Mint.com is far and away the leading personal finance sync site, offering the ability to get a consoidated view of all your banking, credit and investment accounts in one password-protected view.

Not convinced that you should join Mint?  Check out this review by Slate.com’s resident tech guru Farhad Majoo.

As we gather around the country to celebrate our nation’s independence,  it’s tough for many Americans to be in a real good mood when the recession has tread all over our financial freedoms like King George himself.

But while things look bleak right now, it’s important to remember that after all these years, the good old U.S. of A. is still the place to be when it comes to the pursuit of happiness.

So in honor of our country, and in no particular order, here are one hundred reasons why America is still the land of hope and opportunity.

Happy Fourth of July!

1. The Bill of Rights
2. Meritocracy
3. New York City
4. Radio
5. Television
6. The Internet
7. Minimum wage laws
8. The Wall Street Journal
9. The Daily Show
10. Major League Baseball
11. Family farms
12. Megafarms
13. OSHA
14. Oprah
15. Cops
16. Teachers
17. Firemen
18. Nurses
19. Risk
20. Reward
21. The Dollar
22. Gold
23. Networking
24. Electricity
25. HR
26. General Motors
27. Working your way through college
28. Student loan programs
29. 529 Plans
30. Rich uncles
31. Airlines
32. The Gap
33. Lawsuits
34. Pro-bono lawyers
35. Cubicles
36. Free and open elections
37. Nike
38. Recycling
39. E-mail
40. Free public education
41. Exports
42. Imports
43. Charities
44. Free textbooks
45. Free school lunch
46. Starbucks
47. Social Security
48. Pensions
49. 401(k) plans
    
50. Venture capitalists
51. Dot-coms
52. The child tax credit
53. Tipping
54. Amtrak
55. Cash
56. Credit
57. Chicago
58. Municipal drinking water
59. McDonald’s
60. The NFL
61. Insurance
62. Watchdogs
63. Whistle-blowers
64. Medicare
65. The FDIC
66. Apple
67. Alan Greenspan
68. The National Guard
69. Automatic teller machines
70. Debtbeat
71. Las Vegas
72. Coca-Cola
73. The mortgage interest deduction
74. Wal-Mart
75. Hospitals
76. The Postal Service
77. Happy hour
78. Warren Buffett
79. Bill Gates
80. Boston
81. Freeways
82. Ford
83. Weekends
84. Holidays
85. 5 o’clock
86. Garbage collection
87. Sewage treatment
88. Google
89. College football
90. The U.S. Armed Forces
91. Hollywood
92. Democrats
93. Republicans
94. The Tea Party
95. Raises
96. Bonuses
97. Commissions
98. Praise for a job well done
99. Washington, DC
100. Sea to shining sea….

Ain’t Too Proud to Beg?  If you’re a college student or recent graduate with student loans to pay off you may want to check out a new online service called SponsorMyDegree.com.

The site matches students and recent graduates with individuals and companies willing to help pay for their education.  It’s basically glorified begging, as these contributions ar not loans and the student is not expected to provide any goods or services in exchange for the donations to their college funds.

Student users set up a free profile and tell prospective donors about their studies, hobbies, plans or anything else of potential interest to someone who might slide them some cash.  They can promote their listings to friends and family who can donate to them through the site.  They can withdraw money if they get a minimum of twenty dollars.

People and corporations who donate to students can give as little as five dollars.  Major corporate fundings can be allocated for as little as a dollar.

SponsorMyDegree.com is not a charity, and contributions to students are not tax deductible.  The site makes money by targeted advertising and students are a very attractive target market.  No one wants to bombarded by spammy e-mails, but there’s no such thing as a free lunch and it’s probably worth it if you can get some books paid at the very least.  Just set your e-mail filter to high.

There seems to be a host of new student funding options lately, like peer2peer services and now, the pure handout.

This may be because the government has opted to remove private banks from the student loan origination process, limiting some choice in this process.  The credit crisis also limits students’ options now.

So if you’d like to get some help with your student debt this is a potentially viable source of cash.  But don’t try to game the system if you’re not a student; the service does verify student enrollment through a central clearinghouse.