Comment by chrsig | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chrsig | Hacker News Reader

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I hated all of the advertising in mint. I recently started using ynab[0], which can also import balances & transactions from banks. It supports oauth and 2fa, which was nice for the reason you listed: I don't want to give my credentials to anyone, even a "trusted" vendor like intuit. It also has a rest api, which I haven't gotten to try yet, but stands out as a very nice to have feature for me.

The downside is that ynab is some $, but I think it's worth it not to have ads for insurance, loans, or credit cards being shoved down my throat.

I evaluated personal capital[1] as well, but I got really turned off by them having a "continue with google" auth workflow that leads you to a page saying they haven't implemented it yet. Not a great way to build trust, which is a absolute must for any financial application.

If any HNers have good recommendations, I for one would appreciate hearing them. I'm ok spending ~100/yr on a good financial management app.

[0] https://youneedabudget.com

[1] https://www.personalcapital.com/

I recently ended my subscription for YNAB after more than half a decade of usage. I was grandfathered into the old price, but they took that away with the most recent price increase, so I could not justify staying.

However, since I have quit, I have not found my habits to have changed. I think some part of the system is permanently burned into my brain. I am exploring my options with hledger, and it's been a neat experience so far.

oh, hledger does look pretty neat. If I were the only person involved in my budgeting, I'd definitely give it some serious consideration.

There's also beancount [1] which has a (local) web interface via fava [2].

[1] https://beancount.github.io/ [2] https://beancount.github.io/fava/

I think Beancount might actually be better than hledger for the ways I intend to use it, but I wish Beancount was a bit more relaxed with naming conventions and account names/structure.

Where would you like to see it be more relaxed? While the documentation has some pretty strong recommendations, other than the top 5 accounts, you can pretty much do as you wish.

> Where would you like to see it be more relaxed?

Having spaces in account names and not having to type the currency for every transaction would be nice. Though, I will say it's been quite a few years, so perhaps things have changed.

It's still possible to use the version of YNAB from before they switched to a subscription model.

This might be just what you're looking for: https://www.monarchmoney.com/

Although I'm not sure how it compares to YNAB since I've heard good things about it too. What I like about Monarch is the nice UI, no ads, responsiveness and that the sync doesn't fail (often) like it failed (often) with Mint all the time.

That does look like just what I'm looking for. I'm going to have to give the 7 day trial a shot.

I like that it has investment tracking as well.

Agreed that mint was terrible with syncing. I don't know if it's improved at all in the last several years.

+1 for ynab.

I’ve been using it for 3-4 years now and happily pay for it. It makes tracking our family expenses manageable in a way that I can’t imagine with many other systems. It is especially helpful during times when your expenses suddenly skyrocket (buying a house, wedding, etc). The reports / graphing features are pretty useful too when you’re trying to understand how to shift your spending habits.

It’s essentially a “cash envelope” budgeting system made digital. The idea is to take all of your available cash and distribute it into categories with specific purposes. When you find there is extra money that needs to be distributed, you pay down some debt or maybe start saving for that vacation you’ve been needing. It really helps you get ahead of your spending and to act responsibly with money.

The thing that turned me away from ynab is that their marketing seems to say that they're trying to change spending/saving behavior in some way. I don't need to plan or make a zbb, I just want to easily categorize and track my spending. Admittedly, I didn't even try their free trial, but it just didn't seem like a good fit.

Yeah YNAB is pretty much full steam ahead with the ZBB mindset. I've tried to use it without doing the ZBB part and it really is not set up for that.

Yeah, I can understand if you're not looking for something to help you with a zero balance budget, then it wouldn't be a great fit.

I think my biggest gripe is the reporting tools. They give a couple basic charts, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

I have personally been using Banktivity for some years. It’s a great app with decent feature velocity (not too slow, but not too fast either), has decent support for EU banks now, and syncs really well. You do have to be in the Apple ecosystem to enjoy its benefits though.

I've been using Banktivity for years, but the recent change to a quasi-subscription model leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I understand why they're moving this way, but I'd much rather have $x for the software (with upgrade pricing for major versions) and $y/mo for the features that require their backend to work.

FWIW Mint now offers a premium subscription that removes all of the advertising. https://mint.intuit.com/premium

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