When I started Lazy Man and Money, I didn’t think I’d ever have more than 15 people a day come to the site. Surprising I’m 30 times more successful than I thought I would be. However, there’s a hidden benefit that I never dreamed of. It has opened doors for me professionally. This is especially amazing to me because with the exception of a few people out there I’m anonymous.
Yesterday, I got to meet with Noah Kagan from MyMint.com. You may know him from OkDork.com. I don’t know why, but I was expecting 2-3 people in a small room coding away. Instead they actually had office space – and good office space at that. They even had the requisite Red Bull there.
While there I got a tour of the Mint application and while I’d like to go into it in detail, I’ve promised to keep the details under wraps until they are ready let the word out. The only thing that I can say is pretty much what you’d figure out from reading their website and blog. (The blog is well worth the read… there are a some solid interviews with personal finance bloggers and other folks in there.) Back on the topic, Mint can be thought of a simple budgeting tool. In my tour of the application, I played with it for over 15 minutes and missed the biggest feature behind Mint. Once I figured it out, a light went off in my head, and I thought, “I will have to recommend this to my readers.” I wish I could say what it was, but that would give away too much.
The day would have perfect if I hadn’t gotten hit by car while stopped at red light less than 10 minutes after leaving the office. There was only minor cosmetic damage to my car and no injuries. It just means that I deal with auto insurance adjusters now.
Sorry to here about your accident, and congrats on your interview!!
Nice teaser. Made me sign up and add it my blog to see if I could get in on the Beta. Of course I’m still not sure what the pitch is, but I’m not a fan of Quicken. Stopped using it about 3 years ago – it was too much work.
I signed up for their newsletter. I’m not a fan of any money programs. I prefer simple tracking with paper.
A shame about your car. I was hit about a year ago by someone who said they’d also been hit, but they didn’t get the license plate of the third person. So, to get if fixed I would have to file with my insurance and pay the deductible. Since it’s only minor cosmetic damage, I let it go. It’s not worth the 500 bucks. Anyway, cool that you met with those people. I’m not really one for another budgeting tool though. I take percentages out for savings and investing, and then the rest is for everything else. No real need for me to keep every reciept.
-limeade
Lazy,
It was great meeting you in person. I want to share a lot more about the product as well but we want to make it perfect before we do. You are much lazier than I expected so I am glad that Mint will work wonders for you finances:)
Noah
PS. Sorry about the accident.
Just came across your site… very interested in Prosper. Going back and reading all your prosper posts now.
I read the website. It looks like a dream come true but I’ll reserve judgement until I see it. I got seduced into buying MS Money over the past couple of years but it was just so exhausting to use and too limited in the benefits. It’s amazing to me that there are so many financial advice peddlars but not one of them seems to have teamed up with Quicken or Microsoft to create something that is really useful.
Maybe Mint will be useful; or maybe it will be the same old thing but free and buggy :)