Ask HN: Custom solutions to manage your finances? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Custom solutions to manage your finances?

1 pointperryraskin5 comments

I'm a developer with ideas to implement ways to better manage personal finances. Was hoping to see what others have come up with until now.

One thing I did do, however, was create a spreadsheet that allows me to track all my Chase credit card points super nicely.

Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ciivnpDHQJyC5WJWNj0UfBJY95mnWTFVpYpKk_n9Rr4/edit?usp=sharing

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Better than budgeting, change your lifestyle. Ride a bicycle and get rid of your car, rent a smaller/cheaper apartment or get roommates, get a job with free office food, work more so that you naturally have less time to spend money, get a better paying job. Lifestyle changes are higher impact than budgeting, which IMO is a waste of time unless you're retired/pensioned.

There was a recent post about essentially the same topic here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22004515

Thanks, but that's actually not what I'm looking for. I know of all the budgeting apps that exist, in additional to the Subreddits and community sites.

I'm looking more for developers' perspectives on doing things programmatically and that are made to solve an individual's specific needs and problems within their own budgeting needs.

Even after trying out basically every single budgeting app out there, I'm still not satisfied. I've been running some Python scripts to get myself some super customized charts and reports.

Basically I want to see what innovative ideas other developers have come up with to satisfy their specific needs. I think there is so much more than can be done in this area! :D

As a person who is a developer and who commented in the linked thread about using custom scripts to handle my personal finances, I’m intrigued by your characterization of the link.

I’d also suggest that if you don’t want people to talk about non-custom solutions, your Ask HN question might be better off if amended to clarify that.

You're right, missed a few comments there. Especially yours, which definitely fit what I'm asking for.

And I totally want to learn more about the set of libraries that leverage the free Plaid tier to automatically fetch bank and credit card transactions. Seems exactly like what I am looking for.

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