Mint Essentials

If you’ve added a mortgage to Mint.com, you’ll also want to add your home property value as well.

Not only is it helpful to know how much your home is worth, Mint.com integrates with Zillow to give you realtime Zestimates so you can get a real-time estimate of your property's value.

Alternatively, you can manually add your home value to Mint.com as well. Either way, adding your home value is important if you’ve added a mortgage so your Net Worth can be calculated accurately. For example, if you have a mortgage added but haven’t added your home value, your debt-to-equity ratio will be majorly skewed.

Adding A Home Property Value With Zillow

Follow these steps to add your home value to Mint.com using Zillow’s Zestimate:

Log into Mint.com

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Click on the “+ Add Accounts” link at the top of the page

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Click on the “+ Real Estate” link

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Enter your street address, apartment number (if applicable), and zip code

Mint needs this information to automatically get your home value and keep it updated - just like your bank accounts.

Click on the “Next” button for Mint to locate your address in Zillow’s database

Once your address loads, click on it to select it as your property

Enter the kind of residence your property is. Options are:

Primary residence

Investment property

Vacation home

Other

Zillow will automatically add your property’s estimated value but you can modify it if necessary

Indicate how you would like your property to appear in your Mint account

Click on the “Add It” button to add your property

 Adding A Home Property Value Without Zillow

Follow these steps to add your home value to Mint.com without using Zillow’s Zestimate:

Log into Mint.com

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Click on the “+ Add Accounts” link at the top of the page

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Click on the “+ Real Estate” link

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Click on the alternative link in the popup window to manually manage the value of your home

Enter the kind of residence your property is. Options are:

Primary residence

Investment property

Vacation home

Other

Enter your property’s estimated value but you can modify it if necessary

Indicate how you would like your property to appear in your Mint account

Click on the “Add It” button to add your property

Whatever way you chose, you’ve added your home value to Mint.com! To add another property, simply repeat the steps above.

Mint.com allows you to add your mortgage just like you add bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts. Adding a mortgage allows you to see how much you owe, what your interest rate is, and how long it will take to pay it off.

Adding A Mortgage

Follow these steps to add a mortgage to Mint.com:

Log into Mint.com

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Click on the “+ Add Accounts” link at the top of the page

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Enter the name of your mortgage institution and click on the “Search” button - you’ll get suggestions as you type to help you find exactly what you are looking for

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Alternatively,  you can click one of the options presented to you

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Once you’ve located and selected the institution with your mortgage account, type in your username and password for that account (along with any other necessary pieces of information)

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Click on the “Continue” button to have Mint.com establish a secure connection with your mortgage account, authenticate your credentials, and retrieve your information from that account.

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Nice work! You’ve added a mortgage account to Mint.com! To add another mortgage, simply repeat steps 2-7.

Investment accounts are a lot like savings accounts. You put money aside into an investment count and then watch it grow as your investments grow. Mint.com allows you to add your different investment accounts so you can track your progress and make decisions based on performance.

Adding investment accounts is just like adding bank accounts and adding credit cards to Mint.com. Again, you’ll want to have your username and password ready for each of your investments accounts before you add them to Mint.com.

Adding An Investment Account

Follow these steps to add a credit card to Mint.com:

Log into Mint.com

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Click on the “+ Add Accounts” link at the top of the page

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Enter the name of your investment institution and click on the “Search” button - you’ll get suggestions as you type to help you find exactly what you are looking for

image of search button and autofill 

Alternatively,  you can click one of the options presented to you

image of popular options

Once you’ve located and selected the institution with your investment account, type in your username and password for that account (along with any other necessary pieces of information)

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Click on the “Continue” button to have Mint.com establish a secure connection with your investment account, authenticate your credentials, and retrieve your information from that account.

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Done and done! You’ve added an investment account to Mint.com! To add more investment accounts, simply repeat steps 2-7.

Just liked we added bank accounts to Mint.com, adding credit cards follows a very similar process. If your credit card is through a bank account you’ve already added, it will show up in your accounts. However, if you have credit cards from different banks or institutions, you’ll need to add them separately to Mint.com.

Adding a credit card follows the same steps as adding a bank account. You’ll want to have your username and password ready for each of your credit card accounts before you add them to Mint.com.

