For anyone who isn't a math whiz who balances their checkbook everyday, there's a free online service that will help you track your transactions and plan your budget. If you haven't yet already, say hello to Mint.

Mint.com is a website that will track your bank accounts, credit cards and other expenditures and graph them for your planning needs. This is where people get concerned.

"But, but, my bank information! I don't want anyone to have it! Is this site safe?"

Yes, of course it is. You don't actually provide the site with your bank information, just the login credentials to the bank's website. Even from most bank sites, you can't actually do much in the way of moving money, it's just an electronic check book. However, most people (including myself now, I'm a big boy!) have accounts and cards with multiple banking establishments. Mint will aggregate your information with all of them and provide you with a singular outlook on your income and spending.

Now why would anyone need that kind of reminder of how much they spend? It's simple. It's a visual checkbook that breaks down spending and income by categories and specific vendors. You can create rules that say certain transactions are certain categories, and fit them into your budget, while having a graph show how much of your budget you're using.

The biggest concern people are having is privacy. If it's a free service, how do they make money without just selling your data? The advertising is available through the optional links that show you how to save money or other types of investments. But it's all optional. If you don't want to look into types of investment, you won't see anything resembling an ad. Even with that, Mint has recently solved its own financial needs. Mint was purchased by Intuit, the makers of the Quicken software that many use to plan their taxes. Intuit already has an online Quicken service similar to Mint, but it seems that it favors the new service instead. Current users of Quicken Online will be migrated over to Mint, with no real change to the service in the near future. That said, the security that Mint uses is the same as other online banking, now with the credibility of a software company that many give their financial information to, anyway.

So there you have it. A free online financial service that visualizes your budgets, with just as much security as the online banking you already do, owned by a software company that millions already use. There's nothing to be afraid of, so you might as well try it out. If you don't believe me, check out Lifehacker's final review of it.