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Comment by lalitmaganti | Hacker News Reader

> How do you think it compares time-wise to using existing accounting software?

Author here. I tried various consumer budgeting apps before I ended up building my own (and then going to Beancount). The main problem with every one of the apps I tried is that they don't handle investments well. 99% of my money is invested and having net worth figures which are wildly wrong because the app is only tracking bank accounts really annoyed me. That was the reason I built my own thing in the first place.

> Was the time investment worth it to get the control and visibility you now have?

Absolutely yes. I think it helps me really understand where my money is going, how I can make it work harder etc. Even though the RE part of FIRE doesn't appeal to me, the FI part does and knowing where I stand at all times has been very motivating.

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Thank you for taking the time to reply - thank you!

I have question on a more personal front - please feel no obligation to reply.

What impact has having such clear visibility into your accounts had on your relationship with your wife? It feels like it would be a great catalyst for communication, trust and building things if shared finances was a key part of the relationship.

I think this part was the most inspirational - it takes a lot of courage to be that open about finances, even with partners, perhaps especially with partners.

Happy to answer :)

> What impact has having such clear visibility into your accounts had on your relationship with your wife?

That's a great question. Thankfully when it comes to finances we are very aligned in our habits and goals. So we find it very natural to be open because we know that we're both going to be aligned.

Where we differ heavily though is how much we are willing to really getting onto the nitty gritty details. She really likes knowing how our money works but she also has no interest in spending so much time and effort on it.

But that works great because I love this stuff. So every month or so we have a "finances session" where I sit down with her, take her through the books and make sure we're both happy with everything.

Obviously this very much depends on the couple whether this works but it has for us so far!

I love that, thank you for sharing.

Would you consider a follow up blog post about how you structure and approach your monthly finance sessions? I understand that it would be well outside of your topics of software engineering, performance and open-source, but I find that the human component of our industry is often missing. An insight into how someone has successfully navigated that would be a wonderful read.

Given the comments on this post and the other Beancount one in the frontpage, I definitely think there's enough I want to say for at least one if not two followups. Stay tuned!

> The main problem with every one of the apps I tried is that they don't handle investments well.

Could you expand what were you looking for with respect to investments that was lacking?

I use GnuCash for many investment accounts (in multiple currencies) and haven't run into any limitation, it can show me the true net worth graph.

I'm talking about apps similar to Mint and YNAB. Specifically I used to use an app called Yolt (which was shut down) and then was on an app called Emma for a bit.

I'm sure GnuCash would also work just fine but ultimately it's also a full double entry system. I never tried it because I came across ledger/hledger/beancount first and, being command line tools, they appealed more to my sensibilities.

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