Adding A Credit Card

Follow these steps to add a credit card to Mint.com:

Log into Mint.com

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Click on the “+ Add Accounts” link at the top of the page

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Enter the name of your credit card and click on the “Search” button - you’ll get suggestions as you type to help you find exactly what you are looking for

image of search button and autofill 

Alternatively,  you can click one of the options presented to you

image of popular options

Once you’ve located and selected the institution with your credit card, type in your username and password for that account (along with any other necessary pieces of information)

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Click on the “Continue” button to have Mint.com establish a secure connection with your credit card, authenticate your credentials, and retrieve your information from that account.

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And that’s that! You’ve added a credit card to Mint.com! To add more credit cards, simply repeat steps 2-7.

Once you’ve successfully signed up for a Mint.com account and logged in, the first thing you’ll want to do is add your financial accounts to your profile. We suggest starting with your bank accounts.

The easiest way to do this is to make sure you have all of your different accounts’ login information handy. Typically this is a username and password for each different bank and credit card, loan, etc. But sometimes accounts have access codes or other safety measures that you’ll have to track down if needed. Fortunately, Mint.com prompts you for all of the needed information for any account you are trying to add so you know what to look for.

Adding Your First Account

Follow these steps to add a bank account to Mint.com:

Log into Mint.com

(image of logging in)

Click on the “+ Add Accounts” link at the top of the page

(image of + add accounts link)

Enter the name of your bank and click on the “Search” button - you’ll get suggestions as you type to help you find exactly what you are looking for

image of search button and autofill 

Alternatively,  you click one of the options presented to you

image of popular options

Once you’ve located and selected the institution with your bank account, type in your username and password for that account (along with any other necessary pieces of information)

If you have more than one account at a bank, you don’t need to connect that bank account multiple times. Mint.com will automatically pull all of your account’s information from a single bank.

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Click on the “Continue” button to have Mint.com establish a secure connection with your account, authenticate your credentials, and retrieve your information from that account.

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Congratulations! You’ve added your first account to Mint.com! To add more accounts, simply repeat steps 2-7.

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Other Items To Note During the Account Set Up Process

While you were setting up your account, you may have noticed a few different links on the pop up windows. Here is what each of those links include when you click on them:

Why is linking important?

HOW THE MAGIC HAPPENS

It's totally safe and secure. Once you help us connect with your accounts we can analyze your transactions. We'll show you where your money goes, where you can save, offer budget suggestions, and keep you and your money out of trouble.

Don’t remember your credentials?

If you don’t remember your login credentials for a particular account, clicking on this link will take you to the account’s log in page. This may be helpful if your login credentials are stored on that page.

Your security is important to us

DEDICATED

We're serious about security and use measures like multi-factor authentication, designed to help you protect access to your account.

TRUSTED

Mint comes from the makers of TurboTax and Quickbooks, trusted by millions with sensitive data.

VERIFIED

When you are ready to sign up for a Mint.com account, it’s relatively easy to get started (and it’s free!).

First, open up a web browser and navigate to https://www.mint.com/.

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From the home page, click on the orange “Sign Up Free” button. This will take you to the sign up page..

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On the sign up page, this is what you’ll be asked to enter:

Your Email

Entering your email address allows you to receive alerts based on your preferences. You can receive alerts for certain fees from your accounts, when certain items clear your accounts, when a bill is due, when balances dip beyond a certain level, and much more. You can always change your email address and you can always turn off the alerts you are sent.

Confirm Email

Enter that same email address one more time, just to make sure!

Password

Mint.com asked that you enter a secure password with the following characteristics:

Uses 8 or more characters

Contains upper and lower case letters (e.g. Aa)

Contains a number (e.g. 1234)

Contains a symbol (e.g. !@#$)

This password is encrypted as you enter it and Mint.com rates it as you type it in. If you receive the "Your password is STRONG” notification in green letters than you’ve chosen a secure password.

Confirm Password

Just to make sure you correctly typed in your password, you’ll need to reenter the same password in again.

Remember Me

If you want Mint.com to remember your username when you log in next time, check this box.

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Once you’ve entered in all of the relevant information and passed the secure password test, you can click on the “Sign Up” button to sign up for your free account.

