The Investing Web Toolbox: 25 Killer Money Management Webapps

Not too long ago, your computerized money management options were basically TurboTax, Quicken, or Excel. (Henry Ford’s old saying “you can have any color car you want, as long as it’s black” comes to mind.) But no longer! Thanks to Web 2.0 and the emergence of “mashups” that combine multiple sources of information into useful tools, you can now choose from many different applications and services that let you manage your money in ways you never even knew were possible. Here are 25 of the coolest and most useful that we could find.

1. Mint.com — The ultimate money management mashup is Mint.com, which allows you to import data from multiple bank accounts and credit cards and manipulate it in all sorts of useful ways. Want to see a pie graph of last month’s food expenses, or generate weekly reminders, or compare different accounts side-by-side? All of this and more is at your fingertips with Mint, so sign up for your free account today and use their personalized technology to take charge of your money!
2. TwitPay — An award winner in the 2008 Mashup Awards, TwitPay is a simple website enabling any Twitter user to quickly send money to another. No signups are required; if you are already a Twitter member, that’s all you need to send anywhere from $0-$50 to someone through this sleek and useful service.
3. StockTwit — Ever wish you could instantly plug in to all of the best stock market-related conversations taking place on Twitter, but without painstakingly seeking out all of the participants in that conversation one by one? StockTwit is the answer to your prayers! Simply sign up for a Twitter account (if you don’t have one already) and log in to StockTwit. As soon as you do, you’ll instantly be able to read the hottest market conversations on Twitter and even get involved if you want to.
4. Stock Cloud — Even the savviest investors can become overwhelmed trying to keep tabs on all the press releases and announcements of publicly traded companies. But thanks to Stock Cloud, your days of fumbling through newspapers, magazines, e-mails, and newsletters may be numbered. Stock Cloud is a continuously updated mashup that displays, in cloud form, the ticker symbols of all companies who have issued press releases that day. The bigger a company’s ticker symbol in the cloud, the more frequently that company distributes press releases. Just click any company of interest to see the most recent releases.
5. BillMonk — BillMonk.com is a mashup that solves the always-pressing problem of letting 2 or more people painlessly share common bills, like rent or food. Here’s how it works: everyone who is splitting the bill(s) in question signs up. Then, all of them can send expenses to be shared to their account at BillMonk via text messages. Then they can just log in in later to finalize the splitting of the payment and let everyone know who owes what.
6. Wesabe — According to WalletPop.com, “If Chuck Norris were a personal finance tool, he’d be Wesabe!” Very simply, Wesabe is part-money management tool, part-community, a place where every member can draw upon the money-saving tips, advice, and experiences of the others and use them to help in setting financial goals, paying off debts, or even finding good deals in their local area. In its brief lifetime, Wesabe has become one of the most useful and popular money management mashups on the Internet.
7. PayPal — It may not be the newest kid on the block, but PayPal is a mashup in the true sense of the word, having combined two major credit cards and virtually any kind of bank account with a web interface. Thanks to this trailblazing application, anyone can send or receive money using only Internet monikers, rather than the sensitive bank details that were necessary to send and receive money prior.
8. Yodlee — Billing itself as a financial services mashup that offers access to “over 11,000 financial data sources”, Yodlee is one of the more popular such mashups to date. According to a company press release, “For the more than 15 million consumers who have used a Yodlee powered solution so far, the Yodlee Data Engine delivers the raw material and tools they need to understand and manage personal finances and make payments how and when they want; all through their trusted financial institutions.”
9. TextPayMe (now part of Amazon Payments) — Wired.com describes the virtues of TextPayMe in its article TextPayMe: Eliminating The IOU: “When a group of people dine out together, someone always lacks cash. They forgot to go to the ATM, but they’ll pay you back ASAP. Right. Funny, though, how people rarely forget their cell phones. Philip Yuen put these two observations together and came up with TextPayMe to let people send money using text messaging.” While TextPayMe has since been acquired by and incorporated into Amazon.com’s payment system, it still offers the functionality that made it popular from the very beginning!
10. NetWorthIQ — Ever wonder how your net worth stacks up against so-and-so down the street? A nifty little web app called NetWorthIQ is the closest you’ll probably come to finding out. Members are permitted to create a financial profile (which includes their net worth and other information) and then compare it those of other members.
11. Google Finance — If you’re looking for a way to get a quick read on the most important indicators of stock market activity, look no further than Google Finance. Here, you’ll find everything from recent market-related stories and press releases to sector summaries and world currency fluctuations, all displayed with the simplicity and cleanliness you’ve come to expect from Google applications.
12. GStock — Billed as “the supercomputer dedicated to stock market analysis”, GStock.com has been written about in the New York Times and InfoWorld for its consistently accurate picking of profitable investments. According to the homepage, 2 out of every 3 “buy and sell” stock picks made by GStock’s supercomputer in the last 3 years have made profits for users who followed the advice. In these turbulent financial times, why not give it a try?
