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Sid Meier's Civilization Inspired Budget

alexrecker.com

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Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Inspired Budget

#31

Post by morgante »

ryandrake wrote: post #17

I like the idea as a way to track daily averages, and I'm going to definitely try it for myself. But it doesn't help me with what causes my nose to be buried in Quicken every Sunday: bills don't get paid little by little daily. They come at fixed times in the month (or year). This system doesn't help with the tactics of making sure there's the right amount in your checking account at the right time. Ive had many clos…

This is why I leave a full month's expenses in my checking account. (Actually, I leave a full month's expenses in 3 different checking accounts, to be on the safe side.)

Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Inspired Budget

#32

Post by morgante »

I actually have a pretty similar approach. (To be honest, Civilization's economic system is not exactly novel.)

Except I combine the daily rate with a running treasury (each day starts with the previous day's ending balance). All expenses must be paid out of the treasury, so if I want to purchase something I have to save up for a while.

Importantly, the 'treasury' is separate from my actual savings, which are deducted at a constant rate from my daily income.

The really fun part comes with estimation: I have several years of data now, so I've been able to develop a pretty complex spreadsheet which predicts my network over time. Every month I compare where I thought I was going to be and where I'm at, adjusting estimates to get more accurate over time. It's gotten to the point where I can pretty reliably predict my net worth to within $100. (One time, I even got it right down to the cent, from 6 months out.)

Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Inspired Budget

#33

Post by Pyxl101 »

I've always wondered why finance continues to run on a monthly cycle. Why isn't that kind of tracking more continuous? It seems to introduce artificial and harmful effects, like people trying to "game their numbers" at the end of a month.

It seems like reporting ought to be continuous and instantaneous.

I imagine there are historical reasons why things have worked that way, since it was inconvenient for humans to compute aggregations any more frequently. However, now we have computers. Why report on a month or quarter or year? Why not look at the report every day, or as often as needed?

Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Inspired Budget

#34

Post by sailfast »

w4 wrote: post #8

This is absolutely fantastic. I'd pay for something that hooks into my bank account and spits out a daily number for me, no problem (especially since it doesn't suffer from the mess of housekeeping and categorizing that something like Mint does, which is my biggest complaint about that kind of software). If you don't build it, I'll probably wind up hacking it together for myself. :)

I just stood the app up locally and started filling out the Yodlee API access request form but many of these APIs are for larger customer bases not personal finance. EDIT: This is just for German banks ignore this... Closest I could find is http://docs.figo.io/ (figo.io/en) - has anyone used this? Worth grabbing a bunch of transactions? I can't see this being something I use day to day without automated spending. I'm looking to build automated spending + manual entry bills per day, week, month.

EDIT: I'm going to give this a shot in the short term and see what happens, rather than writing my own scraper :) https://github.com/mrooney/mintapi

Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Inspired Budget

#35

Post by dmix »

morgante wrote: post #32

I actually have a pretty similar approach. (To be honest, Civilization's economic system is not exactly novel.) Except I combine the daily rate with a running treasury (each day starts with the previous day's ending balance). All expenses must be paid out of the treasury, so if I want to purchase something I have to save up for a while. Importantly, the 'treasury' is separate from my actual savings, which are deducte…

How much time do you spend each day doing this? I'd love something similar but the commitment concerns me. Also what if you miss a day (or two) and don't remember all purchases?

Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Inspired Budget

#36

Post by lfowles »

zrail wrote: post #21
ryandrake wrote: post #17

I like the idea as a way to track daily averages, and I'm going to definitely try it for myself. But it doesn't help me with what causes my nose to be buried in Quicken every Sunday: bills don't get paid little by little daily. They come at fixed times in the month (or year). This system doesn't help with the tactics of making sure there's the right amount in your checking account at the right time. Ive had many clos…

YNAB has the concept of a "buffer", which is just the idea that you have enough in your checking account to pay for an entire month on the first of the month. That way, your bills come out of your buffer and your paychecks replenish it. This is separate from the idea of an emergency or rainy day fund, which should be an additional 3-6 months expenses in an easy-to-access account, like a linked savings account. I real…

I was writing something longer, but essentially +1 YNAB. The videos you refer to also go over how to build up that buffer while you're living paycheck to paycheck.

Some might be turned off by having to manually input charges, by having to plan a budget each month, by being offended that they "could do the same thing in a weekend with Excel", but it's the best solution I've found for my wife and I. Not automated enough that we get disconnected from finances, but smart enough that we can easily see where we stand and run a few reports on our spending.

The system is pretty flexible, there's no need to categorize every stick of gum you buy, just use your best judgement and try not to cheat yourself.

Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Inspired Budget

#37

Post by lfowles »

Jtsummers wrote: post #28
ryandrake wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welcome to the Bay Area.

That's not just the Bay Area. That's living paycheck-to-paycheck, and it happens everywhere. Sometimes even to "wealthy" people, if they find themselves cash poor (money tied up in retirement, home equity or other property, or investments).

Exactly. If you have a steady income, there's no reason you shouldn't be working on a buffer to separate yourself from bills by at least a month.

Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Inspired Budget

#38

Post by dddrh »

zrail wrote: post #21
ryandrake wrote: post #17

I like the idea as a way to track daily averages, and I'm going to definitely try it for myself. But it doesn't help me with what causes my nose to be buried in Quicken every Sunday: bills don't get paid little by little daily. They come at fixed times in the month (or year). This system doesn't help with the tactics of making sure there's the right amount in your checking account at the right time. Ive had many clos…

YNAB has the concept of a "buffer", which is just the idea that you have enough in your checking account to pay for an entire month on the first of the month. That way, your bills come out of your buffer and your paychecks replenish it. This is separate from the idea of an emergency or rainy day fund, which should be an additional 3-6 months expenses in an easy-to-access account, like a linked savings account. I real…

Another +1 to YNAB here. You can get the 30 trial and extend it another 30 days if you ask. Additionally, Steam will put it on sale during the holidays so it can be bought for a reduced price through that platform.

What I like most about YNAB is the flexibility. It can be hard at times to follow the rules they set, but that is one of the rules! 'Roll with the punches'.

Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Inspired Budget

#40

Post by lfowles »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #39

I read his wife's name and had to go check that Marissa Meier, wife of Sid Meier, is not the same person as Merissa Meyer, CEO of Yahoo.

Presumably his wife's name is Marissa Recker, seeing that the author is Alex Recker.

Sid Meier, on the other hand, is a gaming legend[0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier

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