It's tough being a Canadian when it comes to the world of free personal finance tools. Many of the biggest offerings only support American bucks, leaving us Canucks with few options to count our loonies. But no worries, I've searched far and wide, O Canada, to find you five free money tools that tally toonies, track spending, and help you get out of debt, eh!
1. Mint
When Aaron Patzer, the founder of Mint, quietly announced in early July that "Mint.com now supports almost all major Canadian banks for aggregation," the internet went abuzz. Canadians have waited a long time for access to this free #1 online personal finance service, boasting over a million users. Acquired by Intuit -- the makers of Quicken -- in 2009, Mint now offers Canadian banking integration, easy budgeting, ways to track investments, and tools to reduce debt.
Mint is still rolling out changes for the Canadian market though. Patzer says, "It's not truly Canada ready -- no Toronto stock feeds, cheque is spelled check, and you might get 401k and 529 suggestions which apply only to the United States."
When I tried to use Mint, the online application still requested an American ZIP code, with no place to specify a Canadian postal code. Hopefully these final Canadian changes are coming soon. Before sharing your banking data with any online site or service, be sure to stay safe with these 7 Ways to bank online safely.
2. GnuCash
GnuCash has features that go beyond simple personal finance and budgeting -- it’s free accounting software. This popular open source application lets you track bank accounts, investments, income, and expenses in a way similar to a classic chequebook register. Multiple currencies are supported and currency movements between accounts are fully balanced when double entry accounting is enabled. If you're concerned about sharing your banking information online, downloading a personal finance tool like GnuCash straight to your desktop may help you keep your data safe.
3. Budgetpulse
Budgetpulse is a another free web-based tool that aims to help you manage your budget. You can’t sync your bank accounts with this easy-to-use freebie, but it boasts international currency support, so Canadians can sign up and get tracking with basic budget functionality.
4. Investment Recovery Calculator
Need to get your investments back on track? Check out the Investor Education Fund's How long will it take for my investments to recover? calculator. This free tool shows you how many years or months it will take to recover your cash after the recent market downturn. This handy tool also tallies the additional contributions required to make a full financial comeback, fast.
5. The Simple Budget Spreadsheet
If you prefer to keep life simple without fancy online tools or applications, then download my free Simple Budget Spreadsheet. I’ve kept things super easy by listing the biggest budgeting categories and showing you how it all adds up.
Your Turn: What's your favourite personal finance tool?
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If you're a CIBC customer, you can forget about Mint.
CIBC started blocking Mint access 3 weeks ago, and are NOT going to change their minds, stating that "to insure the privacy and security of your financial information, CIBC does not support accounts being accessed by third parties, such as account aggregators."
Posted by: Charles Blaquière | 08/19/2010 at 11:23 AM
Canadans will never learn how to spend wisely and save a little.Its not in their blood. They aren't born poor in this country. I mean, they are in reality poor, but their parents live from paycheck to paycheck and carry a lot of debt on their shoulders. It seems that everyone thinks they are entittled to have everything on their wish list, even though they have no money to pay.Personal finance has to be taught by a parent. It is a mind over matter thing. The same applies to marriages. If the parents get a divorce, then, there is a 80% chance their kids will be in and out of marriages or relationships. Plain, simple and true.
Posted by: Joe | 07/31/2010 at 07:15 AM