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Simple Personal Finance Tracking with GnuCash

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Re: Simple Personal Finance Tracking with GnuCash

#201

Post by sanderjd »

alexmingoia wrote: post #187
sanderjd wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because once I started doing it I found that I didn't actually know what I spent money on, not really. I found that my rough estimates for where my money was going were way off and lagged actual changes in my behavior by a number of months. Just as an example, I still don't feel like my family is spending close to double what we used to on groceries during the pandemic, but I know that we are because I have mont…

Do you put savings and necessary expenses aside when paid? To each their own. If it works for you great. I can’t imagine sitting down and tracking whether my grocery expenses fluctuated from one month to the next, since it can’t impact my ability to pay bills and save. If I was worried about not having money for groceries I would set that money aside when I get paid. I also have a family and am the sole income earner…

Your system sounds simpler but more rigid than mine. In my system, everything is a negotiable trade off. There is not static bills and savings to set aside, there is a trade-off between those things and spending. If I want to spend more on groceries or socializing or vacations in some period of time, that is just a trade-off against all the other things in my budget. Maybe I'd rather find ways to lower my bills than my spending. Maybe I want to save less in some month so that I can spend more on something that will bring us more joy that month. It is easier to make these decisions on trade offs with good visibility into all spending and saving.

But I would also suggest that it seems like you're actually doing the thing you said you don't understand why people do. You have a budget, it just has a relatively small number of categories. But the answer to your question is that people do this for the same reason that you do your setting aside of money for bills, savings, and spending.

Re: Simple Personal Finance Tracking with GnuCash

#202

Post by misterspaceman »

I really like the system described in this video; it's kind of a mix between double-entry and envelope accounting. It's what finally helped me get my budgeting under control. https://youtu.be/eIcsMHL0NJ0

In the video, the guy recommends MoneyDance, but the same system would probably work in GnuCash too.

Re: Simple Personal Finance Tracking with GnuCash

#203

Post by imnotreallynew »

jonahbenton wrote: post #199
someuser54541 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what's confusing me about this chain of comments. All the big banks i'm aware of have APIs (Wells, Capital One, etc.). Most of the "neobanks" do as well (Monzo, Mercury, etc.) If that's not enough, you can just use Plaid. Am I missing something here?

Generally speaking, bank APIs are for use by businesses that want to be able to pull bank customer data. There are integration hoops and so forth. They are not for end user use. Plaid has, or used to have, a mode where in preprod you could give it your credentials to a limited number of organizations and then pull in your data. Not sure that survived the Visa acquisition, but even if it did- personally implementing a…

> Generally speaking, bank APIs are for use by businesses that want to be able to pull bank customer data.

Generally speaking, yes, presumably because API access to checking and savings accounts is only applicable to businesses 99% of the time.

Most consumers, even programmers, don’t have a real need for API access to their accounts that isn’t already covered by simple CSVs or Plaid.

Re: Simple Personal Finance Tracking with GnuCash

#204

Post by aostiles »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #2

I've used GnuCash for years before switching to beancount ( https://bitbucket.org/blais/beancount/ with smart_importer: https://github.com/beancount/smart_importer ) and fava ( https://github.com/beancount/fava/ ). Much easier to work on your journals (ledger, trades, prices...) since they are just text files. Really great if you're using the beancount package for Sublime: https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Beancount…

I made this VS Code extension to help with manually entering Beancount transactions: https://github.com/aostiles/Beanquick

Re: Simple Personal Finance Tracking with GnuCash

#205

Post by vasergen »

6510 wrote: post #141
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #125

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggggghhhhh! I just want a bank account and to have that bank record my spending and let me download it, securely, and automatically. I mean the European Union has taken years to force, yes force banks to do this, and it is basically still broken. I don't want to spend this much effort on something so obviously solvable. It just offends me. Yes that is the right word. And, finally, none of this matt…

Imagine simple government software that acts as a middle man and sends out automatic fines if the api is not up to spec. I would like to see a complete log of every purchase made like my bank keeps only with much more detail, each bill broken down to well described products with pictures, serial numbers and manuals. As that involves sensitive data we would have to think of some way to wrap it. I also want tax office…

There is software provided by TPP (third party provider) that acts as a middle man between user and bank. User just "connect" all banks, and then TPP can retrieve the data using differen sources