13. CAPS (Motley Fool) — Another web community aimed at helping its members beat the market averages is CAPS, run by personal finance giant The Motley Fool. Featuring some 2,976,587 recommendations from over 120,000 people, investors who are looking to get an inside edge would be hard-pressed to find a better place to look for it!
14. SaneBull — SaneBull is a web-based financial platform that feeds live stock quotes, real-time news, and robust investment tools to its users, all through a simple, easy-to-use interface. Whether you’re looking to get a handle on commodities and futures, US stock market indexes, currencies, exchange-traded funds, crude oil futures, or your own portfolio, you can do it all in more on one screen with SaneBull.
15. Wikinancial — Wikinancial is a community-driven site where investing junkies can test out various stock picking strategies and compare them to those of other members of the community. While there is no actual money at stake, the strategy testing can become quite competitive and help sharpen your knowledge for when it comes time to make actual investments in the stock market.
16. Buxfer — Buxfer can be thought of as a web app combining the best aspects of Mint and BillMonk in that it allows you to track your own spending and also who owes you, as well as how much they owe. If you find that staying on top of all these things the old-fashioned way (you know, Post-It notes, e-mail reminders, and writing on your skin) is impractical, Buxfer’s convenient web interface should offer a much easier and simpler experience!
17. Cyclr — Let’s face it: sometimes, digging your way out of the debt hole can feel like a long and lonely battle. But with Cyclr, paying down your debt need not be a solitary activity any longer. Sign up for the free service (currently in private beta) and you can network with other borrowers who owe the same amount of money as you do. Over time, you can motivate each other to keep paying down your debts and gradually “cancel out” each other’s outstanding balances. If you’re the kind of person who can’t exercise alone but tears up the gym with a friend, you’ll love Cyclr!
18. Mvelopes — Mvelopes takes a somewhat different approach to managing all your bank account information. Rather than simply displaying all of your assets in a chart or a graph, your money is divided into various “envelopes” that are devoted for some specific purpose or financial goal. Then, as you spend money, Mvelopes.com automatically updates the balance in each of your “envelopes”, enabling you to see how everything you buy concretely affects your goals in other areas. If you struggle with the conceptual side of money management and grasping the “big picture”, Mvelopes would be well worth your time!
19. MyBillQ — It’s one thing to manage your budgets, set financial goals, and keep track of who owes you, but what about your bills? Surely it’s at least as important to track those as everything else! Fortunately, MyBillQ makes the paying and tracking of one’s bills about as easy as it could theoretically be. Thanks to MyBillQ’s helpful reminders, you’ll never be caught off guard when the car insurance or rent bill comes due, and you’ll always be able to look back in the records to see exactly when and how much you paid for each bill. As the website says, “you’ll always know exactly what you have to pay, and when you have to pay it.” Who could ask for more?
20. LessAccounting — Do you run a small to medium-sized business? Ever feel like you’re in over your head delving into the books and trying to make sense of all those debits and credits? If so, LessAccounting might be the key to ending those headaches forever. Ditch the columnar pad and use their slick web interface to denote tax categories, generate quick invoices, track business expenses, and more.
21. PayScale — How does your salary compare to those with the same job as you? This used to be a rather difficult question to answer, but with the emergence of PayScale.com, it’ll never be a mystery again! Just sign up for an account and you can generate a free customized salary report based on your job title, location, education, skills and experience. The website offers customized reports based on whether you are a job candidate, current employee, job seeker, or HR professional.
22. WageExchange — A similar website that accomplishes the same task in a different way is WageExchange. Rather than relying on a centralized source of salary information (as PayScale does), WageExchange utilizes a social network in which all its members anonymously share their salary for comparison with everyone else’s. If you are curious and want to weigh PayScale’s salary report against other sources, WageExchange is a great place to start.
23. MoneyTrackin — Described by one user as an “online quicken/MS Money replacement” and another as “the most complete app in its field”, MoneyTrackin.com is a comprehensive, full-service, web-based money management platform. If you like the tracking capabilities of Mint, the shared bill management features of BillMonk, and the small business accounting technology from LessAccounting, you’ll be happy to know that MoneyTrackin incorporates elements of all three.
24. Zecco — Zecco is an online stock brokerage application enabling you to make up to 40 stock trades a month for free. Unlike most online brokers, however, Zecco incorporates a robust community feature in which hundreds of members share information, discuss strategies, and post breaking news for others to read. If you want an online brokerage with a sense of personality and belonging, Zecco is it!
25. MoneyBookers — PayPal might be the big dog in the online payment space, but it has a growing competitor in MoneyBookers, a similar website that extends payment services to foreign countries (including Russia, France, and Italy) where PayPal does not currently operate. You can request money, enter bids into auctions, make mobile payments and more with this versatile online payment system. If you’re unsatisfied with PayPal or live in one of the aforementioned foreign nations, why not give it a try?

 
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