Tracking finances on Yodlee

I found out a few months ago about a website called Yodlee (the actual URL is moneycenter.yodlee.com). It's site that can aggregate all your finances in one place. Basically you give them ALL your financial information (credit card, bank, mutual funds, etc) and they will download information for you, so you can click one "update all accounts" button, and get your transaction history, net worth, recent expenditures, and so on.

Giving a third party the password to all your accounts is probably a big leap of faith for many people. But I trust online security more than I do credit card security at your average restaurant. And the only time I've ever had a fraudulent transaction on my credit card, it was a local thing, not something that happened online.

Using this website has simplified my life tremendously. Before, I had a monthly routine of putting all my transaction into Microsoft Money, categorizing them, checking the Microsoft Money totals against the financial institution. I had a whole list of steps that I had to go through before I could check off the "did MS Money" task from my to-do list. Frequently I procrastinated because it was so tedious. This made things more difficult for myself down the line.

Now things are much simplier. I just login to Yodlee, update all my accounts (by pressing one button), and check recent transaction to make sure they're all kosher. Of course, there's not nearly as many bells and whistles as I had with Microsoft Money, but there's also not nearly as much work, nor as many opportunities for error.

All in all, I consider this a great leap forward in simplifying my life financially.