The Criteria

As I began researching the different PFM options, it became clear to me that there are several features that make an online solution appealing to me. These features may not be important to you, so I encourage you to do your own math/evaluation as appropriate. Regardless, here are the categories in which each site was evaluated:

1. Non-Bank Accounts (Cash Accounts) – does the site allow you to add accounts that are not directly linked to a bank account? The classic example here is a cash account: can I create an account to track things that I spend cash on, instead of trying to split an ATM withdrawal into 100 pieces?
2. Mobile Version – does the site have a mobile version that looks good on my iPhone? For you non-iPhone, smartphone-toting people looking for a mobile version that looks great on Opera…sorry. If it looked nice on my iPhone, thumbs up.
3. Email Updates/Notifications – does the site send you daily or weekly summary updates on your account activity?
4. Text Message Updates/Notifications – the same basic qualification as above, but to your cell phone (via text message). For simplicity, I’ve combined interactive (two-way) SMS and SMS notifications (one-way) in this single category. Some sites allow you to send them text messages to inquire about balances or add transactions, while other sites only send you SMS notifications when certain conditions are met.
5. Banks Supported – this one is extremely biased towards my personal case, but here’s the approach. I use the following financial institutions with routine: USAA Federal Savings Bank, Navy Federal Credit Union, Wells Fargo, and American Express. If the site in question allowed for automatic synchronization (read: did not require me to download a statement and upload it) with all of those banks, thumbs up; otherwise, thumbs down.
6. Budgeting – does the site support budgeting? Can I create a budget with custom categories, and track my progress?
7. Manual Transactions – in line with the “cash accounts” criterion above, does the site allow you to enter transactions manually? This is helpful for maintaining a “real” balance before transactions appear on your bank statement, and imperative for those of us trying to track cash transactions.
8. Cost – what does it cost to use the site? Many sites have subscription fees that are optional for upgrade, while others require a mandatory fee for use.

For scoring, I assigned a simple value of yes/no (1/0) value to each category. With eight categories, each site could earn a possible eight points. The “price” category, which is a little ambiguous (what’s a good price?), is based exclusively on my built-in threshold of $5/month. I’m willing to spend $5 each month on a decent tool…which means that every site passed except for Mvelopes. Summarily, all sites are ranked on a total score out of eight.

The Sites

– Score: 4 out of 8 | Geezeo takes a very community-oriented approach to finance management, and it does some pretty fun integration things with things like goals, confessions and groups. By encouraging its users to be public about their financial objectives, successes and failures, Geezeo adds a peer-like element to finance management. Unfortunately, Geezeo really falls down in this particular line up as email updates, non-bank accounts, manual transactions and a mobile version are all missing.

• Non-Bank Accounts: No (0)
• Mobile Version: No (0)
• Email Updates: No (0)
• SMS Support: Yes (1)
• Banks Supported: Yes (1)
• Budgeting: Yes (1)
• Manual Transactions: No (0)
• Cost: Free (1)
• Total: 4

– Score: 6 out of 8 | Quicken Online provides an eye-pleasing interface that covers a good chunk of the bases. Quicken does an especially nice job of providing daily balance updates via SMS (if you choose) for all of your accounts, and its mobile version is adequate. Sadly, Quicken does not provide for non-bank accounts or manual transactions. But as the runner-up in this little evaluation, Quicken may be a solid choice for many people (especially those who can afford the $2.99/month).

• Non-Bank Accounts: No (0)
• Mobile Version: Yes (1)
• Email Updates: Yes (1)
• SMS Support: Yes (1)
• Banks Supported: Yes (1)
• Budgeting: Yes (1)
• Manual Transactions: No (0)
• Cost: $2.99/month (1)
• Total: 6

– Score: 5 out of 8 | Mvelopes is the most unique of the sites covered here in that you actually have to learn how to use the system. Conceptually, Mvelopes simulates a series of item-specific envelopes that you place money in each month; if the money isn’t there, you can’t spend it. You could describe Mvelopes as being proactive as opposed to reactive, and in many ways it’s extremely fascinating. I am personally a very big fan of the approach used by Mvelopes, and believe that a “spend once you have it” approach would help everyone. That said, Mvelopes doesn’t support email notifications or SMS, and it costs $15.95/month ($39.60 per quarter). The $15.95/month price point is simply to steep for me, considering the alternatives…though I was a subscriber for 3 quarters last year. I could easily make the case that the ingenious approach to money management at Mvelopes is worth $15.95 – until I remember that the site is 100% Flash, and bogs down on every machine I own. If Mvelopes could implement an AJAXy version of their site and lower the price just a tad ($9.99/month might be the trigger), they would win competitions like this one…in spite of having a lower total sum at the end.