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You may have noticed that, according to the small gray text beneath the “Sign Up” button, by clicking on the “Sign Up” button you are agreeing to Mint.com’s terms of use and privacy statement. While these are similar to most of the terms of use and privacy statements for all of the different apps and websites we all use today, you may want to read through them quickly if you want to know what you are agreeing to when you create your account.

In order to really get the most accurate representation of your own personal financial situation, we recommend adding every single one of your financial accounts to your Mint.com account. If you don’t add everything, you’ll get only a partial view into your spending habits and have difficulty managing everything.

Here are the types of accounts you can add to Mint.com:

Bank Accounts

Mint.com is great in that as long as you have your login information for your bank, even if you have 3 different accounts with that bank, it will add all of them to your Mint.com profile. If you have accounts with more than one bank, now is the time to gather all of your usernames and passwords so you can add them to Mint.com.

Credit Cards

Credit cards can also be added to Mint.com. If they aren’t with your same bank as your bank accounts you’ll also need to get your username and password for each different credit card. Credit cards include bank credit cards, retail store cards, gas credit cards, and any other credit-type card. While it’s good to link every account to Mint.com, it isn’t necessary to link cards you don’t ever use anymore (even if they are active) unless you want to.

Investment Accounts

If you have investment accounts  with a broker or mutual fund through companies like Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Vanguard, etc. you’ll want to gather your username and password for these as well.

Mortgage

If you have a mortgage, you can add it to Mint.com. Mint.com also plugs into Zillow so you can compare your home value to that of your mortgage. If you haven’t set up your mortgage online, now is a good time to do it so you can have full visibility into your mortgage.

Loans

Whether they are personal, student, car, or bank loans, Mint.com can track them all. Gather all of your account info for any of your loans (unless they are with your bank accounts and then Mint.com should automatically add them).

Cash

If you carry and spend cash often, you may want to total up how much cash on hand you have so you can add it to Mint.co

Understanding Where You’ve Been Without Mint.com

When you first start using Mint.com, you’ll quickly realize that it doesn’t just track your financial information moving forward. It also provides a historical overview of your transactions for any of the accounts you connect for the last few months.

While this may scare you a bit when you realize just how much money you spent at Starbucks last week or how little you think you eat out until you see how many late night burrito runs you managed to squeeze in last month, you may also see some positive trends where you exercised discipline by putting that new pair of shoes back or returning something you didn’t really wind up needing.

Either way, Mint.com shows it all, the good and the bad so get ready to see how much you’ve spent in a variety of categories through illustrative graphs, bar charts, and more.

With just a few clicks you’ll get real-time spending comparisons over time. You can also see how your spending stacks up against others in your same area or against the entire country’s spending habits.

But spending isn’t the only type of activity that gets compared - you can get these same comparisons for your income, assets, debts, and net worth.

Figuring Out Where You Are With Mint.com

When you first log into Mint.com you’re met with a series of graphs, charts, numbers, and all sorts of information. You see your current spend levels as compared to your budgeted spend levels - that’s right, Mint.com automatically calculates budgets for you based on your historical information. Remember, though, these are suggestions and guidelines for what your actual budgets should be. You can create additional budgets with any amount you desire and remove or modify any of the existing budgets Mint.com created for you.

Don’t worry, we will teach you how to do all of those things. That’s why Mint Essentials exists!

Mint.com also provides analysis of your recent financial activity and allows you to categorize those transactions into their appropriate budgets. This is one of the most crucial aspects of Mint.com and we spend a lot of time teaching you how to create categories, how to categorize transactions, and even how often you should do both.

Deciding Where To Go With Mint.com

Mint.com is a cloud application meaning that it doesn’t actually get installed on your personal computer. PC Mag helps clarify what the cloud actually means:

"In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive. The cloud is just a metaphor for the Internet."

To further simplify, you don’t need your own computer to access your Mint.com account. You can log in on your friend's computer, your work computer, or even your tablet to access your data on Mint.com using the internet.

