Even for incredibly successful women (and men!), handling money can be challenging. Short of hiring a financial advisor, it’s difficult to get a complete overview of all your different accounts and assets.

Rarely does there come along a FREE tool that so eloquently does a lot of the work for you. But Mint (both the website and mobile app) does just that.

Mint syncs with all of your financial accounts and easily organizes and categorizes your spending. I love how it updates automatically every time you log in, displaying a one-page summary of your financial standing in a clean and colorful dashboard interface.

Some of my favorite features:

1. Mint automatically categorizes spending into categories like Shopping, Restaurants, Gas & Fuel, Movies & DVD’s, and Hobbies. I set monthly budgets for each category to visually track my spending. I’ve noticed that I spend the most on restaurants, shopping, and hobbies. I have made a conscious effort to cut down on coffee shops and eating out – with success! And with the upcoming holidays in mind, I recently readjusted my shopping budget to be strict, but realistic. It’s also easy to set goals and automatically put a percentage of your earnings towards those goals.
2. My favorite tab is “Trends” : a visual pie chart that shows how much you spend in each category across any span of time (a month, a week, a year, or ‘of all time’). It’s fun to see what percent of my spending goes to Food/Dining vs. Auto vs. Shopping. Mint even has a graph that tracks my spending over the year. The visual element motivates me, because I make it a personal challenge to see if I can keep lowering my spending each month. I can see that I spent the most this past year in June, while I spent the least in September. I tend to spend more when I’m in a relationship vs. when I’m single (and men are buying me drinks!). Just kidding– sort of.
3. Another feature I find useful is Mint’s automatic alerts for bill reminders, overspending, low balance, and unusual spending. You can customize these and choose whether you want to receive alerts by email or text message. I was able to identify a fraudulent charge and report it immediately, thanks to Mint’s text message alert!

The best thing about Mint is that it keeps me honest about how much I’m actually spending. It feels a bit similar to those calorie-tracking apps like MyFitnessPal or health trackers like FitBit. The more you’re aware of your habits and progress, the more likely you are to make better decisions.

Written by Ashmi Pathela

A Silicon Valley native, Ashmi Pathela caught the entrepreneurial bug early on. She is a member of the Dot Complicated team and previously worked with Randi on Facebook’s marketing team. She loves running half marathons – followed by sushi and dessert, of course! Chat with her on Twitter here.