• Non-Bank Accounts: Yes (1)
• Mobile Version: Yes (1)
• Email Updates: No (0)
• SMS Support: No (0)
• Banks Supported: Yes (1)
• Budgeting: Yes (1)
• Manual Transactions: Yes (1)
• Cost: $15.95/month (Billed Quarterly) (0)
• Total: 5

– Score: 7 out of 8 | At first glance, Buxfer presents itself as a great way to split bills with your roommates and track IOUs; after a little digging, Buxfer emerges as the clear winner in this exercise. The website is aesthetically pleasing while being quick to load, its mobile version is top notch, and its SMS services are extremely robus. Ironically, Buxfer receives only seven points here because it does not automatically synchronize with Navy Federal Credit Union (note: Buxfer has a Firefox extension that is “trainable” and should get new electronic statements from your bank and upload them automatically if the site won’t synchronize; this feature does not work for me with Navy Federal). From a feature perspective, Buxfer really gets it done. I have upgraded to the Pro version, which entitles me to new features as they’re released, cash flow projections, reminders, etc.

• Non-Bank Accounts: Yes (1)
• Mobile Version: Yes (1)
• Email Updates: Yes (1)
• SMS Support: Yes (1)
• Banks Supported: No (0)
• Budgeting: Yes (1)
• Manual Transactions: Yes (1)
• Cost: Free, $1.79/month or $2.79/month (1)
• Total: 7

– Score: 3 out of 8 | Rudder probably shouldn’t be included in this list, as its intended usage appears to be so much more limited than the other entries. But given that they advertise a way to “take control of your finances,” I’m guilt-free. Rudder lets you add accounts, bills and your email address. The system will check for updates (automatically) on your accounts, and send you a daily email with new activity and upcoming bills for all of your accounts. The presentation is quite nice, and Rudder does a great job of consolidating information in the daily messages. While by itself Rudder is not a real solution for me, I continue to receive their daily updates.

• Non-Bank Accounts: No (0)
• Mobile Version: No (0)
• Email Updates: Yes (1)
• SMS Support: No (0)
• Banks Supported: Yes (1)
• Budgeting: No (0)
• Manual Transactions: No (0)
• Cost: Free (1)
• Total: 3

– Score: 5 out of 8 | Mint comes into this competition as the most widely touted online PFM, with pretty substantial VC backing, and a lot of momentum. The site’s layout is gorgeous, very Web 2.0, and free. Their business model of pitching financial services and offers is unique, and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Mint has a good SMS implementation, providing bill notifications and pretty customized alerts for various conditions. Sadly, Mint lacks a mobile version (WHAT?!), and doesn’t support non-bank accounts or manual transaction entry. This combination has always struck me as particularly ironic: if you can’t manually add transactions, and you can’t check your budget progress wirelessly from your cell phone, how is one supposed to be proactive? There’s no answer here from Mint – the prettiest of the bunch, and the biggest relative let down.

• Non-Bank Accounts: No (0)
• Mobile Version: No (0)
• Email Updates: Yes (1)
• SMS Support: Yes (1)
• Banks Supported: Yes (1)
• Budgeting: Yes (1)
• Manual Transactions: No (0)
• Cost: Free (1)
• Total: 5