Re: Simple Personal Finance Tracking with GnuCash

#206

Post by mrmonkeyman »

anitil wrote: post #140
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #125

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggggghhhhh! I just want a bank account and to have that bank record my spending and let me download it, securely, and automatically. I mean the European Union has taken years to force, yes force banks to do this, and it is basically still broken. I don't want to spend this much effort on something so obviously solvable. It just offends me. Yes that is the right word. And, finally, none of this matt…

I know you're not asking directly for advice, but if you'd be interested, I find the following is the easiest way of keeping a budget. 0. Forget about tracking things down to the dollar, or even the tens of dollars. That level of precision is unnecessary. If a coffee here or there is going to break your budget, it's already broken and you need to go in to panic mode. 1. Have a spreadsheet with vague monthly costs lik…

Agreed. Keep it simple.

It annoys me when people talk of worrying about coffees and sandwiches when talking about earning (way) more and moving to a more sustainable area is out of the question.

Re: Simple Personal Finance Tracking with GnuCash

#208

Post by biddlesby »

somebrody wrote: post #160
Consultant32452 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sticking to a budget is an emotional problem, not a mathematical one. Helping solve emotional problems is extremely difficult.

Yep, emotional solutions work better for many. An example: 1) Pay rent and all bills on time, fully. This is sacred. It is called the Golden Rule for a reason. 2) After rent and bills, take the rest out in cash. a) Split the cash into the number of weeks it needs to cover. b) Split the cash for each week into two equal parts. Put one half in an envelope labeled "Monday" and the other half in one labeled "Friday". c)…

I would love to do this, but I live in a country where cash isn't a thing. It's explicitly not accepted in most places.

How can I spend the same effect if I only have a debit card? I am wondering if two accounts or a currency card is a good idea. But it's just not the same as having a physical pile of cash that you can judge how fast it's going down and how much is left

Re: Simple Personal Finance Tracking with GnuCash

#209

Post by woodpanel »

sequoia wrote: post #191
6510 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice! I just stop spending money unless I absolutely have to. A cup of coffee and a bit of candy at the gas station every other day (2+4 euro) * (365/2) * 10 years. Thats ELEVEN THOUSAND euro I could probably be doing something more interesting with. At 7 euro/kg and 30 gr/liter 11k is 52380 liters of coffee or 314285 cups or 86 cups/day for 10 years. 2/3 was candy (we are not buying that) so we only have 28 cups lef…

> It really doesn't matter how much you earn. Real wealth is in not spending it. Have to add on that this is definitely not correct. Yes you must not simply inflate your spending to match your 100% of income if the latter increases, but while there's a limit to how much you can decrease outlays, income increase has no exact limit. Bob makes $60k, never buys coffee, brings lunch from home every day, stays focused on h…

I think you‘re making a good point.

I would add though, that 6510‘s statement...

> * it really doesn't matter how much you earn. Real wealth is in not spending it.*

didn’t remind me of extreme frugalism (in which case I would side with your argument) but with my encounters in the workplace: No matter how much most people increase their income, they also increase their spending. And some manage to par their spending increases with with their income increases.

Like many in tech, I‘ve made great income progress and during that I saw and continue to see colleagues struggling financially even though they‘re in the top income decile.

Re: Simple Personal Finance Tracking with GnuCash

#210

Post by unglaublich »

tzs wrote: post #198
anitil wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you're not asking directly for advice, but if you'd be interested, I find the following is the easiest way of keeping a budget. 0. Forget about tracking things down to the dollar, or even the tens of dollars. That level of precision is unnecessary. If a coffee here or there is going to break your budget, it's already broken and you need to go in to panic mode. 1. Have a spreadsheet with vague monthly costs lik…

> 0. Forget about tracking things down to the dollar, or even the tens of dollars. That level of precision is unnecessary. If a coffee here or there is going to break your budget, it's already broken and you need to go in to panic mode. I'd suggest considering using a separate payment method for those things, and only those things, that you just think are going to be just a little expense here or there that doesn't n…

My bank has this feature where the same card has two PIN codes. The PINs are coupled to different bank-accounts, the PIN determining which account will be charged. So groceries I pay with 111222, coffee-to-go with 333111... My bank does the rest. All easily analysable and exportable.
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