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Comment by PascLeRasc | Hacker News Reader

The shutdown has been such a drain on my mental health. I’ve lost sleep most nights for the past 4 months trying all the replacements and I’ve lost money from none of them being helpful. Buying a cup of coffee is now anxiety inducing.

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I don't know what your situation is, but I wonder whether you've encountered a downside of what might be considered "gamification" of budgeting apps?

Would it help to remove an aspect that has become too much of a headache? Or that you register as a much more important a challenge than it actually is, relative to your other goals (including a good night's sleep)?

FWIW, when I was tracking every penny (I'd literally have a GnuCash double-entry accounting transaction for every time I picked up a penny on the ground), I eventually found the accounting work was not worthwhile (except for lucky found pennies, which amused me). So I switched from breaking everything out into expense categories, to only breaking out expense categories with tax implications. Almost all all expenses other than rent, utilities, and insurance became "Misc."

I also (pre-Covid) turned my paper-money wallet into a fund that I didn't track, except for cash going into it, and to have maybe a monthly counting of the paper money in it. Occasionally counting the paper-money in the wallet generates a single big "Misc." expense transaction, to make the accounting software agree with the count of how much is in the wallet.

(An alternative would be to consider the money spent as soon as it went into the wallet. That's how I'm treating coins, when they go in the jar, so I don't have to count them. A Coinstar once a year or so is simply a rebate to Misc., since I'm not a CPA.)

It's not a complete replacement, but one former Simple customer has basically replicated the entire budgeting interface and integrated it with Plaid (so that it works with almost any bank).

https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/05/08/hands-on-new-budget...

There are a fair number of "app first" banks like simple was out there. But the problem is that you might not be able to keep using them in a few years...

Varo, MoneyLion, Empower, Chime, and others that can be found by browsing around on the app store are good. MX powered Credit Unions (like BECU) also are really good.

Marcus Inights is also a good app to use, but it's not super advanced.

I’ve been using Monarch lately and I love it.

https://www.monarchmoney.com/

I'm not sure I understand the problem. I use a traditional credit union and there is nothing anxiety inducing about using that account to buy coffee.

What am I missing? Honest question - what does an app-first bank do for me that when lost is such a big blow?

While it's not an integrated savings/budget app like Simple, I think YNAB has a similar spirit as Simple + a great community. It's a pure budgeting app, but you'll know exactly what every dollar is doing.

As someone who switched from Simple to a “traditional” bank + YNAB, it is definitely a lot more in depth and less simple. I think it’s a good option for keeping track of everything and coming up with better plans though. One major downside of simple was not having credit card purchases inline. But Simple’s goals and expenses I think were easier to use even if less advanced. There is definitely more of a learning curve to YNAB.

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