Even if you have less income, Green Sherpa allows financial peace

In a recession, you'd think that fewer people would need a personal finance site to help them track expenses. After all, if you have less money to spend, why go to all of the trouble to keep track of it, beyond balancing a checkbook?

The founders of Green Sherpa, a Web site in private beta mode that offers a way to watch your personal cash flow ebb about, think otherwise.

While many personal finance software programs, such as Quicken and Microsoft Money, allow users to easily monitor their expenses, Green Sherpa differs in that it allows people to look forward and plan for future expenses and possible incomes, said Masen Yaffee, CEO of Green Sherpa.

"Green Sherpa offers people an opportunity to have peace of mind" as a future planning tool," Yaffee told me in a telephone interview from his office in Santa Barbara.