COURTESY PHOTO
J. R. Robinson
Keeping track of your family’s finances is endless. It has made things a lot less difficult thanks to private finance software.
For years, I used mint. com, an Internet program developed through corporate fintech software Intuit (owner of Turbo Tax, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, and Credit Karma). It comes loose and thanks to it, I can consolidate my entire monetary world: retirement account, First Hawaiian Bank checking account, Visa card, etc. The only notable problem with Mint is that it bombarded me with ads. Nothing is loose: advertising is Intuit’s source of profits.
As soon as I left, I spoke with J. R. Robinson, founder of Financial Planning Hawaii and co-founder of fintech software maker Nest Egg Guru. (Nest Egg Guru is an alumnus of Blue Startups, Henk Rogers’ highly local tech accelerator. )
I last interviewed Robinson for Tech View about financial software in November 2017, which is when he brought me to Mint.
In reaction to Mint’s demise, Robinson introduced a new finance website, NestEggPF. com, which uses electronic money as a platform to track finances.
Then I tried eMoney. I opened an eMoney account and “pooled” my finances. I had no problems adding my credit card and retirement account, but I couldn’t link my FHB checking account to eMoney (FHB linking was also a factor at Mint). I won an eMoney price ticket and the next day it worked. With everything in one place, I don’t want to log into my credit site to see my recent transactions. It’s convenient.
I recently spoke with Robinson at his Gold Bond Building to delve deeper into monetary software recommendations.
Question: Since Mint’s free software is no longer available, what other products are out there to track finances?
Answer: Monarch Money and Simplifi are two valid substitutes for expense tracking and budgeting software. Simplifi charges $5 per month, while Monarch costs $15 per month.
Q: This brings us to your new project, NestEggPF. com, which unleashes electronic money. So why e-money?
A: EMoney is the only app that includes cloud document storage. Users can create folders to store their estate plan documents, tax returns, benefit information, insurance coverage, deeds, beneficiary designations, and more. Second, eMoney has adequate reporting capabilities. . With a single click, you can get a private balance sheet, net worth statement, insurance summary, asset details, asset allocation report, and more in Mint’s.
Q: EMoney is a payment aimed at pro-money planner customers. It has released e-money for everyone who accesses its Array. Are there any hidden charges if I log in to your?
The site is absolutely free and no one from my pro-money plan companies will ask others to use the Nest Egg PF website and/or instruct them to use eMoney. Eventually, if the site attracts enough visitors to sign up for eMoney, we’ll most likely want to start charging a nominal subscription payment in order to hire staff. However, if the site manages to attract followers, I intend to recruit a giant number of early adopters, especially those from Hawaii. If that happens, expect the Nest Egg PF to mimic Costco’s style more.
Q: What are your appointments with eMoney?
A: I have two eMoney business subscriptions. My subscription agreement with eMoney allows me to offer consumers an unlimited number of eMoney websites.
Q: You said in your speech that electronic money is “democratizing finance. “What do you mean by that?
A: I don’t think every consumer wants or desires a money advisor. Consumers who don’t have a money advisor still deserve teams that allow them to centralize and organize all facets of their money lives. It is democratic.
Honolulu-based writer Rob Kay covers generation and sustainability for Tech View and is an author for fijiguide. com. He can be contacted at Robertfredkay@gmail. com.