– Score: 6 out of 8 | Wesabe has a lot in common with Geezeo in terms of its social approach to finance management. The site is clean, and easy to use. But the really cool features of the site are seen in the “Tips” section, where consumer-specific recommendations on services and vendors are generated based on user-entered data. For example, the site might recommend that you eat at Burger King instead of McDonald’s, as the average Wesabe user spent only $4.25 at BK while spending $5.50 at McD’s. When entering new transactions, you can express your support for the vendor who took your money – or warn off other Wesabe users. It’s a very fun social environment, but it falls down on some key features for me, including email, mobile, banks supported and budgeting, and could be a very compelling option for those of you who don’t care too much about email updates. [Edit: Marc Hedlund - CEO of Wesabe - left a pretty detailed comment below, correcting me on at least one thing. I incorrectly said that Wesabe doesn't have a mobile site. I'm not quite sure how I missed that, as the Wesabe mobile version is quite nice. Marc also directs us to a "spending target" function that acts as a budgeting tool. Thanks, Marc. ]

• Non-Bank Accounts: Yes (1)
• Mobile Version: No Yes (1)
• Email Updates: No (0)
• SMS Support: Yes (via Twitter) (1)
• Banks Supported: No (0)
• Budgeting: No Yes (1)
• Manual Transactions: Yes (1)
• Cost: Free (1)
• Total: 6

In summary, Buxfer comes out the winner for me. I’m paying for their premiums services, and have cancelled by paid subscriptions to Quicken and Mvelopes. I’ll be keeping my Rudder account, as I appreciate the daily email updates, but I’m no longer hanging out over at Geezeo, Mint or Wesabe (despite their being free).

I expect that there will be a decent amount of debate/discussion on this topic, so I’m happy to answer questions about why certain elements are important to me, how I evaluated them, etc.

For all of you poor bastards that have been following along with my GTD evolution over the last few years, you’ve seen the implementation change courses a few times. For those of you who couldn’t give a crap about my past implementations, and are interested in how I’m using Toodledo in my new system, welcome to the fray.

The basics: Toodledo is an online “to-do list manager” that has some very strong GTD-esque features and options, is free (though it offers upgraded accounts – one with file storage), has a great mobile/iPhone interface, and a very slick and usable online interface. There is a third-party iPhone app in the app store that syncs tasks with Toodledo, but it’s about as feature-poor as could be, and I’ve avoided it.

Why Toodledo? I did consider Remember the Milk (RTM) and a few others in my search for an online component to my GTD system, but Toodledo was the clear winner. First, I’m only interested in those to-do managers that sync well with Jott. I’ve found myself doing massive core dumps in the car over Jott, and all of those items either end up in my Toodledo inbox, or in my Evernote notebok. RTM made the cut there, but was light on text message interfacing compared to Toodledo, and lacked the GTD context assignment parameters that come with Toodledo. The mobile interfaces were a push, as far as I was concerned.

Why digital? What happened to the Moleskine? If you didn’t read this post explaining my reasons for changing the system, or this post talking about the new role of my Moleskine, go do that first.

Read on for specifics on my new system.

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The trick with Toodledo is to employ contexts as you might expect, use folders as projects, and get really good with the ‘n’ key. If you’re setting this up for the first time, I’d suggest you spend a few minutes in the GTD forum over at Toodledo, as there are plenty of suggestions on GTD implementation out there that don’t match mine exactly. Here are the contexts in my setup:

• .Waiting For
• .Inbox; theoretically, any new task without a context should end up here. It hasn’t worked that way so far, though. Only new tasks entered on the mobile interface or on the web get this default label. Anything coming in from Jott, for instance, ends up with a “No Context” attached to it. Gotta watch for that.
• @People/Calls
• @Office
• @Errands
• @Plant; not literally a plant, but the “manufacturing plant” that I’m visiting all the time with work.
• @Home
• @Web; for anything I can do on the web, regardless of what machine I’m on
• @Mac; for anything I must do on one of my Macs
• @Dell; for anything I must do on my work laptop

There is a folder for each project, and that’s it. I’ve seen some hybrid solutions out there – people using projects to separate contexts and sub-categorize real contexts, but it’s a little too kludgey for me. During your weekly review, you’ll notice that the folder view not only gives you a full list of all the folders, but it shows you a quick listing of how many tasks exist against that project. Never was there a quicker way to find out what you’ve been ignoring…just look for the zeros!

The view selections are outstanding, allowing you to filter by project, context, task status, etc. Toodledo even offers saved custom searches; one of the hacks suggested by the Toodledo guys regarding my Jott problem was to create a custom “inbox” search that included everything in the .inbox context AND in the “no context” context. I haven’t done this yet, but it’s on a list.

