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Show HN: I built a simulator for personal finance

projectionlab.com

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

#221

Post by scubakid »

mchenier wrote: post #179

Really nice! I like it a lot. One feature I miss there from my spreadsheet is the ability to track and get updated investment values automatically. I mean, it could be great to have a way to specify the number of stock for each investment account, the cost basis and then, have live record of the investment values. At the same time, it would give a better idea of capital gain tax implication.

I've had a few people suggest something like this in the past, and if it's not on changemap already feel free to add an item for it. I'm still trying to work out if it would be useful enough to implement though, i.e. if people would actually use it, and if it really offers enough improvement over entering balance updates the current way. I guess it depends on how often you're adding to / changing positions. Also, are you in the camp where you would want to see an optional account linking feature in the future? Or is that something you'd steer clear of?

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

#222

Post by scubakid »

eprout wrote: post #11
scubakid wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! I built it with Vue.js, Vuetify, Chart.js, and Firebase. Firebase only comes into play for those who get premium and enable data synchronization though.

Just checked out Vuetify, looks pretty slick. Thanks for the tip. So does the client handle all the logic rather than a backend?

Before I added code-splitting a while back to improve my original lighthouse score, you actually used to be able to load the app and then disconnect from your network and still do everything except save to the cloud. In fact, you still can if you visit all the parts of the site first so that every chunk is loaded. With so much being client-side like that, web workers turned out to be really handy for things like Monte Carlo mode or running multiple simulations at once (e.g. on the dashboard).

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

#223

Post by mchenier »

scubakid wrote: post #221
mchenier wrote: post #179

Really nice! I like it a lot. One feature I miss there from my spreadsheet is the ability to track and get updated investment values automatically. I mean, it could be great to have a way to specify the number of stock for each investment account, the cost basis and then, have live record of the investment values. At the same time, it would give a better idea of capital gain tax implication.

I've had a few people suggest something like this in the past, and if it's not on changemap already feel free to add an item for it. I'm still trying to work out if it would be useful enough to implement though, i.e. if people would actually use it, and if it really offers enough improvement over entering balance updates the current way. I guess it depends on how often you're adding to / changing positions. Also, are…

Thanks for replying. I am definitely in the camp of the no account linking feature. In fact, more in the camp where I don’t want to provide credentials to connect to bank institutions.

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

#224

Post by scubakid »

mchenier wrote: post #223
scubakid wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had a few people suggest something like this in the past, and if it's not on changemap already feel free to add an item for it. I'm still trying to work out if it would be useful enough to implement though, i.e. if people would actually use it, and if it really offers enough improvement over entering balance updates the current way. I guess it depends on how often you're adding to / changing positions. Also, are…

Thanks for replying. I am definitely in the camp of the no account linking feature. In fact, more in the camp where I don’t want to provide credentials to connect to bank institutions.

Sure thing, and that's good to know! I suppose the ease of entering your positions also greatly depends on how many you have. Maybe supporting some kind of format to import from would help there.

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

#226

Post by scubakid »

zaphod4prez wrote: post #225

This is awesome! It seems like you've paid close attention to security and privacy, but I would love a clearer, stronger guarantee. "We truly cannot access your data, will never access your data, and will never, ever sell your data." That would go far here.

Thanks! And just in case you haven't seen them, let me know if these FAQ topics help a little:

https://projectionlab.com?help=enter-data

https://projectionlab.com?help=data-security

https://projectionlab.com?help=am-i-the-product

But more directly to your point, if you enable cloud sync, that uses Google Firebase. Firebase encrypts at rest and in transit and has the usual certifications, but the project owner does have an admin UI for Firestore. If that's a concern, there are always the other data persistence options as alternatives: localStorage only, and/or importing/exporting copies of your data to local JSON files.

Perhaps it would also be wise for me to look into integrating with something like GCP cloud kms, that way maybe the user could supply their own encryption key client-side?

