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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

#261

Kicking the tires, here's a quick piece of product feedback: It seems like the "Stacked Financial Breakdown" chart actually _adds_ your level of debt on as just another stacked layer, as if it were an asset. I don't think that makes much sense - with this representation, if next year I take on $1M of debt to buy $1M in assets, then my financial breakdown curve jumps by $2M. Ideally you'd subtract off debt so that you…

That's a good point. My initial thought process with it was to stack the datasets so that everything underneath debt contributes to your net worth, with debt at the top "weighing it down" so to speak. You can also click the debt checkbox in the legend to hide that dataset from the plot. Still, your point stands that the stacked chart doesn't quite visualize the negative effect that debt has on net worth. Do you prefe…

I think that approach of having debt on top would only work if you made the "sum of all assets" line somehow highlighted; thicker, bolder, etc. But I think that approach is still going to result in an unintuitive chart. (And I think that's fairly important, since this chart is the biggest part of the default view in your app.)

My main product design point here is that in a stacked chart like this, you want the summed line to have _some_ meaning - since the summed level is the most prominent feature of this type of graphic.

Here, as you're summing assets together with debt, it makes the sum meaningless - which is a flag that this visualisation isn't suited to the data you're putting into it. I think the simplest fix to this (without coming up with some new more complex visualisation) is just to lop off the debt. In your current product model, that might mean just making it unticked by default.

Assuming you were evolving this product longer term, I'd reckon it'll be important at some stage to visualise both positive and negative quantities. Maybe something like a two-side stacked chart? https://www.anychart.com/products/anychart/gallery/Column_Ch...

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

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good point. My initial thought process with it was to stack the datasets so that everything underneath debt contributes to your net worth, with debt at the top "weighing it down" so to speak. You can also click the debt checkbox in the legend to hide that dataset from the plot. Still, your point stands that the stacked chart doesn't quite visualize the negative effect that debt has on net worth. Do you prefe…

I think that approach of having debt on top would only work if you made the "sum of all assets" line somehow highlighted; thicker, bolder, etc. But I think that approach is still going to result in an unintuitive chart. (And I think that's fairly important, since this chart is the biggest part of the default view in your app.) My main product design point here is that in a stacked chart like this, you want the summed…

Thanks for the suggestion! I could certainly show debt as negative, similar to that stacked column chart. Do you think that would be more intuitive? Or would people get confused and think they have "negative debt" or something?

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

#263

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 basic…

Is your excel spreadsheet shareable in any fashion, or is it too revealing? Sounds like it could be useful for sure!

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

#264
post #7

I think you should make it a little more obvious that you start off without creating an account, because I was a little off put at first that it looks like Personal Capital, Mint, etc where you have to provide a bunch of personal info before even seeing anything. Anyways very interesting graphs and stuff, I'd be interested if once you have the monte carlo simulations up if there was like a demo mode to just show what…

love love love that I can get started without putting in ANY personal information. I agree that making this more obvious is a good thing.

Yes, seconded! Love it!

There are too many tools I never try because I get hit by the "Create account" dialogue.

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

#265
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

love love love that I can get started without putting in ANY personal information. I agree that making this more obvious is a good thing.

Yes, seconded! Love it! There are too many tools I never try because I get hit by the "Create account" dialogue.

Any thoughts on the best way to make this more obvious to new users? Just some copy on the front page saying you can test without an account? Or perhaps focus on the fact that there will be a "sandbox" where you can test everything right away with canned data(?)

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

#266
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, seconded! Love it! There are too many tools I never try because I get hit by the "Create account" dialogue.

Any thoughts on the best way to make this more obvious to new users? Just some copy on the front page saying you can test without an account? Or perhaps focus on the fact that there will be a "sandbox" where you can test everything right away with canned data(?)

For me personally it's fine as it is - I was simply positively surprised to see that I got to play around with it without creating an account first.

I suppose you could get more users that have a lower interest in the product to try it by adding either one or your solutions. Those that have a higher interest off the bat will click "Getting started" anyways (and expect to get an "Open account" dialogue).

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