6 ms·

Show HN: Ballistic – A Personal Finance Tracker

37 points by jrmiller_ 12y ago

dewey 12y ago
The announcement post [0] looks nice, but maybe the landing page could use a bit more information than just the login and register fields? [0] http://blog.jrmiller.co/ballistic-finance/ http://blog.jrmiller.co/ballistic-finance/
- danoprey 12y ago
  Yeah, really terrible landing page, I'm afraid. You'll have an extremely low conversion rate which will be a big waste of a Show HN. The announcement post is also hidden quite small in the footer. I would have ignored this as legal if it weren't for the parent comment. As it is, I'm not going to sign up without some clear value. Hope to see it again with an improved landing page.
- jrmiller_ 12y ago
  Hello! Thanks for checking it out. The reason the landing page sucks is because Ballistic wasn't really intended to be a product. I created it mainly for two reasons: 1. I made a simpler version of the app before to learn node and found myself using it often. I wanted a version with more features and so I created Ballistic. 2. I wanted to use it as a portfolio item I could reference when applying to jobs which require Node/Angular. I still think you're right though, so I quickly updated the landing page. Hopefully it's a little more clear now.
- fiatjaf 12y ago
  I liked the landing page.
  - dewey 12y ago
    OP changed it, there wasn't one before.
heyalexej 12y ago
I coincidentally found it 2 days ago in your Github repo while looking for an alternative to Toshl & Co. that can do this kind of projections towards FI. Didn't check it out yet but it looks good from the screenshots and you should absolutely post it on Reddit[1] as requests in this sub constantly pop up. You might "lose" plenty of otherwise interested people though because of the (lack of a proper) landing page. [1]http://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/ http://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/
- jrmiller_ 12y ago
  Wow, that's pretty cool. I would have never expected someone to find the repo on their own like that. I've considered posting on reddit, but most subreddits (including that one) have rules against "self promotion", which they might think I'm doing. So maybe try it out for yourself sometime and share it if you like it! :)
platinumdragon 12y ago
May be the best tool in the world, but I'm not signing up for anything that has an invalid certificate and no landing page. Even a couple of basic screenshots would be encouraging.
mrmondo 12y ago
I'm pretty hesitant to sign up to anything if there's no information or even screenshots on the homepage. Perhaps we could get in contact with the developer and offer some feedback that might help?
- jrmiller_ 12y ago
  Hey there! I added a little more info. You can just sign up with a random username and password though. The site doesn't ask for an email or anything. It's not really intended as a proper product, just something I've been working on for my own use that I've decided to open up to others.
  - mrmondo 12y ago
    Much better!
gk1 12y ago
Something is wrong with your SSL certificate. I'm getting a warning page from Chrome for Android.
- jrmiller_ 12y ago
  I'm using a free ssl cert from https://www.startssl.com/ https://www.startssl.com/. I think one of the caveats of it being free is that it's not supported by everything? I'm not sure though. It works for Chrome on Desktop it seems. I just didn't want to spend money on an SSL cert for a project that's not intended to make a profit. Sorry for the trouble anyway.
  - raamdev 12y ago
    For future reference, you can get a RapidSSL certificate (recognized by 99% of browsers) for ~$6/year here: https://cheapsslsecurity.com/ https://cheapsslsecurity.com/
  - ipmb 12y ago
    Include the intermediate certificate in your certificate chain and it should fix gk1's issue. You want the one labelled "extra download" here: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=ballisticfinance.com https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=ballisticfina...
    - jrmiller_ 12y ago
      Thanks for the tip. I'll fix that tomorrow.
gnachman 12y ago
This is almost very useful, but it's missing two features: 1. I want to index my passive income to inflation, meaning drawing down from principal if necessary; so you'll need to know my assumption rate for inflation and life expectancy. 2. My investment return rate will change (since I'll have a lower risk tolerance) when I reach my goal.
- jrmiller_ 12y ago
  Thanks for checking it out! Those are some good suggestions. I'll probably add them in when I have the time.
- robzyb 12y ago
  Fun fact: The term "inflation" usually refers to price inflation. Indexing passive income to price inflation makes sense in the short term. However in the long term, especially when talking about retirement income, wage inflation (which is usually higher than price inflation) can produce more insightful results. Using wage inflation in an analysis means that you build in the increases in living that can be expected over the decades. This comment was brought to you by your local HN actuary(ial analyst).
dyr 12y ago
I looked into making something like this awhile back, but this looks great. Brushing up the UI on the landing would help, but all in all--great job!
trishume 12y ago
Shameless plug for my financial independence analysis app, designed for projecting the future instead of tracking the past: http://thume.ca/stashline http://thume.ca/stashline Would combo well with this app.
foolinaround 12y ago
if this app could import the csv file generated from mint, it would be truly useful. In mint, you cannot export the sub-categories, also the number of tags is limited to 10, I believe. If this app can take in a mint csv, be able to dedup the records and add additional functionality, it would be the killer app.
jackcarter 12y ago
I'm getting "Error: XSRF Token mismatch.." when trying to add an investment.
vehementi 12y ago
Numbers being extremely wrong in the demo picture made me upset
- epa 12y ago
  Also noticed this -- however it is a nice landing page

