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Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance

projectifi.io

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Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance

#91

Post by jimmaswell »

29athrowaway wrote: post #88
Frost1x wrote: post #9

Looks interesting, but based on the privacy policy terms of data usage, transferability, and so forth, I can't in good faith test with real financial data: https://projectifi.io/privacy-policy.html Everytime I see a tool that shouldn't need to be hosted remotely as a service and could reasonably be deployed to the client where they have more control over their data (not as a service), it's a non-starter for me. I get…

For every person that cares about privacy, there are 10,000 that don't. That's why it's so profitable to be an evil data hoarder.

How is data hoarding evil? Data lets us improve things, know what services need to be made, connect everything better. There's potential for abuse as in anything but we don't call cough syrup evil.

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance

#92

Post by SavantIdiot »

This is really well done. First, I've been using the same Excel spreadsheet since 1992 to create a one-panel view of financial modeling and you've captured everything I've put into it over the years. Second, there is a lot of state information in this website, I'm impressed: its nontrivial to get right. That said, I didn't fuzz it, but I'm sure you've got it down.

Lastly I like how it eases the user in: it asks basics, then funnels to specifics. That makes it less intimidating.

Sorry to be "that guy" but I've been using my Excel for ~30 years and it has been solid so I doubt I would use this, but I think it might be a great starting point for youngin's who haven't thought about this yet.

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance

#93

Post by pupdogg »

09bjb wrote: post #84
pupdogg wrote: post #78

This feels like Mint.com all over again. I do not feel comfortable sharing personal banking data with a hosted platform. We all know what happened when Mint sold out to Intuit!

What are you referring to? That Intuit killed the product? I use Mint and don't particularly like it but am not yet aware of data abuses or breaches.

Not sure about your personal experience but it was only a matter of time until I started receiving promotional offers from various credit card companies based on my spending habits via snail mail. I could directly tie them to Mint.com becuase I was shown the exact same offers on their portal. What other proof do you need?

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance

#95

Post by SavantIdiot »

bb123 wrote: post #60
nonameiguess wrote: post #15

There is no reason at all for this to be server-hosted. I have of course done this for myself a very long time ago creating an effectively identical feature set using spreadsheets and even put them onto Microsoft's sharing pages (no idea what happened to them, it was such a long time ago). I'm not saying this isn't a better solution than Excel. You work with what's available at the time. But there is nothing at all a…

How is installing an executable on my machine and then entering my financial info any less sketchy than entering my data into a website? The average user would still have to take it on faith that the data isn't going anywhere, and as an industry we have spent the last 20 years telling people not to download unknown software onto their systems. I think it would be a complete own-goal for the builder of this to switch…

It can run client side and store data in secure cookies. Maybe that's what was meant? And then export to a file for backup.

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance

#96

Post by SavantIdiot »

frabjoused wrote: post #87

I would suggest the first step of onboarding should not be the selection of your theme. This is already a long onboarding process and every additional step will lose you users. When you build something you're technically proud of, it makes sense you'd like to show it off, but you have to evaluate its relative importance to your public.

I know, I thought that was weird: "Here's a personal finance website, first things first: what's your favorite web scheme out of these 16..." ¿Como?

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance

#97

Post by mjochim »

scubakid wrote: post #38
andi999 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How?

Any thoughts on the comments under the Frost1x post? (e.g. Electron app version, and/or import/export or local storage options for web premium users). Certainly local storage is very doable -- I didn't anticipate how hotly requested that might be. I'll also note that all calculations are actually already client-side.

I like the impression of your tool, but I share Frost1x’s reluctance. However, I was pleasantly surprised to read this up front:

> Free planning and projection tools that will never ask to link your financial accounts

If it were followed up by convincing me that my data is stored in LocalStorage and doesn’t leave my browser, I’d be sold :). I know I’d still have to trust you that you’re actually implementing what you claim, but I think I’d be willing to. After all, the same would be true for an application running natively: those, too, can submit my data “to the internet.”

For me personally, having an Electron app would not make much of a difference. Do I run your code in my Firefox or in a separate process? I’m still running your code on my machine. Maybe browser-based even has some advantage because it is sandboxed filesystem-wise. Not sure whether this holds true for Electron.

Import/export as CSV or whatever format would also be a huge plus for me.

As a last point, I’m not sure I understand the status quo: you are saying all caluclations are done client-side – but the results are stored server-side?

Nice work!

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance

#98

Post by devinsit »

Frost1x wrote: post #9

Looks interesting, but based on the privacy policy terms of data usage, transferability, and so forth, I can't in good faith test with real financial data: https://projectifi.io/privacy-policy.html Everytime I see a tool that shouldn't need to be hosted remotely as a service and could reasonably be deployed to the client where they have more control over their data (not as a service), it's a non-starter for me. I get…

I agree. The trend of handing over all your data (especially your financial data) to some nebulous service isn't exactly my favourite. Which is why I built https://ufincs.com, a nebulous service where you hand over all your financial data!

Yes, that was a joke.

In reality, uFincs is more of a stop-gap between what you seek (native app where you own the data) and what the status quo is (web-based app where your data ownage is dubious). Yes, uFincs is a web app, but we take the extra step to do client-side encryption so that the only financial data being stored in our database is a jumble of base64; I don't want to touch your actual financial data with a 10-foot pole.

Of course, like some other people in this thread have mentioned, having a completely client-side app is also pretty important. Well, we have exactly that: https://ufincs.com/noaccount. You can use uFincs right away, without any account, and the app works completely client-side, completely offline. You can even export your data and then re-import it later if you so prefer!

Of course, the tech that enables this 'no account' option is also what makes the logged-in app work offline-first, so I think it's pretty cool :)

And if anyone asks "Well, why a web app at all then?", it's because I wanted a web app. Yes, I do enjoy accessing my finances on all my devices, thank you very much. But we do have plans to build out standalone desktop/mobile apps in the future.

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance

#100

Post by canadianfella »

nonameiguess wrote: post #15

There is no reason at all for this to be server-hosted. I have of course done this for myself a very long time ago creating an effectively identical feature set using spreadsheets and even put them onto Microsoft's sharing pages (no idea what happened to them, it was such a long time ago). I'm not saying this isn't a better solution than Excel. You work with what's available at the time. But there is nothing at all a…

Of course?
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