Online Personal Finance Tools

I've been collecting bank accounts for the past 8 years. Perhaps there's a 12-step program for this sort of thing, but I'm pretty happy with my collection and don't really want to get rid of any right now. Keeping on top of 12 separate accounts is quite a task, though, so what's a lazy guy like me to do?

The conventional answer would be to grab a copy of Quicken or Microsoft Money. Those cost money, though, and isn't desktop software like so last millennium? (Not to mention that there's no Linux version of these products.)

Luckily there are alternatives: A new company called Mint recently unveiled their web-based solution and won TechCruch40 as a result. Mint is a great tool, but it's currently limited to tracking checking, savings, and credit card accounts. I have a couple brokerage accounts, though, so I was even more excited when I read about a similar service called Geezeo that recently added support for these types of accounts. Unfortunately, Geezeo seems to be much more of a "beta" product than Mint at this point, which is a pretty big issue for software that wants you to trust it with all your financial data.

It turns out there are at least two more similar services out there as well. I'm in the process of testing them out and decided that I'd start a series of posts to review each one. Here are the sites I'm currently looking at:

• Geezeo - social finance application
  
• Mint - refreshing money management
  
• Wesabe - get financial tips from other members
  
• Yodlee - all of the power, but none of the pizazz?
  

I'm also considering taking a look at Quicken and Microsoft Money if I can get trial versions or decide I can spare the cash to buy one or both.

Stay tuned for more updates!