Budgeting can be very time consuming and tedious which is why most people don’t do it. Today we are going to discuss online budgeting/financial software and how it can help to make your financial picture much more clear and save you oodles of time. You might have heard of Mint.com, which is one of the most popular sites for this. I am going to be talking about a similar site that is popular as well called E-Money.
E-money is only accessible through an investment advisor that has subscribed to their services. It is an advertisement free service to clients. We offer this service to our clients at no charge.
Benefits
There are many benefits of using the E-money site to keep track of your finances. Just as a general benefit, you are able to see the big picture of your finances and your investments. This can help you on a day to day basis, but also as you plan for your retirement. Because you can put in all of your bank, credit card, loan, insurance, and investment information in the system, it can show you what your current cash amount is, how much debt you are holding, and the current value of insurance and investment accounts.
In the system you can keep track of the growth of you investments in chart form. You can also keep in depth tabs on your spending each month. The software allows you to create budgets in many different categories to keep track of your spending over time. As transactions come in from your debit card, they are automatically put into categories for you.
Is it Safe?
The big question we have received from clients is “Is it safe?” The answer is yes. The website is triple encrypted, which to the average person just means that is un hackable. Also, the whole website is non-transactional, meaning that you cannot buy anything or transfer any money between accounts. The site is merely for you to view and organize financial data. Also, on the site, your full account numbers and passwords are never shown on the screen.
Why isn’t everyone using it?
That is the question we have. I have been using it for some time now and love the simplicity of keeping track of my finances without any notebook logs, keeping receipts, or spreadsheets. It has saved me hours of time budgeting.
If you are interested in using this system, feel free to comment or give us a call and we can get you the information to get started. If you are a client and are already using it, go ahead and comment and let us know how it has helped you.
For more info check out this short video explaining E-money. http://emoneyadvisor.com/emacorp/video.aspx?vid=box&w=853&h=480&lang=en
By Jimmy Hancock