Is Mint a zero-based budget?
A few popular choices that are ideal for zero-based budgets include You Need a Budget (YNAB), EveryDollar, and Mint by Intuit.
Mint budgeting app tools
Mint syncs to your bank accounts, credit cards and retirement accounts to track your income, purchases and savings. The Mint budgeting app comes with a daily budget planner, which suggests budget goals based on your spending. You can adjust your goals (and/or add new ones) as you use the app.
Understanding Zero-Based Budgeting
2 These companies include Kraft Heinz Co., Mondelez International Inc., and Unilever PLC.
Zero-based budgeting is when your income minus your expenses equals zero. Perfect name, right? So, if you make $5,000 a month, everything you give, save or spend should add up to $5,000. Every dollar that comes in has a purpose, a job, a goal.
Monarch's chief executive and co-founder, Val Agostino, said that it did not make sense for Intuit to continue to invest in both Mint and Credit Karma given the significant cost of running data-aggregation and personal finance apps.
As of right now, Mint is going away at the end of March 2024. This was moved out from the end of December 2023, and this may change yet. Take advantage of these next few months to set up a new budgeting service while still being able to look back at the Mint interface you're used to and match things appropriately.
Is Mint safe to use? Mint is a personal finance app that is safe to use. The company has safety features including multi-factor authentication and security scanning tools to keep your account and personal data safe.
Dave recommends telling every dollar where it should go—before the month begins—using a zero-based budget. This means that your income minus your expenses equals zero. Remember that feeling you had when you found $20 in your old coat pocket? That's the same feeling you'll have when you create (and stick to) a budget.
Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a budgeting method that requires all expenses to be justified and approved in each new budget period, typically each year. It was developed by Peter Pyhrr in the 1970s.
Cons of Zero-Based Budgeting
Though you can implement repeatable processes with ZBB, it will most likely be more time-consuming than traditional budgeting. You're also faced with getting other departments to cooperate, and they might not be able to adequately measure their needs for the entire year.
What is an alternative to zero-based budgeting?
Budgeting method | Best for… |
---|---|
1. The zero-based budget | Tracking consistent income and expenses |
2. The pay-yourself-first budget | Prioritizing savings and debt repayment |
3. The envelope system budget | Making your spending more disciplined |
4. The 50/30/20 budget | Categorizing “needs” over “wants” |
Those will become part of your budget. The 50-30-20 rule recommends putting 50% of your money toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings. The savings category also includes money you will need to realize your future goals. Let's take a closer look at each category.
![Is Mint a zero-based budget? (2024)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-3iL8siIf-8/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEcCNAFEJQDSFXyq4qpAw4IARUAAIhCGAFwAcABBg==&rs=AOn4CLCnw8xwzduhG1zHpYZ6XPrj2z3Dog)
ZBB is a highly effective business-planning tool to help a company identify and eliminate unnecessary costs, keep control of your spending, and focus on high-profit initiatives. Budgeting, including ZBB, is the tactical implementation of a company's strategic plan.
Mint, a budgeting app acquired by Intuit in 2009, is shutting down come January 1, 2024. Mint shows users an overview of their financial well-being by displaying the current status of multiple linked accounts on one screen. Users can track spending and savings, create customized budgets and keep track of bills.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued an Opinion and Final Order that Intuit Inc., the maker of the popular TurboTax tax filing software, engaged in deceptive advertising in violation of the FTC Act and deceived consumers when it ran ads for “free” tax products and services for which many consumers were ineligible.
In fact, Rocket Money has saved users over $1 billion to date through its smart savings feature, bill negotiation and subscription cancellation. This, combined with many of the features former Mint users loved, makes Rocket Money a great alternative to help you manage your financial life.
If you move to Credit Karma, you'll be able to transfer your eligible linked financial accounts, supported transactions, and your entire net worth history. Credit Karma also has many features similar to Mint: See your linked financial accounts in one place. View your transactions.
Intuit says Mint users can transfer their accounts by logging into Credit Karma from the Mint app. From then on, Intuit says users will no longer be able to access their Mint profiles. Users can also download and delete their Mint data if they don't want to move to Credit Karma.
So far there's several things Simplifi does better than Mint, such as the ability to link bills with the transaction. The rules feature is also better as I can use key words. One thing Mint does that I hope Simplify adds is carry over my over/under spending from one month to the next in the planned spending section.
Pros of Mint | Cons of Mint |
---|---|
Ease of use | Lack of investing features |
Free to use | Intrusive ads |
Financial summaries and alerts via email or text message | Problems with account synchronization |
Free credit score courtesy of Equifax | Lack of bill pay feature |
Why is YNAB better than Mint?
Unlike Mint whose main focus is reporting, YNAB is actually designed as a budgeting tool. YNAB (pronounced “why-nab”) is more than just a budgeting tool, it's a philosophy and method for managing your money. In 2013, we set a goal to pay off our six figure law school debt.
Save 20% of your income and spend the remaining 80% on everything else. 60/40. Allocate 60% of your income for fixed expenses like your rent or mortgage and 40% for variable expenses like groceries, entertainment and travel.
But a zero-based budget doesn't mean your goal is to spend everything you earn. Ideally, your zero-based budget assigns part of your monthly income to savings goals, like building up your emergency fund and saving for retirement.
The most common way to use the 40-30-20-10 rule is to assign 40% of your income — after taxes — to necessities such as food and housing, 30% to discretionary spending, 20% to savings or paying off debt and 10% to charitable giving or meeting financial goals.
Zero-based budgeting is a method that has you allocate all of your money to expenses for needs and wants, as well as short- and long-term savings and debt payments. The goal is that your income minus your expenditures equals zero by the end of the month.
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