What are you using for personal financial planning/tracking?

I used to try a bunch of different apps for tracking personal finances(YNAB, Mint etc.). But they didn't fit my "model". There are a few options that I would like to have:

  • Transaction fees, I want to see how much I lose on transactions

  • Smart budgeting

  • Family sharing

  • Recurrent savings (e.g >10% from each income)

  • Multi currencies

  • The planing of big purchases (e.g >5% from each income with deadlines)

  • Maybe available money per day (total income - recurrent transactions(e.g savings/subscriptions) - purchases planing / days in month) something like that.

Google Sheet doesn't fit my expectation, because I fill in transactions from the iPhone. I already started working on the app for myself but feel that there is a loooot of similar stuff. So no need for one more.

Please, share your experience of tracking the personal budget. What are you using for that? What have you tried to use? Maybe you already made something that will be suitable for me?

I'm using Mint and my bank's app, although for my investment portfolio I use M1 Finance.

I personally dislike Mint - it's barebones and barely helps me track what I spend. I just don't use it.

I do love M1 though - it's not automated robo-investing, just automatic allocation balancing which I really like. I just check it once a year and rebalance my holding allocations.

0 Likes
Fajar Siddiq

mint is so famous

0 Likes
Maxim Dzhuliy Author

@sergio

I personally dislike Mint - it's barebones and barely helps me track what I spend. I just don't use it.

why you share your data to 3rd party service? Your bank doesn't have reports?

M1 Finance Is it a kind of a broker or just for tracking allocations?

0 Likes

It does, they're just lacking.

M1 is a broker.

0 Likes
Maxim Dzhuliy Author

@sergio Why did you chose M1 instead of IB? How did you choose that? Also, I didn't find information if they work international or which countries are supported, any info?

0 Likes
Josh Barker

I built a budgeting app last year in order to save up for my new house. It worked! I bought the house, but then I just stopped using the app, really.

Picked it up again recently to do a bit more work on it, maybe publish it on the app store, but I'm not too sure yet.

Here's a link to the app's design: https://uireview.net/s/65d7ff19

Very basic overview:

  • Set up recurring income/expenses
  • Manually enter daily transactions (optional, I also used the app just to see what my monthly expenses are as this replaced a standard spreadsheet I was using)
  • Configurable daily budget
  • Dashboard allows you to see how much you have left to spend, and how much you will have after your recurring income/expenses are charged, which I thought was really useful.

Would this be something people are interested in?

0 Likes
Maxim Dzhuliy Author

@meowfishcat DEFINITELY! I would! It seems to be interesting. What about:

  • Transaction fees
  • Family sharing
  • Recurrent savings (e.g >10% from each income)
0 Likes
Fajar Siddiq

i use bank itself.

0 Likes
Maxim Dzhuliy Author

This is a good option if it works for you. My banking apps don't provide a lot of features that I need.

0 Likes
Jordan Bowman

I use YNAB and have been pretty impressed with it. It's different from a typical budgeting app and is based on YNAB's particular way of thinking. But once you understand how it works it's very nice and I think it actually covers all of your bullet points.

0 Likes

What's YNAB?

0 Likes
Maxim Dzhuliy Author

@sergio You Need a Budget

@jrdnbwmn I don't know I found that uncomfortable. Tried two times. Maybe I did something wrong?

0 Likes
Jordan Bowman

@dzumax Yeah it's a little different… the first couple times I tried it I didn't really get it. This video really helped me to understand what was going on. He has some other good videos explaining more about YNAB.

0 Likes
Khaja Naquiuddin

I use YNAB too.. Initially I didn't like it, because I was using it wrong. After watching their lessons and videos YNAB made lot of sense to me and this year I am using it properly and it is helping me a lot.

0 Likes
Maxim Dzhuliy Author

@jrdnbwmn they did something wrong if they need video lessons to start working with them

0 Likes

There's also personalfinance.com, although their mobile app sucks.

0 Likes
Carl Poppa 🛸

I use Moneon (free version). Quite basic, does what I need it to do. Enter income and expenses on the fly, by category, displays monthly earnings and spend.

0 Likes
Oliver Riechert

Free, shareable, and easy to use: https://halfdollar.org/

0 Likes
Maxim Dzhuliy Author

Is it comfortable to work with it on the phone?

0 Likes
Oliver Riechert

No, but it works for me.

0 Likes

I use Emma and appreciate it's human approach to finance.

0 Likes
Maxim Dzhuliy Author

I would check that! Thanks!

0 Likes
Animesh

Oh wow. What you described is exactly what I'm making. I just signed up to makerlog after listening to the indiehackers podcast, and this is what I see! This is a good omen.

0 Likes

Haha welcome home!

0 Likes
Maxim Dzhuliy Author

@inamesh don't forget to share that!

0 Likes
Animesh

@dzumax I absolutely will. Looks like you know exactly what you want from a budgeting app so your feedback will be very valuable!

I like the concept of making in public too. This is a whole new world for me!

0 Likes

Please sign in to leave a comment.