Berkeley, California-based Wesabe, which was founded late last year, debuted this week. Wesabe is a financial community of people where users are encouraged to share everything they know about money — personal tips, goals, their income, expenditure, etc. — and in return, they get to from the community’s input and keep track of their financial goals.
In a nutshell, Wesabe takes all the information it can from the community and gives it back as a whole (i.e. your information isn’t shared with anyone in particular, but included in an average). The result? Customized tips for each user and access to financial data from the community. Users can also share tips with other users, view others’ tips, and set personal financial goals.
After realizing that “Upload an Account” doesn’t necessarily mean giving them access to it but simply uploading your bank or credit card statements, I was able to overcome my initial paranoia and signed up to test the service. Once I was in, I have to admit, Wesabe is indeed a very impressive service. It split my spendings and earnings, and was able to give me some quick numbers and charts as to how I’d been going throughout the month.
Something I love is that they provide a tool to keep your bank statements fresh rather than manually having to download and upload it every day. If you’re planning to become a serious user — forget living without it.
A popular section within the site, not surprisingly, is popular goals. After skimming through some set by the Wesabe community, sure enough, I found what I was looking for — buy a MacBook Pro. Like 27 other people, I signed up for it, and as it turns out, I’m now destined to own an MBP by the end of this year with the help of Wesabe.
Personally, this is something I no doubt see myself using on an occasional basis. For something regular? I’d need more power.
[tags]Wesabe, Money, Community[/tags]