I would say, at the moment, that I do about 70% of my task entry on an actual computer, with the other 30% coming from activity either on the mobile version of the site or from my Jott phone calls. It’s amazing how many tasks you can get updated in the system during a horrible meeting.

Learn the ‘n’ key. It’s a hot key for adding a new task on Toodledo, and it’ll save you lots of time…especially if you get good at naming your projects something that’s easily remembered. Imagine ‘n’, tab, ‘j (or whatever letter for the project/folder you’re assigning), tab, ‘another letter for a goal’, return. That’s it.

Don’t forget about goals – something included on Toodledo. Runway, 10,000, 40,000…long-term, short-term, and subsidiaries are all there. Assigning goals to an individual task is a fantastic way of seeing just how much activity you’ve been doing at the runway level to meet your 30,000 foot goals in life. And they’ve even got charts that will let you see, visually, where you’re spending your time.

This is beginning to sound like an advertisement for Toodledo, and that’s okay. So far, I’ve been absolutely impressed with the site’s performance, and its feature set. If you’re inclined to try your GTD system online or on the computer, you owe it to yourself to have a gander at what they’re doing over at Toodledo.

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This time around, I picked up on something subtle that David said somewhere in Disc One. He’s talking the tools (gear) that you need in order to effectively execute GTD, and from the outset, he notes that the shape, style and high-tech/low-tech nature of your equipment isn’t important. Rather, your ability to quickly and effectively use the equipment is paramount.

As David tends to do in this seminar, he jumps into a shallow rat hole here, and lectures the attendees on the importance of typing speed. Here’s where my revelation starts.

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Listening to David, he insists that everyone needs to get themselves to a WPM rate of around 50 in order to be effective in the tech-heavy world that we live in today. 50 WPM? I was typing at 50 WPM when I was 8 (20 years ago, for those of you who are counting). That’s piece of one this pie. Piece two comes in David’s description of his Palm device, which he uses to manage, track, create and execute lists. He says he can create a list on his Palm in no time, but that because it syncs up with his computer, list creation is actually a cinch any time he’s at the machine. Again, this is only possible because he can type 50 WPM.

Here’s the conversation I ended up having with myself:

How fast do you type?
~130 WPM

Do you type faster than you write?
Hell yes.

Why dont’ you manage your lists on the computer?
Because digitally capturing items remotely (like on my iPhone) isn’t fast enough for me.

Did I say anything about capture?
You are me. So, yes.

Why not capture in your Moleskine, or via Jott on the iPhone, and track your lists post-processing in something that’s either online or syncs well with the iPhone?
Why don’t you shut up, Mr. Smarty Pants?

If you accept that when you’re away from your machine you’re primarily capturing, and that you’re primarily processing when you’re near it…where’s the missing loop?
Okay, fine. But what utility is going to let me do the syncing/access thing?

So here’s where I introduce Toodledo, and the new, improved, “Tim Glinatsis GTD Implementation Strategy” (TGGTDIS, proncounced “tugged-dis”).

At the expense of inciting a Turnipville revolt, I’m going to save the details of the implementation for the next post…but I’d encourage you to have a gander at Toodledo, and see if there’s an obvious solution set for you.

Stay tuned…

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• “New Message” – a woman’s voice who lets you know that a new text has just arrived
• “Dink dink” – the sound that comes from an individual letter/number key that’s been pressed during message composition
• “Whoosh Up” – what happens when you slide the unit open
• “Whoosh Down” – Whoosh Up’s cousin, who comes around when the unit is slid closed
• “Fold Clickareeno” – click the back button, and enjoy the audio

I looked at her quickly and said, “Surely it’d be more convenient to have this conversation on the computer…like, in a group chat, or on IRC or something.”

She shook her head. “Nah, they’re not all at home. Some of them are out and about.”

“Okay, well why haven’t you guys given in and tried Twitter?”

“Ahhh…I don’t know. It’s just like, hard. I don’t want to have to get my friends to join, they’re gonna be like ‘ehh, I don’t want to have to sign up for that, yadda yadda.’”

“Be a trendsetter, Kia. They’ll follow you.”

“Nah, we all have unlimited texting. We’re getting our money’s worth.”