37 points by jrmiller_ 12y ago

dewey 12y ago

The announcement post [0] looks nice, but maybe the landing page could use a bit more information than just the login and register fields? [0] http://blog.jrmiller.co/ballistic-finance/ http://blog.jrmiller.co/ballistic-finance/

danoprey 12y ago
Yeah, really terrible landing page, I'm afraid. You'll have an extremely low conversion rate which will be a big waste of a Show HN. The announcement post is also hidden quite small in the footer. I would have ignored this as legal if it weren't for the parent comment. As it is, I'm not going to sign up without some clear value. Hope to see it again with an improved landing page.
jrmiller_ 12y ago
Hello! Thanks for checking it out. The reason the landing page sucks is because Ballistic wasn't really intended to be a product. I created it mainly for two reasons: 1. I made a simpler version of the app before to learn node and found myself using it often. I wanted a version with more features and so I created Ballistic. 2. I wanted to use it as a portfolio item I could reference when applying to jobs which require Node/Angular. I still think you're right though, so I quickly updated the landing page. Hopefully it's a little more clear now.
fiatjaf 12y ago
I liked the landing page.
- dewey 12y ago
  OP changed it, there wasn't one before.

heyalexej 12y ago

I coincidentally found it 2 days ago in your Github repo while looking for an alternative to Toshl & Co. that can do this kind of projections towards FI. Didn't check it out yet but it looks good from the screenshots and you should absolutely post it on Reddit[1] as requests in this sub constantly pop up. You might "lose" plenty of otherwise interested people though because of the (lack of a proper) landing page. [1]http://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/ http://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/

jrmiller_ 12y ago
Wow, that's pretty cool. I would have never expected someone to find the repo on their own like that. I've considered posting on reddit, but most subreddits (including that one) have rules against "self promotion", which they might think I'm doing. So maybe try it out for yourself sometime and share it if you like it! :)

platinumdragon 12y ago

May be the best tool in the world, but I'm not signing up for anything that has an invalid certificate and no landing page. Even a couple of basic screenshots would be encouraging.

mrmondo 12y ago

I'm pretty hesitant to sign up to anything if there's no information or even screenshots on the homepage. Perhaps we could get in contact with the developer and offer some feedback that might help?

jrmiller_ 12y ago
Hey there! I added a little more info. You can just sign up with a random username and password though. The site doesn't ask for an email or anything. It's not really intended as a proper product, just something I've been working on for my own use that I've decided to open up to others.
- mrmondo 12y ago
  Much better!

gk1 12y ago

Something is wrong with your SSL certificate. I'm getting a warning page from Chrome for Android.

jrmiller_ 12y ago
I'm using a free ssl cert from https://www.startssl.com/ https://www.startssl.com/. I think one of the caveats of it being free is that it's not supported by everything? I'm not sure though. It works for Chrome on Desktop it seems. I just didn't want to spend money on an SSL cert for a project that's not intended to make a profit. Sorry for the trouble anyway.
- raamdev 12y ago
  For future reference, you can get a RapidSSL certificate (recognized by 99% of browsers) for ~$6/year here: https://cheapsslsecurity.com/ https://cheapsslsecurity.com/
- ipmb 12y ago
  Include the intermediate certificate in your certificate chain and it should fix gk1's issue. You want the one labelled "extra download" here: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=ballisticfinance.com https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=ballisticfina...
  - jrmiller_ 12y ago
    Thanks for the tip. I'll fix that tomorrow.

gnachman 12y ago

This is almost very useful, but it's missing two features: 1. I want to index my passive income to inflation, meaning drawing down from principal if necessary; so you'll need to know my assumption rate for inflation and life expectancy. 2. My investment return rate will change (since I'll have a lower risk tolerance) when I reach my goal.

jrmiller_ 12y ago
Thanks for checking it out! Those are some good suggestions. I'll probably add them in when I have the time.
robzyb 12y ago
Fun fact: The term "inflation" usually refers to price inflation. Indexing passive income to price inflation makes sense in the short term. However in the long term, especially when talking about retirement income, wage inflation (which is usually higher than price inflation) can produce more insightful results. Using wage inflation in an analysis means that you build in the increases in living that can be expected over the decades. This comment was brought to you by your local HN actuary(ial analyst).

dyr 12y ago

I looked into making something like this awhile back, but this looks great. Brushing up the UI on the landing would help, but all in all--great job!

trishume 12y ago

Shameless plug for my financial independence analysis app, designed for projecting the future instead of tracking the past: http://thume.ca/stashline http://thume.ca/stashline Would combo well with this app.

foolinaround 12y ago

if this app could import the csv file generated from mint, it would be truly useful. In mint, you cannot export the sub-categories, also the number of tags is limited to 10, I believe. If this app can take in a mint csv, be able to dedup the records and add additional functionality, it would be the killer app.

jackcarter 12y ago

I'm getting "Error: XSRF Token mismatch.." when trying to add an investment.

vehementi 12y ago

Numbers being extremely wrong in the demo picture made me upset

epa 12y ago
Also noticed this -- however it is a nice landing page