I have already started on one of my New Year’s Resolution, which is to manage my money better. The reason is not because I am in a huge debt or starving and living off leftover garbage food, but more so to get in the habit of understanding where my money is going or coming from.

This will be something I will need to do anyways when I start my own business, since I will have to somehow track my cashflow.

I was planning on using financial software such as Quicken or Microsoft Money, but lately I have heard good things from web 2.0 websites that allow me to do the tracking online. This is perfect for someone on the go, who will be able to analyze his/her cashflow from anywhere.

Wesabe offers such a service. And it is completely free too! With Wesabe, you are able to consolidate all of your transactions from most financial institutions (including Visa accounts) and get tips from the community. Although, there is a caveat. You must first provide tags (aka keywords) for each agent you make an interaction with in order to receive tips. For example, say you use your Visa to pay for gas at Shell. You must provide relevant tags for Shell to get tips on, say, “Ways to Find Cheap Gas.” This may take a long time for heavy spenders. It took about 15 minutes of my time, which isn’t that bad, but then again I don’t make purchases often.

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Another problem I have found that it miscalculates my spendings! But I am pretty sure this is because I downloaded a couple years worth of transactions at the same time…

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Another web service that offers pretty much the same thing but with prettier graphics and with less focus on providing tips is Mint. I chose Wesabe because it fits my needs. In short, I joined for the huge community. You can find comparisons between the two here: http://howardlindzon.com/?p=2675. It was pretty useful in my decision making.

Be sure to let me know if you do sign-up so that I can add you as friends!

Cheers,

- Peter Kao