Tracking your family’s finances is never-ending. The internet made things a lot easier with personal finance software.
For years I used mint.com, a web-based program developed by fintech software maker Intuit (owner of Turbo Tax, QuickBooks, Mailchimp and Credit Karma). It was free, and with it I could consolidate my entire financial universe — retirement account, First Hawaiian Bank checking account, Visa card, etc. The only notable downside with Mint was that I was barraged with ads. There was no free lunch — advertising was the revenue generator for Intuit.
With Mint gone, I spoke to J.R. Robinson, founder of Financial Planning Hawaii and a co-founder of fintech software maker Nest Egg Guru. (Nest Egg Guru is an alum of Henk Rogers’ well-respected, local tech accelerator Blue Startups.)
I last interviewed Robinson for Tech View about personal finance software back in November 2017, at which time he turned me on to Mint.
In response to Mint’s disappearance, Robinson launched a new personal finance website, NestEggPF.com, which uses eMoney as a platform to track finances.
So, I took eMoney for a spin. I set up an eMoney account and “aggregated” my finances. I had no problem adding my credit card and retirement account but was unable to get my FHB checking account to connect with eMoney. (The FHB connection had been a hassle on Mint as well.) I received a support ticket from eMoney, and the next day it worked. With everything in one place, I don’t have to log in to my credit site to see my recent transactions. It comes in handy.
I recently spoke again to Robinson at his Gold Bond Building office to do a deeper dive into recommendations for finance software.
Question: With Mint’s free software no longer available, what other products do you recommend for tracking finances?
Answer: Monarch Money and Simplifi are two worthy substitutes for expense tracking and budgeting software. Simplifi charges $5 per month, while Monarch is $15 monthly.
Q: That brings us to your new endeavor, NestEggPF.com, which offers free access to eMoney. So why eMoney?
A: EMoney is the only app that includes cloud-based document storage. Users can create folders to hold their estate planning documents, tax returns, employee benefits info, insurance coverage, deeds, beneficiary designations, etc. Second, eMoney has excellent reporting capabilities. With a click of a button, you can get a personal balance sheet, net worth statement, insurance summary, holdings details, asset allocation report, etc., similar to what Mint had.
Q: EMoney is a fee-based site for clients of professional financial planners. You’ve made eMoney free to anyone who lands on your site. Are there any hidden charges if I sign up for it on your site?
A: No. The site is completely free, and no one from my professional financial planning businesses will solicit people who use the Nest Egg PF website and/or sign up to use eMoney. Eventually, if the site attracts enough visitors to sign up for eMoney, we will probably need to start charging a nominal subscription fee so that we can hire support staff. However, if the site does manage to attract a following, I plan to grandfather in a large number of early adopters, especially those from Hawaii. If that happens, expect Nest Egg PF to mimic more of the Costco model.
Q: What’s your relationship with eMoney?
A: I have two professional subscriptions to eMoney. My subscription agreement with eMoney allows me to give an unlimited number of eMoney websites to consumers.
Q: You said on your website that eMoney is “democratizing finance.” What do you mean by that?
A: I do not believe that every consumer wants or needs a financial adviser. Consumers who don’t have a financial adviser still deserve to have the tools available to help them centralize and organize all aspects of their financial lives. That’s democratizing.
Rob Kay, a Honolulu-based writer, covers technology and sustainability for Tech View and is the creator of fijiguide.com. He can be reached at Robertfredkay@gmail.com.
