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More and more banks now offer free online bill pay, account alerts and other helpful features through their websites. It's worth checking to see whether the institution where you bank or have a credit card account offers such services. We have a separate report on
There are a number of newer finance websites that offer compelling features, but haven't been widely reviewed. Rudder.com, which debuted in 2008, is best suited to young people and focuses more on forecasting and bill paying than on financial history and complex reporting. Thrive gives users a score for their financial health, and recommends ways to improve the score including budgeting, paying down debt and reducing spending. It calculates how long the user could survive without a job, and how much income he or she would have in retirement, based on current and ongoing investments. NeoBudget.com is another online finance software product that offers envelope budgeting.
A December 2007 article in Smart Money provides useful tips on how to make sure your data is secure, and an overview of other features to look for in online finance software. It includes a chart comparing ClearCheckbook, Mint, Wesabe and Yodlee MoneyCenter, but the chart is out of date at this point.
Barron's columnist Mike Hogan, writes about online finance software in his article "Personal-Finance Software Goes Lite."
Fast Company's Anya Kamenetz discusses finance software trends in this article, "Next-Gen Investing," and notes that Thrive is "emblematic of a nascent industry shift toward tech-driven financial-advice tools."
Blogger "Broke Grad" discusses six applications that help you track your money online.
Two books, "Personal Finance for Dummies" and "Personal Finance Workbook for Dummies," may be worth checking out if you've never before tried to set up a budget or keep track of your total financial picture.
Texthog.com is a service that lets you track expenses by text, email and Twitter, and import the data to Quicken, Quickbooks and Excel.
Finally, online finance software websites themselves have details about features, security and privacy as well as information about free trials.