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

#227

Post by mgkimsal »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #129
mgkimsal wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> some active management stuff, or do they have a robo-investing option (I can't remember.) IIRC it's robo-investing. I got a pitch from them, and it was mostly "high expense ratio funds are bad, we put you in low cost funds with expense ratio of "OK... but your expense fee is .90% of funds under management - this puts me at approximately 1%/year in fees." "But we're actively rebalancing 2x per year and we do tax los…

Run away when you see some bullsh-t like this: "But we're actively rebalancing 2x per year and we do tax loss harvesting". What if all of your funds are up for the period? There is no tax loss harvesting to be done(!), but you are still paying 100bps per year. To me: "tax loss harvesting" is akin to "tax write-offs" -- see Seinfeld TV episode. The money is still spent / lost. Taxes are an after thought... Beat them a…

I tend to agree. There's some value in having a real person to talk to, but it really depends on the person. PC people are generally just going to walking you through whatever the algorithm is implementing anyway, and... I just didn't see enough value in it. That said, I've lost plenty trying 'my own thing' on single stocks, but ... I pretty much knew it was a gamble. Majority of value is in a handful of basic ETFs and mutual funds with low expense ratios (< .10% overall, IIRC), so... there's not too much advantage in having someone else do the same thing for me (or really, for most people, imo).

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

#228

Post by 0_zymandias »

scubakid wrote: post #220
0_zymandias wrote: post #209

Very impressive application, a smooth intuitive UI. The progressive disclosure style works well for inputting all the settings without getting overwhelmed. That said, my go-to for FIRE calculations/simulations is https://www.firecalc.com/index.php - and I don't see that changing anytime soon. The FIREcalc UI is very clunky compared to ProjectionLab but once you get used to it, IMO the options are a little more straig…

Thanks for sharing your perspective! It's always interesting to see among the flood of feature requests and suggestions that occasionally some people would prefer fewer features and more simplicity haha. Do you think there could be a place in ProjectionLab for a "simple" mode of some sort? With a reduced set of options and some notes on how the simpler assumptions differ from the standard mode? And if so, anything ot…

I think a "simple" mode is a great idea and worth considering as the default mode until the user gets comfortable enough understanding the results and then wants to drill-down and provide more details to get more refined results. Taxes would be a good thing to tuck out-of-the-way until the user is ready to wade into it. So too, specifying dividend rate separate from return rate (think I saw this, could be mis-remembering).

And even if it's an advanced option, as mentioned before there be dragons with taxes that makes me kind of shrug on the utility. I guess it does help to remind folks that taxes are a consideration in their FIRE planning and drawdown strategy.

Folks might be surprised how low the federal effective tax rate could end up being after they FIRE, especially if all your income is passive - this is if you have have built up a nest egg that's enough, say 20-25x a reasonable (ie non-MMM levels of frugality) annual expense, but not like FU money amounts. And this is in the early retirement stage before Social Security, IRA withdrawal eligibility and RMDs come into play. State income tax rate, on the other hand ... (but of course income tax is only one component of your overall state tax burden to consider along with sales tax, property tax, etc).

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

#229

Post by scubakid »

0_zymandias wrote: post #228
scubakid wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for sharing your perspective! It's always interesting to see among the flood of feature requests and suggestions that occasionally some people would prefer fewer features and more simplicity haha. Do you think there could be a place in ProjectionLab for a "simple" mode of some sort? With a reduced set of options and some notes on how the simpler assumptions differ from the standard mode? And if so, anything ot…

I think a "simple" mode is a great idea and worth considering as the default mode until the user gets comfortable enough understanding the results and then wants to drill-down and provide more details to get more refined results. Taxes would be a good thing to tuck out-of-the-way until the user is ready to wade into it. So too, specifying dividend rate separate from return rate (think I saw this, could be mis-remembe…

What's your take on the utility of researching and implementing feature-sets like what fsflyer was asking for? e.g. optimization techniques and tricks based on current country-specific tax codes, such as carefully timed roth conversions, ACA subsidies, social security claiming strategies, etc. Are you more in the camp that hyper-optimized strategies based on the tax codes of today may not be worth the effort to develop and maintain since there's so much inherent uncertainty with long-term planning?

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

#230

Post by newshorts »

scubakid wrote: post #99
newshorts wrote: post #97

Awesome idea! One bit of feedback: I found the timed accordion about your product to be distracting while I was reading. I felt pressure to read quickly and concentrate, which I’m guessing was the intended effect. However, I’m a parent of two young children and have a slightly intense job, so my days are filled with time pressure already. The added stress to read something when I’m trying to explore your content at m…

Great point on the accordion; last thing I want to do is add anxiety! If you hover your mouse over the section you're reading, the countdown should stop... but perhaps I should get rid of the auto-advance altogether?

Oh gotcha, I didn’t try it on desktop, I was on my mobile device which preventing a hover.
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