Comments on: Buxfer, Mint & Quicken http://bnee.com/2007/10/buxfer-mint-quicken/ Brendan Nee Online Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:09:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Brendan Nee http://bnee.com/2007/10/buxfer-mint-quicken/comment-page-1/#comment-1333 Brendan Nee Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:09:14 +0000 http://www.bnee.com/2007/10/buxfer-mint-quicken/#comment-1333 I agree that trust is a big part of any financial app, but at least many people are more than willing to trust some startup. Mint apparently now has $2B in peoples personal finances managed, signing up a new member every 5 seconds at one point. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/07/mint-rakes-it-in/) But for non-early adopters and those not comfortable with giving financial data to some startup, having the quicken branding would lend it the trust they need. A web interface for gnucash would solve a lot of issues, but wouldn't provide some of the social aspects that mint and others are trying to bring to personal finance. I'm not sure how useful those would be to me personally, but mint claims to have identified $40 million in potential savings for members (by suggesting other credit cards and bank accounts). I agree that trust is a big part of any financial app, but at least many people are more than willing to trust some startup. Mint apparently now has $2B in peoples personal finances managed, signing up a new member every 5 seconds at one point. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/07/mint-rakes-it-in/) But for non-early adopters and those not comfortable with giving financial data to some startup, having the quicken branding would lend it the trust they need.

A web interface for gnucash would solve a lot of issues, but wouldn’t provide some of the social aspects that mint and others are trying to bring to personal finance. I’m not sure how useful those would be to me personally, but mint claims to have identified $40 million in potential savings for members (by suggesting other credit cards and bank accounts).

]]> By: Slushpupie http://bnee.com/2007/10/buxfer-mint-quicken/comment-page-1/#comment-1323 Slushpupie Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:22:22 +0000 http://www.bnee.com/2007/10/buxfer-mint-quicken/#comment-1323 The one big concern I have about online financial software is trust. How can I trust the company to keep my records private? I trust my bank, sure, but only because I have to. Quickin/Intuit is trustworthy, as they have a reputation (granted, it isnt spotless). But can you really trust some startup? Presumably you can keep your account numbers and such out of these apps (just label it "savings-account" or whatnot) but having all your financial information stored on a third party system concerns me a little. What I would like to see, is a good web interface for GnuCash (www.gnucash.org). I can host it on my server, and put my own security around it. I would trust that a lot more. The one big concern I have about online financial software is trust. How can I trust the company to keep my records private? I trust my bank, sure, but only because I have to. Quickin/Intuit is trustworthy, as they have a reputation (granted, it isnt spotless). But can you really trust some startup? Presumably you can keep your account numbers and such out of these apps (just label it “savings-account” or whatnot) but having all your financial information stored on a third party system concerns me a little.

What I would like to see, is a good web interface for GnuCash (www.gnucash.org). I can host it on my server, and put my own security around it. I would trust that a lot more.

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