SmartyPig features an option to Add Money to each of your goals. If your monthly contribution has already been initiated or you're looking to add extra funds to your pig, clicking on Add Money will take you through the steps of making a one time contribution to that goal outside of your scheduled monthly amount. The Add Money feature is a perfect fit for tax season and a great way to save your returns.

SmartyPig allows you to add up to $50,000 a day to your goals. Met your goal? No problem. You can still add money to your goal and continue to earn interest.

Watch the video below. Switch to full screen mode by clicking the icon in the bottom right of the video below.

Adding Money To Your Savings Goal from SmartyPig on Vimeo

The format:

1. After 15 minutes, we will be picking 20 random people with a number generator from the pool of correct answers.
2. We'll be bringing back a trusted method in selecting three gift card winners.
3. We'll post the process here on our blog, so everyone can follow along!

Make sure:

1. You're following us on Twitter.
2. We'll ask the $100 question on Friday, March 27th at 11am CST.
3. Answer the question correctly for your chance to win!

Remember: if you don't already have a SmartyPig account, it's free to set one up! Winner must be in the US.

Good Luck!

The SmartyPig team hit the road last weekend, headed to South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, and joined in the festivities to spread the word about our being the leader in the social banking space.

SXSW is a conference and festival event for entertainment and related media industry professionals. During the conference, co-founder Mike Ferrari had a chance to speak on a panel with other up-and-coming financial sites. Mike showcased our recent release of OFX integration and spoke of SmartyPig's rapid growth as one of the most innovative financial websites in global financial services today.

To say the least, the reaction has been terrific! We've been all over the online map and in the press regarding how simple and smart it is to use SmartyPig - now even more so after the OFX integration, as we've made it even easier for SmartyPig members to track their saving habits beyond SmartyPig.com. Especially in a trying economy, we understand that people want options to help them organize their finances and keep on the right track. With SmartyPig, we can even make the money go farther than ever.

We're looking forward to the upcoming months and appreciate customer feedback as we grow. We also tip our hat to the SXSW folks for including us at its most successful interactive event ever! The opportunity to speak to so many people about helping save the world by helping the world save has us itching for 2010.

Be sure to look for more exciting news in the next few weeks at SmartyPig, where Saving Will Never be the Same!

Special thanks to:

• Social Times, Kristen Nicole
• LA Times, Dan Frost
• Fast Company, Anya Kamenetz
• Venture Beat, Anthony Ha
• Shankrila.com

We have received a significant number of requests from our customers indicating they want to be able to upload/integrate their SmartyPig account into their preferred financial money management site. Well, starting today you can! SmartyPig now integrates with sites like Mint, Wesabe, Yodlee, Buxfer, Thrive, MoneyStrands and Microsoft Money. Geezeo and Rudder are coming soon.

There were two ways we could have integrated with these online money management sites. One would be to allow these sites to "screen scrape" - a technique in which a computer program extracts data from the display output of a Web page. The key element that distinguishes screen scraping is that the output being scraped was intended for display to an end-user, rather than as input to another program.

The other method would be for us to invest in an OFX (Open Financial Exchange) solution, a unified specification for the electronic exchange of financial data between financial institutions, businesses and consumers via the web. With more than 5,500 financial institutions using OFX, the specification is the most widely adopted open standard for the exchange of financial information between consumers and financial services providers.

We chose to invest in an OFX solution with one of the industry leaders in OFX technology, Access Softek out of Berkley, California.

At SmartyPig we recognize how important it is to securely manage your finances, set goals and help change the mindset of "buy now, pay later." And being able to aggregate all your accounts in one place is a critical step in taking control of your finances.

Did we miss integrating with your money management site? If so, please let us know!

Mike Ferrari, co-founder

When we began to build SmartyPig the national saving rate was -1 percent, the worst it had been since the Great Depression. People were spending more money than they made. Think about that? Think that has anything to do with where we find ourselves currently with regard to the economy? Now, some are saying, the personal saving rate will grow to 8% over the next few years. They also say that is bad for the economy. That it is too many people spending too little money.

SmartyPig is where the happy medium exists. Somewhere between those living beyond their means and those stuffing their mattresses with their paychecks each week exists the sensible saving set. See, we are all about saving before spending: You decide you want to take a vacation. You want to put a little away each month. You want to earn one of the best interest rates in the country. You want a travel agency or cruise line waiting with a cash boost for you just before you are ready to set sail. You want to stimulate the economy without sinking your own ship. You want SmartyPig.

Look, it's not all bad news out there. It may seem like it. But the silver lining is fairly easy to identify: people have changed their financial behavior. And from what they're telling us, SmartyPig makes the transition a much less painful one.