“Yah, but…fine. Just turn the sound off.”

“Okay, okay.”

*buzzzzz* *buzzzzzzzz*

/me sighs.

Technorati Tags: texting, twitter, sidekick, kids

I’ve been talking about starting up a podcast for far too long…and the time has come to make good on that promise.

So, it’s with great fanfare that I announce our new podcast: Turnip Soup. Turnip Soup is a weekly podcast where my buddies and I will talk about the sorts of things that show up here on Turnipville (and occasionally something you might find at Martini Geek). In other words, we’re going to put our usual hilarious spin on odd news stories, sports, tech, and whatever else might pop up during the show.

We’ve set up a command center, of sorts, over at Turnip Network. There, you’ll find subscription links for all of your favorite podcatchers, including iTunes and Odeo.

We’ve also thrown some flash-based players in the mix so that you can listen to the latest show without having to download anything.

For your convenience, here are some quick links to get you into the fray.

technorati tags:podcast, turnipsoup, turnipnetwork

This afternoon Natalie was going through some of the boxes in the garage. We’ve recently moved (or, as they say across the pond, “moved house”), and the garage is loaded with boxes of stuff that we haven’t been missing…so to speak. Someone’s got to go through the damned things, and it’s not going to be me. I’d rather call up the Salvation Army and have them load up the entire garage.

Regardless, she happened upon my box of “keeper” stuff. In that box was my great grandfather’s pocket watch, as is pictured. I don’t know when the watch was made, as I haven’t opened it up to check the movement for a serial number. But what I do know is that it’s elegantly crafted, and it works like an absolute champ…after at least 50 years.

Finding the watch evoked a strange sense of inapplicable nostalgia. I can’t help but get all wacky, sitting in my geeked-out office, thinking of how cool it would have been to live in a time when men wore hats when they were outdoors, wore suits to church on Sundays, and carried pocket watches like the one I have here.

There’s something classy about the watch. Sure, it’s old. Yeah, it’s attractive. But the fact that it functions flawlessly – over 50 years later – is symbolic of a craftsmanship that I sometimes think is lost today. It’s like a little glimpse into a time when people carried gold watches because they served a purpose.

Can you believe that it’s actually occurred to me that maybe I should carry the watch? Heh. It’d go fabulously next to my laptop, desktop, smartphone, digital camera, external HD, etc.

Technorati Tags: pocket watch

I listened to an episode today where they spoke with Mena Trott of SixApart – the company who brought us TypePad, Movable Type, and Vox (they also own LiveJournal). She talked at length about how "blogging" has become a fairly mainstream activity, and explained why a business model around blogging platforms is so lucrative.

Yet, she also mentioned that she’d neglected her blog (posting three times all of last year) because of the amount of work she’d had on her plate.

Here’s one of the founders of one of the largest blogging platforms on the web, admitting that her work keeps her from blogging.

Naturally (as you’ll all see from my post history), I identified with her plight; my regular life has a habit of interfering with my blogaholism. But it made me wonder: is blogging really all that hot?

So here’s a question for you, the visitor: Why do you blog? If you don’t blog, why do you read blogs? Does your blog ever become a chore?

Hit the comments. Anonymous posting is fair game, so there’s no excuse. Help a brother out.

Tags: blogging, inside the net, mena trott, sixapart

Technorati Tags: blogging, inside the net, mena trott, sixapart

• Work
• Site Design
• Site Maintenance
• Relatives
• Mountain Biking
• Mountain Bike Videos
• Tennis
• Golf
• Yard Work

1. The official roll out of Turnip Network – an association of my blogs, media and web affiliations.
2. The launch of Management Lounge – a collaborative site for managers and professionals of all industries.
3. Introduction of Martini Geek – a tech site geared toward the geek hobbyist, and those who love tech….but can’t do it full time.

As always, the downside of new development is that it takes time from maintenance. The development should be at a plateau, and we can get back to content generation. So thank you for your patience, and your e-mails.

Let’s look to the future, which includes much more blogging, much new material, and even some podcasts…

Tags: Turnip Network, Management Lounge, Martini Geek

Not much on my mind right now, but it’s not important. I’ve just been letting everything happen without me. I just don’t have anything to say right now.