Mint has long been one of the most popular financial planning tools online. They are closing and like many of you, we are sad to see them close. After all, budgeting is an important habit for financial health, and they did it well. However, budgeting is only one aspect of being good with your money. Being financially healthy also requires good decision-making that balances today’s priorities (monthly cash flow) with all the possibilities of tomorrow (financial planning).
We need a financial planning garden, not just “mint”
Think of it this way. Mint was just one small shrub. To have true financial security, you need a complete and healthy garden of planning tools.
A quick search on Google reveals that there is no shortage of companies vying for former Mint users. Here we provide a quick overview of the top products in various categories. Whether you’re looking for a budgeting alternative to Mint or are ready for a comprehensive financial planning tool, you’ll probably find what you need below.
Here we compare the 5 best financial planning tools. Compare the following:
Inclusiveness: Does it cover all aspects of personal finance?
Strategic decision making: How well do these tools help you make solid decisions about your future?
Financial monitoring: What type of tracking is provided?
Budgeting: Which tools offer detailed budgeting like the one provided by Mint?
support: Who has the resources to answer your questions and improve your know-how?
Let’s take a look:
| comprehensive | new retirement | credit karma |
Personal capital (give power) |
Quicken | monarch money |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| income and expenses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| tax | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| investment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| retirement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| debt | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| credit score | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| insurance | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| strategic decision make |
new retirement | credit karma |
Personal capital (give power) |
Quicken | monarch money |
| Unlimited “what if” scenario |
✓ | ||||
| loss conversion adventurer |
✓ | ||||
| crisis management | ✓ | ||||
| Suggestions on what to do Better |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| financial monitoring | new retirement | credit karma |
Personal capital (give power) |
Quicken | monarch money |
| overall financial situation wellness tracking |
coming soon | ||||
| net worth | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| chance of retirement of success |
✓ | ✓ | |||
| planned real estate value |
✓ | ||||
| investment tracking |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Budget creation function | new retirement | credit karma |
Personal capital (give power) |
Quicken | monarch money |
| lifetime prediction | ✓ | ||||
| history tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Change of plans for the future Spending |
✓ | ||||
| Set what you want and need spend the amount |
✓ | ||||
| Warning in progress | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| budget adjustment | Scheduled for 2024 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| support | new retirement | credit karma |
Personal capital (give power) |
Quicken | monarch money |
| -> class | ✓ | ||||
| -> Coaching | $175/50 minutes | ||||
| -> Professional advice | Price only* | Parrot** | |||
| -> Budget adjustment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| -> Account link | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Overview of Top 5 Financial Planning Tools
new retirement
This tool aims to take financial health into your own hands and has been described by Forbes as a “new approach to planning.” NewRetirement Planner gives people the ability to make better decisions, build wealth, and find a path to a secure and happy future.
If you want to make better decisions about your future, NewRetirement is the tool for you. These provide unparalleled flexibility when modeling future scenarios.
- Fee: The basic plan is free. Get PlannerPlus for $120/year
credit karma
that’s strange credit karma We’re closing down Mint because it doesn’t have a full suite of budgeting tools. However, the site states that “Mint’s financial account balances, past net worth, and the majority of his three years of transactions can be turned over to Credit Karma.”
If your goal is to monitor your credit and improve your credit score, use Credit Karma.
- Fee: It’s free, but it promotes credit cards and other types of offers.
Empowerment, formerly known as personal capital
If you want to monitor your household finances every month, empower It might be the right tool for you. Additionally, it also provides some planning functionality.
- Fee: free. But be prepared for sales calls trying to get you to manage your savings rate between 0.49% and 0.89%.
Quicken
Quicken It’s a classic that has been improved over the years. If you want to customize your reports and work with your data, try Quicken.
- Fee: free. Quick Simplifi (budgeting) costs $30 to $48 per year, and Quicken Classic (a more comprehensive plan) costs $48 to $84 per year.
monarch’s money
monarch’s money It’s similar to Empower – better financial tracking and monitoring – but it definitely has better budgeting features and doesn’t have the sales pitch of letting you manage your money.
- Conclusion: It’s a robust tool with a great way to import data from Mint.
- Fee: $14.99/month and $99.99/year
Interested in just budgeting? Here are some additional mint alternatives to consider
If you’ve been using Mint, you might just be interested in finding a new app for budgeting rather than a more complete financial planning tool. Here are some options:
Inab: Inab Abbreviation for “I need a budget.” They are passionate about budgeting and offer a great schedule of classes and community groups to support your budgeting efforts.
- Cost: $13/month vs. $99.99/year
Co-pilot money: User claims: co-pilot money It’s very intuitive, easy to use, and provides great categorization of budget items.
- Cost: $13/month vs. $95/year
pocket guard: pocket guard It promotes features it claims will help you monitor your spending and reach your goals.
- Cost: $7.99 per month vs. $34.99 per year (PocketGuard also makes money from offers provided by third parties).
Rocket money: rocket money offers some unique features, including subscription management tools to monitor services you may not be using.
- You pay a subscription fee, plus they make money when you sign up for the products they feature.
Tiller: People love Tiller. It’s basically a very nice spreadsheet. Check out Rob Berger’s review.
- Fee: After 30 days, Tiller is $79/year
The answer to most financial planning questions is “It depends.” This question is no exception. Mainly if you need:
- Budgeting: Take a look at any of the tools listed below and see which one feels better to you.
- Monthly tracking: Empowerl, Quicken, and Monarch Money are all good options to monitor your monthly finances.
- Planning and strategic decisions: Use NewRetirement to plan for the future, run through scenarios, and make better decisions.
