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People tend to act shocked when I tell them my finance app requires me to enter transactions manually and doesn't magically categorize everything. You spend a

People tend to act shocked when I tell them my finance app requires me to enter transactions manually and doesn't magically categorize everything. You spend a third of your life working for that money, surely you spend 5 minutes at most tracking how you spend it.

drawnwren 3y ago
which finance app do you recommend?
- maleldil 3y ago
  YNAB is pretty good. I like their zero-based budget system.
tunesmith 3y ago
I'm guilty of being averse to this too, even though I intellectually know that if I accept manually entering transactions, then there are so many more options I can choose for tracking finances. As it is, I'm locked into a Banktivity subscription fee... I think part of it is that it is just so hard to centralize all finances through just one bank. The best bank for retirement doesn't support business credit cards; the best credit cards are with completely different companies, etc. Monthly finances are a huge hassle as it is.
- jjav 3y ago
  > I think part of it is that it is just so hard to centralize all finances through just one bank. I always advice against single points of failure (whether software, security, or finance). Do the opposite, pick the best for each and intentionally avoid overlap. I have credit cards from every major bank but I don't have anything else at those banks. My accounts with money in them are in other institutions where I don't have cards or anything else. My mortgage is with a bank where I have nothing else with them, and so on. Decentralize, avoid too many eggs in any one basket.
tdeck 3y ago
I use an app like this as well. Was working great until I moved in with someone and it became more time consuming to look over line items and split all the restaurant / grocery bills rather than just entering the total. Now I have a bowl full of receipts to go through and the balance is usually not up to date :/.
rockooooo 3y ago
sure, but when there's a dozen apps that will do it automatically, why?
- jjeaff 3y ago
  if the app automatically categorizes things, you don't ever have to look at it. doing it yourself requires that you review every transaction individually.
  - woobar 3y ago
    Categorization and review are two different processes. The app I use will download and categorize, but I still have to review/accept each transaction. What is the benefit of manual entry in this case?
    - gardenhedge 3y ago
      Why are both of you not naming the apps you use?
      - rockooooo 3y ago
        I use Tiller, which ingests my transactions but doesn't categorize them for me (except by a rule set that I manually defined)
  - antisthenes 3y ago
    My credit card statement already automatically categorizes things. I don't know what's the point of using a 3rd party app for this, unless you feel very generous about providing your data for someone to sell. I also don't know what's the point of reviewing transactions individually. If I pay something monthly (e.g. internet/car insurance/utility bills), I'm not going to look at it every month. I might check it at the end of the year to see if there are any 10x anomalies, but that's it. I'm also not going to check transactions under $20, unless there are hundreds of them that are unexpected. Although I do feel sorry for buyers who spend $1000+ every month on impulse shopping, but those are also the kind of people to never check their financial health anyway.
marssaxman 3y ago
What value do you feel that you gain from all that categorization effort?
petsfed 3y ago
When I was very poor (~$22k/year), I had a google sheet that had a running tally of all my transactions, what category they came from, and was therefore able to forecast months in advance when I'd be able to afford to go to a movie with my partner. If I was going to have a shortfall (maybe because I'd been scheduled for less hours unexpectedly, or I had an unexpected health issue), I'd know weeks in advance if I was at risk of missing rent, and adjust my grocery spending accordingly. Being exposed to the crushing reality of my poverty, alongside the daily ritual of sending off job applications and reading rejection emails from last week's applications, took a heavy toll on my mental health. If I was running things that close to the bone again, I'm certain I could take that habit up again, but one of the ways I know I've come up is that my survival does not require me to categorize every transaction in real time and confirm adherence to the budget down to the penny.

drawnwren 3y ago

which finance app do you recommend?

maleldil 3y ago
YNAB is pretty good. I like their zero-based budget system.

tunesmith 3y ago

I'm guilty of being averse to this too, even though I intellectually know that if I accept manually entering transactions, then there are so many more options I can choose for tracking finances. As it is, I'm locked into a Banktivity subscription fee... I think part of it is that it is just so hard to centralize all finances through just one bank. The best bank for retirement doesn't support business credit cards; the best credit cards are with completely different companies, etc. Monthly finances are a huge hassle as it is.

jjav 3y ago
> I think part of it is that it is just so hard to centralize all finances through just one bank. I always advice against single points of failure (whether software, security, or finance). Do the opposite, pick the best for each and intentionally avoid overlap. I have credit cards from every major bank but I don't have anything else at those banks. My accounts with money in them are in other institutions where I don't have cards or anything else. My mortgage is with a bank where I have nothing else with them, and so on. Decentralize, avoid too many eggs in any one basket.

tdeck 3y ago

I use an app like this as well. Was working great until I moved in with someone and it became more time consuming to look over line items and split all the restaurant / grocery bills rather than just entering the total. Now I have a bowl full of receipts to go through and the balance is usually not up to date :/.

rockooooo 3y ago

sure, but when there's a dozen apps that will do it automatically, why?

jjeaff 3y ago
if the app automatically categorizes things, you don't ever have to look at it. doing it yourself requires that you review every transaction individually.
- woobar 3y ago
  Categorization and review are two different processes. The app I use will download and categorize, but I still have to review/accept each transaction. What is the benefit of manual entry in this case?
  - gardenhedge 3y ago
    Why are both of you not naming the apps you use?
    - rockooooo 3y ago
      I use Tiller, which ingests my transactions but doesn't categorize them for me (except by a rule set that I manually defined)
- antisthenes 3y ago
  My credit card statement already automatically categorizes things. I don't know what's the point of using a 3rd party app for this, unless you feel very generous about providing your data for someone to sell. I also don't know what's the point of reviewing transactions individually. If I pay something monthly (e.g. internet/car insurance/utility bills), I'm not going to look at it every month. I might check it at the end of the year to see if there are any 10x anomalies, but that's it. I'm also not going to check transactions under $20, unless there are hundreds of them that are unexpected. Although I do feel sorry for buyers who spend $1000+ every month on impulse shopping, but those are also the kind of people to never check their financial health anyway.

marssaxman 3y ago

What value do you feel that you gain from all that categorization effort?

petsfed 3y ago

When I was very poor (~$22k/year), I had a google sheet that had a running tally of all my transactions, what category they came from, and was therefore able to forecast months in advance when I'd be able to afford to go to a movie with my partner. If I was going to have a shortfall (maybe because I'd been scheduled for less hours unexpectedly, or I had an unexpected health issue), I'd know weeks in advance if I was at risk of missing rent, and adjust my grocery spending accordingly. Being exposed to the crushing reality of my poverty, alongside the daily ritual of sending off job applications and reading rejection emails from last week's applications, took a heavy toll on my mental health. If I was running things that close to the bone again, I'm certain I could take that habit up again, but one of the ways I know I've come up is that my survival does not require me to categorize every transaction in real time and confirm adherence to the budget down to the penny.