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Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance and financial independence

projectifi.io

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Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance and financial independence

#51

Post by trailrunner46 »

This is very slick and well executed. I especially appreciate the thought that went into data transfer (making it opt in, otherwise stays client side). I have a CFA and have been in finance for a while and have maintained a spreadsheet but honestly this does it better so I will use and support you. I wish more people would take a long view with their financial wellness, maybe I can convince a few friends to see the impact of their debt binges :)

On the UI side there are a few odd things like trying to paste a number that has decimal points makes it so nothing gets pasted in, the colors on some of the graphs are hard to read (especially for people with color vision deficiencies), etc. As I use it I will try to give more specific feedback. Can't wait to dig in further.

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance and financial independence

#52

Post by scubakid »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #41
scubakid wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, this sounds like the kind of thing that could happen if you have a huge percentage value in an expense or tax input by mistake, or something along those lines that could create an immediate bankruptcy scenario. If you double-check everything though and think there is a more sinister issue at play, I'd be happy to look into it and/or help troubleshoot.

I had roughly the same experience but it was 10 years instead of 1. I just took the defaults for tax rates and stuff because frankly it already felt enough like doing my taxes just to get an idea of how the thing worked.

When you say it stopped, did it show a bankruptcy condition for you or more like a weird unexplained simulation stoppage? If the latter, I'll look into it right away, and if you can identify any simple reproduction steps that would be very helpful.

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance and financial independence

#54

Post by neogodless »

scubakid wrote: post #24
newman314 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 Free tier does not appear to persist data. Please do not make me re-enter the data if I want to get on a plan later...

I'd say the premium / monetization aspect is something I'm still open to suggestions on. I knew I wanted most functionality to be free, so that everyone could use the tool to develop insights about their potential life trajectory and trade-offs between different decisions, and I didn't want anyone to feel priced out of that experience. Likewise, I didn't want to bombard people with ads, and would never want to collec…

There's also some uncertainty around persistence of data if I start a paid plan (or trial) but do not continue.

Does the data I'd entered thus far get purged, and I would have to re-enter it if I picked the plan back up?

I feel like this kind of tool might be something I'd update once a quarter or once a year, but not want to pay for every month. But if my data is deleted in between uses, it's also a lot less useful. Is there a rational middle ground?

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance and financial independence

#55

Post by jonathankoren »

michaelml wrote: post #40

This is something that I would be interested in, but you are asking for too much without giving anything back. You are essentially asking me to put my entire budget as well as future plans into your site before giving me anything interesting. I am estimating it would take > 15 minutes to fill out everything you want, and there is no way I am making that investment into a random website without some token of return. P…

Have you ever worked with a financial planner before? I ask, because you’re complaining about the process that every financial planner uses.

They’re all very heavy weight, especially when it comes to expenses and tax rates.

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance and financial independence

#56

Post by scubakid »

pilom wrote: post #38

This is really pretty but I personally appreciate the onboarding speed of cfiresim.com much more. Way easier to save multiple models and I can actually understand what the graph is telling me a little easier. I'll be honest, if I'd never seen one of these graphs before I doubt I'd understand the mobile version of yours. No idea what the different colors mean or what all the icons refer to.

I'd be interested to hear what you think of the experience on desktop -- it's definitely better there than on mobile. But point taken; I'd like to keep making improvements for mobile as well.

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance and financial independence

#58

Post by smaug7 »

scubakid wrote: post #18
Mavvie wrote: post #15

Wow, amazing how well you integrated the feedback from the last time this was posted, especially architecture level stuff like storing everything client-side by default. The stock/bond allocation curve is really well done too. Awesome stuff, I just signed up for premium. I assume for people that are not single you're meant to add their expected income and expenses as well? That could maybe more clear

Thanks so much! And yeah I took a lot of that feedback to heart, and have been working hard to make improvements in many aspects and communicate more clearly about things like data storage and where calculations happen (i.e. client side). For couples, things like age values are from the perspective of the person creating the plan, and yeah the idea is to just add in their income, expenses, goals, etc. Switching statu…

I am planning on getting married later next year - would we be able to add that in for the future?

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance and financial independence

#59

Post by scubakid »

mwerd wrote: post #57

It would be easier for me if I could start with a template. Having a few buttons for representative simulations like "married high income" and "single FIRE" that you could then adjust to your scenario instead of starting from scratch would be nice.

Agreed. I've been thinking about making a "sandbox" mode like this where you can jump right in based on a template. Since there have been multiple others asking for something like this, I'll boost the priority.

Re: Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance and financial independence

#60

Post by mwerd »

scubakid wrote: post #45
michaelml wrote: post #40

This is something that I would be interested in, but you are asking for too much without giving anything back. You are essentially asking me to put my entire budget as well as future plans into your site before giving me anything interesting. I am estimating it would take > 15 minutes to fill out everything you want, and there is no way I am making that investment into a random website without some token of return. P…

One idea that might help with onboarding for users who want to jump right in is a sandbox mode where you can skip onboarding and plan creation and go directly into a scenario pre-configured to model one of several selectable templates or personas. How would you feel about that?

I logged in to post this exact suggestion. A couple of templates like [married home owners] and [single renter] that would jumpstart the process would be nice.
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