managing your personal finance

Mint is a great online service for managing your finances and accounts that together with its accompanying iPhone app boasts a pretty significant 2 million users. While the web-based services are accessible to anyone regardless of what handset they own, users of Mint lacking in the iPhone department had long wondered when they would get to have their cake and eat it too, and it looks like they soon will be able to fill up on the sweet, minty treat.

Ask and though shall receive, as Mint states the upcoming Android version of their application is in direct response to requests from users of the service:

“Customer feedback and requests help determine upcoming products and features from Mint.com. In the coming months, the Mint team plans to address user requests, adding support for thousands of additional financial institutions and an Android application to expand its mobile presence beyond its award-winning iPhone application.”

Some people may not be all that big on the idea of allowing a 3rd party access to your accounts and financial information, but for the many making Mint the #1 personal finance app available, the service is a must-have. Mint allows you to control and track your budget, make adjustments, and view trends and history in your spending. The mobile app gives you quick access to this information wherever you go so you will always know if you have the excess cash for those impulse buys.

I don’t know how I’m doing it, but I’m managing to stay one step ahead of the game around here. I haven’t had to resort to a week of guest posts — yet. Instead, I’ve been working like mad to be sure I have interesting articles for you guys, while also doing my bit to promote Your Money: The Missing Manual. (And, of course, I’ve been living Real Life, too: starting to exercise, and continuing to obsess over The Amazing Race with my wife.)

This post is a quick round-up of a couple of recent things I’ve done, as well as a couple of upcoming events.

Recent events

I did a live webcast last week over at the O’Reilly site. (O’Reilly is the book’s publisher.) Although there’s no archive of the event now, I’m under the impression that there should be one in a week or two. Check back later.

Also, last Friday evening I was a guest on Computer America, which is “American’s longest-running nationally syndicated ratio talk show about computers”. Only, I didn’t talk about computers. Instead, Carey Holzman and I discussed personal finance for an hour. You can listen to an archive of the program via mp3. (And, of course, you can right-click that link to download the file.)

Upcoming events

Here are the two major events I’ve already scheduled:

• I’m joining my pal Chris Guillebeau for a meet-up in Chicago on the evening of Monday, April 5th. Alexandra Levit helped us plan the details: We’ll be gathering at 7pm at Rockit Bar & Grill, which is located across from Wrigley Field. (Man, how I wish the Cubs were playing while I was in town!) I intend to have a few copies of the book, as well as some tasty maple-bacon lollipops to hand out. If you’d like to come hang out with us, RSVP at Chris’ site — and tell him you came from GRS!




• I’ll be giving a talk at Powell’s Technical Books at 7pm on Thursday, April 15th. (Which also happens to be the fourth anniversary of Get Rich Slowly.) I’d love if you came out and gave me some support. I’m a hesitant public speaker, and if there are some friendly folks in the crowd, that’ll give me more confidence!

There’s a chance I’ll be in Washington D.C. at the end of this month, too. I should know more by the middle of next week.

Video contest update

Man, I’m going on blind faith here. The Get Rich Slowly video contest was a big risk, and so far there just aren’t a whole lot of entries. In fact, there are only five of them. That means if the contest ended today, 60% of the entrants would win $500. It also means that your odds are pretty good if you decide to enter.

The latest entry comes from Josh at WalletPop, who compressed his one-hour presentation for college seniors into just 90 seconds! Take a look:

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