Track Your Money on the Web -- for Free

When it comes to tracking your money, many people opt for computer software such as Quicken or Microsoft Money.

But there are now more and more Web sites being launched in an attempt to take some of the business away from these platforms. They claim they can make tracking your finances easier, and at no cost.

A note of caution: More of these Web sites are asking for the passwords to your financial accounts including those for banks, credit cards, loans and more. They do so in order to download all your information from these institutions so it can all be consolidated in their applications, sparing you the need to input data.

While this is convenient, you should consider whether it is worth the risk. All these sites claim to provide top computer security for your accounts; still, it's one thing to have a credit card stolen and quite another for someone to gain access to all of your financial accounts.

Having said that, here are some that are worth checking out:

ClearCheckbook acts much like a regular checkbook, enabling you to track your cash, checking, credit card and savings accounts. The advantage it provides over a standard checkbook is that it allows you to group purchases so you can chart where your money has been going over different periods of time.