Shrink Your Debt. Grow Your Savings with Mint.com

Want to see where your money goes? Wondering where you’re out of balance and what it would like like if that changed? Mint.com provides free software to show you your spending, categorize it, analyze it, and change it! No book-keeping required, manage all your accounts in one place, and, better yet, it’s all for FREE! Try out Mint.com and see what your spending looks like to take control of your money.

I handle my budgets through Mint.com. I like the way they pull in my transactions and file them away into the appropriate categories. It makes for easy tax time and it’s easy for me to track how I am spending my money each month.

Credit Sesame Free Credit Score & Loan Management Tool

Credit Sesame makes managing personal credit online, owing less in interest and saving on mortgage, loan & credit card payments easy! It gives an instant view of consumer’s credit, including Experian credit score, refreshed monthly & for free, & debt analysis with personalized offers tailored to consumer’s credit profile.

I use Credit Sesame to keep up with my credit score and to make sure what is reported on my credit report is accurate. I recently checked the credit score that they report with a paid service and they were dead on. It’s a great free service.

Applied Bank® Visa® Business Card

The Applied Bank® Visa® Business Card is the perfect card for start-up businesses. With lines of credit up to $750, this card is perfect for your everyday business expenses. You can get the essential supplies, services, and purchasing power necessary to operate your small business. But most importantly, you get YOUR business name on YOUR business card! No company is too small for the Applied Bank® Visa® Business Card – sole proprietors and entrepreneurs are welcome!

This is a good card for those little expenses that pop up during the course of business. The low limit is great for those just starting out.

Intuit Quickbooks Online Accounting Software

QuickBooks puts your sales, expenses, and customer & vendor profiles at your fingertips. That way you can quickly find what you need when you need it, including money coming in and money going out of your business. QuickBooks is the #1 rated and best-selling small business financial software.

Intuit is one of my favorite companies for small business and budgeting software. Quickbooks is highly recommended for your small business budgeting needs.

$20 Off a One-Year Subscription for an Annual Premium Membership at Morningstar

Sign up for one year of Morningstar Premium Membership to receive $20 off your annual subscription. Morningstar provides winning investment ideas to help strengthen your portfolio including independent analyst research, Portfolio X-Ray®, investment picks, and much more. Start up your Annual Premium Membership of Morningstar today to save $20, or you can also sign up for a Free Membership at Morningstar to access articles, videos, a portfolio manager, and other features.

Morningstar.com is my first stop when I start to research a stock. They’ve got great tools like a stock screener, moving average overlays for charts and their analysts commentary and ratings. I also like it because it’s very easy to navigate. Check out my post How to Use Morningstar for a quick tutorial.

Learn to Trade in the Stock Market with Wall Street Survivor

Our Virtual Game is an Excellent Way to Practice Trading.

The web’s best free Stock Market Game.

Practice trading stocks with $100,000 in virtual dollars.
Our Fantasy Stock Market contests pay out over $100,000 in prizes per year.
Real-time quotes provide the most realistic paper trading experience.
Learn how to do online trading of stocks, ETFs, and options.

I am constantly using Wall Street Survivor to test out my trades and think through some trade ideas. I also short stocks in this account since I do not short in real life but it’s fun to see what would have happened. I highly recommend this free resource if you are just learning to trade.

ING Direct Investing

Invest your money, not your life. Yep. That’s what we help you do here at ING DIRECT Investing. Start with our clean, dynamic ShareBuilder investing site and mobile app. Add low commissions and no account minimums. Then trade what you want, when you want in any amount you want – stocks, exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and options. To get yourself even more free time, set up an Automatic Investment Plan, so you’re building wealth on auto-pilot. Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just getting started, ShareBuilder has what you need to secure your financial future without sacrificing your today.

ING Direct is another excellent tool. If you are just starting to invest and you want to start small, they have a great automatic plan where you can invest small amounts and build up to larger funds.

Practice Trading Stocks and Options in Real-Time with Virtual Memory

Are you interested in learning more about trading, but are afraid of losing money in the process? The Virtual Trade tool from optionsXpress allows you to practice trading stocks, options and futures in real-time without the risk of losing money. Virtual Trade is a practice environment that simulates real market conditions. Here, you can try out strategies using virtual money and analyze your virtual performance. OptionsXpress also offers an Education Center, where you can learn and review trading terms and concepts.

Simply open an OptionsXpress account to try Virtual Trade for FREE!

I’ve had an OptionsXpress account for a while now. They give you the ability to trade options and even get into futures if you want. They have a great practice account for that. It’s good to get some experience before jumping in because options and futures are leveraged and your order will go in a bit differently than it would with stocks.

TurboTax – Choose Easy This Year

Choose Easy this year with TurboTax.com and get your taxes done as fast as possible. Guaranteed biggest refund, and guaranteed 100% accuracy gives you confidence that your taxes are done right. Free to prepare, free to print, and free to eFile, your simple federal tax return is in good hands with TurboTax.com.

I’ve been using TurboTax for my taxes for as long as I can remember. It’s really easy to use and actually will pull in your Mint transactions that are tax related if you want.

Orange Savings Account

The Orange Savings Account
High Interest, No Fees, No Minimums – All your money goes to work for you.
No Changing Banks – It electronically links to your current checking account. Transfers are free and easy.
FDIC Insured – Your deposits are FDIC–insured up to $250,000 per depositor.
Quick Application – Start saving in less than 5 minutes. Giddyup.

Once again, ING is a great choice for saving and investing. The Orange Savings account offers a higher interest rate than most banks. Nuff said.

Easy Investing and Saving with Betterment

Invest the smart, simple way.

It’s smart investing made easy. Betterment puts a personal investment account in your hands by blending the simplicity of an online bank account with the higher long-term returns associated with investing in stocks and bonds. The best part? You don’t have to spend nights and weekends researching—that’s our job.

I absolutely love my Betterment account. If you are looking for a great way to get starting with easy investing, Betterment will do all of the work for you. I am using it for my travel savings and as a long term savings as well. Here is my account opening experience.

I’ve been using MailChimp since I started. It’s a great option if you have a business or a blog and need to send out newsletters.

HostGator is my preferred hosting service. Use the coupon code ‘youngadultfinances’ for $9.94 off the cost.