This is beneficial for a variety of reasons:

You don’t have to buy any software to use Mint.com

You don’t need a computer since you can access your information from any computer

Anytime Mint.com updates its features, you get immediate access and don’t have to install a new version of Mint

You don’t lose data if your computer or hard drive crashes - it’s stored through Mint.com

Safety is no longer an issue

That last bullet point is usually the sticking point for a lot of people. While we live in a cloud-centric world now, security can still be a concern for individuals.

Fortunately, Mint.com takes the security of your data seriously. Here are some statements from the Mint.com homepage related to security:

"We work to keep your information secure. All your data is encrypted with a 256-bit encryption level and the data exchanged with Mint is encrypted with 128-bit SSL."

"Mint comes from the makers of TurboTax® and Quicken®, trusted by millions every year with their most sensitive data."

Mint.com elaborates on its own security page:

"Millions trust us with the security of their information, and we take it seriously. That's why we are constantly improving our security measures. Mint is also analyzed and certified by prominent third party providers like TRUSTe, VeriSign and other trusted professionals in online security."

"We use strong security measures designed so only you can access your info. Rather than just a login and password, we also verify who you are from a second source or with information only you will have, like special security questions or a code from a text message or email."

"We safeguard Mint with your own 4-digit code so only you can view your account. If your mobile device is ever lost or stolen, you can delete all your account information remotely."

"We don’t just monitor your transactions on our own systems. If we see any large or unusual spending on one of your accounts we’ll let you know right away."

You can also access Intuit’s (the company who owns Mint.com) Online Security Center for additional peace of mind regarding security.

Mint.com was founded in 2005 due to the lack of easy-to-use personal financial management tools. Founder Aaron Patzer was frustrated with the software programs of the day and the overall inability to quickly enter receipts, balance accounts, track transactions, and manage his own finances.

To combat those issues, Patzer came up with the idea of Mint.com - streamlining personal financial management by leveraging the power of the internet. Upon go-live of Mint.com in 2007, fifty thousand users signed up for the free service in the first month. Now Mint.com boasts over ten million users who use Mint.com to manage and track their own finances.

Managing your own finances sounds good in theory but it can be a daunting task when faced with the reality of what it takes to properly be in control of your financial situation. Fortunately, Mint.com solves for this problem by providing a free service that does the leg work for you - tracking every expense, showing you what you’ve spent during the month, and reminding you when bills are due.

Mint.com can be used in a variety of ways. You can use it to quickly understand what your financial situation looks like at any time throughout the day, week, or month. You can load it up every once in a while for a brief financial pulse check. You can also have it send you reminders and notifications for certain charges or transactions.

Besides Mint.com leverages the internet to connect with over 16,000 US financial institutions to support more than 17 million individual financial accounts, it provides instant analysis of all of your accounts, transactions, charges, and banking activity.

Furthermore, due to those partnerships with so many banks, Mint.com also provides all sorts of different offers that benefit you. From banking, and savings to checking and credit card offers, Mint.com suggests many financial options for you that are in line with your spending habits and goals.

Last, Mint.com creates budgets for you based on your historical financial information it pulls from the accounts you sync with your Mint.com account.

It's important to add as many of your accounts to Mint as possible so you can have the best visibility into your financial situation. If for whatever reason, you need to delete your accounts in Mint, you do have that option. You can also hide account information if you'd prefer not to delete your accounts.

Keep in mind that deleting an account removes every sub-account and all of its associated transactions from Mint. You can reconnect this account at a later time, but Mint will only be able to provide the transactions from that account for the last 90 days.

If you want to remove a sub-account from a main account instead of deleting the account, you can hide a sub-account using the Hide feature in Settings. For a hidden account, Mint will not include them in any of the features like Trends, Budgets, or Goals. There is no way to delete an individual sub-account.

To delete an account, follow these steps:

Login to Mint.com

Click on the "Settings" link in the Navigation menu at the top the page

Locate the account you want to delete

Click on the gear icon next to that account

Click on the "DELETE" link

A popup window wil appear and you'll be prompted to type in "DELETE" in the text field

Click on the "Delete" button

To hide an account, follow these steps:

Login to Mint.com

Click on the "Settings" link in the Navigation menu at the top the page

Click on the "Hide" link

Make sure the "Hide Accounts" option is selected

Locate the account you want to hide

Select "Hide From Budgets & Trends" or "Hide From Everywhere"