and determine the status of your current financial condition, you’ll need to add up all of your debt and liabilities into a single numerical number, and then subtract that from the total combined value of all the assets and financial accounts you possess.

1) Assets (Add Up All Of Your Cash Savings, Investments, and Fixed Assets) – The asset category is made up of the total amount you have in your bank accounts like checking and savings, the fund balances stored in your investment brokerage accounts, and the total value of your fixed assets which encompasses the fair market value of properties like real estate and vehicles. In general, your assets are made up of all your personal possessions and financial accounts that can be converted into monetary form in the event of a total liquidation sell off. It’s the total amount of money you could get if you pulled all of your money out of savings and sold off everything including your house and real estate properties for cash. To help you add them up, here is a basic breakdown guide:

• Step 1: Add up the value of your liquid assets (cash and bank accounts). Liquid current assets include cash, bank account deposits, checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, Treasury Bills or T-Bills, and also the cash value of certain life insurance plans. These types of assets generally have the same value as cash as they are readily usable as cash or can be readily converted into usable cash form in a very short period of time. For example, the funds you have saved up in your online savings bank or stashed in your high interest savings account are both considered liquid assets as they are easily converted into usable cash form with a quick trip to the bank or ATM. Also, certain life insurance plans such as whole life and universal life insurance policies are regarded as liquid assets as well due to their convertible cash value, unlike term life insurance policies which have no cash value. Remember, we’re talking about the cash value of your life insurance policy, not the amount that would be paid out if you were to collect on the policy.
• Step 2: Add up the value of your investment assets (stocks and bonds). Investment assets tend to be less convertible into cash upon demand but nevertheless still make up your total asset count as they can be converted into cash within a reasonable period of time. Investment assets include certificate of deposits (CDs), stocks and bonds, mutual funds, and retirement accounts (401K, IRA, Roth IRA).
• Step 3: Add up the value of your fixed assets and personal possessions (real estate and vehicle). Fixed assets include the fair market value of the houses, condominium properties, and vehicles that you own. They also cover the market value of any other significant possessions including valuable artwork, expensive jewelry, or priceless household furniture. The actual decision of incorporating fixed assets into one’s financial net worth calculation is somewhat controversial as opponents argue that such assets are not appraised consistently and are not easily sold upon demand. Detractors to using the fair market value of real estate for example argue that incorporating home values frequently offer up an unrealistic and skewed valuation of true net worth. Particularly during a major real estate slump, homes are not always easily marketable and sold. Supporters obviously argue that incorporating home values into net worth calculations is important because home equity (the difference between the current market value of your home and the current balance of your mortgage) indeed has value as it can be converted into cash upon an earnest home sale and borrowed against during a time of need. For many, the fair market value of their primary residence comprises the bulk of their positive net worth and thus it would seem incomplete to not incorporate it into net worth calculation somehow. While I personally only add real estate and vehicle value into my calculation of net worth, disregarding the market values of other personal possessions like clothing and home electronics, I think the key is just to be consistent in what you include and what you leave out. It’s also particularly important to be very realistic when assessing fair market value, especially when it comes to home pricing. It’s probably best to under-estimate than to over-estimate the value of such fixed assets. You definitely do not want to give yourself the inaccurate illusion of being house rich with no other significant liquid assets to speak of. You’d only be fooling yourself.

2) Liabilities (Add Up All Of Your Personal Liabilities and Debt). Liabilities include any money that you owe from loans, or debt obligations you may have including credit card balances, car loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, lease obligations, student loans, personal debt obligations, and court mandated alimony or child support payments. Liabilities, whether current short term debt obligations like credit card debt, or long term liabilities like home mortgages and auto loans, must be added up and subtracted from the total asset number to come up with the complete net worth figure.

After you have added up the value of your total assets, take that number and subtract away the total value of all your liabilities to come up with your calculated total net worth. This will be the current snapshot status of your financial net worth number at this point in time. Whether you incorporate certain assets and liabilities into the calculation or leave certain factors out like personal possessions is not important. How you go about the details of tracking your financial networth is up to you – just be consistent from month to month. The ability to track your financial progress in a uniform way on a periodic basis is the most important factor.

Track Your Net Worth Using Online Account Aggregation Tools and Net Worth Calculators

For those not certain on how to go about tracking their financial net worth from month to month, I recommend using an online tool like NetworthIQ. While NetworthIQ’s progress charts are quite ugly (for the lack of a better word), the site’s a pretty popular choice among personal finance bloggers and those who want a simple networth tracking tool that is easy and a no-brainer to use. Just go create a NetworthIQ account and start posting monthly net worth asset and liability updates to get started. To keep actual tabs on the many bank, credit, and investment accounts you have in your financial portfolio, I suggest using an online tool like Yodlee. Yodlee is an online account aggregator service that powers the online account consolidation tools of popular financial institutions like Fidelity Investments (Full View), Bank of America (My Portfolio), and HSBC (Easy View). I personally use Yodlee powered tools through my brokerage at Fidelity and my bank account at Bank of America to help me track all of my account balances from one easy to view location.

Despite the disagreements on what ought to be and what ought not to be included into the calculation of net worth, don’t let that discourage you from attempting to track your own financial progress using your own preferred method. Questions such as whether married couples should keep their finances separate or combined for net worth calculation, and controversial issues arising from the inclusion of home equity or the value of one’s small business (like a blog business) into net worth calculation should not dissuade you from learning to track your personal financial progression. While I personally would include the total joint account balances for married couples into net worth, and personally would not include the market valuation of my home business into net worth calculation, to each his own. The key is just to be consistent so you can evaluate and chart your own personal financial growth from month to month. The goal is to give yourself the confidence and motivation to make the right changes and course corrections in your financial walk to help you achieve your long term financial goals.

Compare Your Net Worth To Others In Similar Situations

Net worth valuations may also vary greatly depending on the make up of one’s assets and liabilities. In general, assets comprised solely of liquid accounts and investments such as cash, bank account funds, and stock market investments tend to paint a more standardized and accurate picture of financial net worth. It’s when you get into vehicle and real estate valuations that the calculation of net worth gets a bit personalized and inconsistent for comparison purposes. Home valuation in particular is a tricky art and is not always entirely accurate and is highly dependent on who’s doing the appraising and the standard being used. Furthermore, just because a home is appraised at a certain price does not necessarily mean it can be sold at that high price. In a tough housing market, home buyers frequently demand closing prices well below supposed fair market value. Keep that in mind as you compare your own financial net worth with that of others. Remember that net worth calculations and standards are not always uniformly applied from person to person, and that net worth is highly relative. For example, a net worth of $100,000 for someone living in an expensive area like northern California or downtown New York City may not be as big of a deal as it would be for someone living in a cheaper state like Nebraska or West Virginia.

Other than using Net Worth IQ to track your financial net worth progression, you might also be interested in using the tool to run searches for the publicly available net worth profiles of others. For the sneaky voyeur in all of us, it’s an interesting way to view the financial health of those in similarly situated categories like age, income, occupation, education, country, and state. If you are dying to know – here’s my own publicly available Networth Profile.

Another good net worth comparison source is CNN’s Millionaires In The Making site where CNN regularly profiles singles and couples, documenting their individual stories to become a millionaire. The Millionaires In The Making site not only provides lots of great anecdotal financial planning tips, but it also provides the actual net worth breakdowns of all the individuals and families profiled. You might also want to try out CNN Money’s Net Worth Calculator tool, which ranks you according to how you stack up based on age and income. I’m not sure how accurate the tool really is and suspect the methodology is a bit off. However, it’s still an interesting comparison tool at your disposal. Just use it with a grain of salt.