Mint moves into retirement savings, adds richer analytics

Personal finance site Mint.com is moving into retirement savings and adding richer analytics to track your net worth as part of a push into higher-ticket items and long-term financial goals.
Launched two years ago, the Mountain View-based company started as a place to sync your bank accounts and watch credit card spending. Since then, it’s attracted 1.4 million users, added mortgage and investment tracking and raised $31 million in funding in three rounds. That includes a $14 million Series C-round last week.
The company is adding a function today that advises users on how to optimize their retirement savings. When a worker switches jobs or gets laid off, their 401k retirement accounts can sit dormant and get charged management fees. Mint.com will suggest options to roll over those savings into an individual retirement account or IRA.
“Most people don’t know that these funds charge about 1 percent in fees every year and it comes right out of your stock gains,” said founder and CEO Aaron Patzer in an interview. “As you leave an employer, you should move that money into an IRA with lower fees.”
The start-up is also building up its analytics functions, which let users track their finances and plan for large expenses or purchases like taxes or vacations. For example, you can track how much you’ve spent with a specific business such as Starbucks over the last year. You can also track your net worth and net assets over time, and then break that portfolio down into assets by allocation. You can also follow your net income by month.
Mint earns revenue by presenting its users with savings options. Companies that offer financial products like credit cards with lower rates, or savings accounts with higher returns pay to be included in those results. The same model would apply to potential retirement savings options, Patzer said. Mint.com also collects a vast amount of information on personal spending by aggregating user data.