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Actual is going open-source

actualbudget.com

101–110 of 332 posts

Re: Actual is going open-source

#101

"I completely underestimated how much work it takes to build a business. There's so much overhead. I'm always figuring out why a build failed, taxes, how to triage issues, responding to support, designing UIs, responding to Apple's complaints, and more. There's so much that goes on behind the scenes. There's no way a single person can possible do this alone, especially as a side project." This is the part that resona…

Why not ask someone for help, though?

Re: Actual is going open-source

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can have a cushy tech job making 200K relatively easy Some of these claims seem to come from people living on a different planet to me. Yes you can make that, but only if you are in a tiny (and normally very privileged) set. The way it's breezily posted on this forum at times shows perhaps just a leeetle disconnect with the mainstream tech world

> Yes you can make that, but only if you are in a tiny (and normally very privileged) set If we're talking about people talented enough to actually build and ship their own apps independently, a $200K or more compensation package should be easy to come by remotely or in any medium size city. For the truly average developer, $200K is definitely not the norm according to any compensation data I've seen.

> If we're talking about people talented enough to actually build and ship their own apps independently, a $200K or more compensation package should be easy to come by remotely or in any medium size city.

I've been able to build and ship my own apps for almost a decade now and have never received an offer close to that, even in SF. Maybe things have changed in the last 5 years, but whenever I see the 200k figure I always have to scoff.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#103

There are a lot of tools like Actual (YNAB, Monarch, Mint, Aspire google sheet etc). All are focused on budgets and mostly managing cash accounts. I've always wanted an equivalent but for investments. I know you can sync investment accounts to some of these, but that only reports the balance generally. I'd love to have the equivalent for investment accounts that answer these questions: What is my sector exposure? How…

I’ve been working on building this since January. We should have the first version up in a few weeks. Here’s the landing page: https://www.haystack.finance

I don't know if this is a business you're trying to build or a project you're working on but I'd be interested in helping if you need.

I was working on something like this as a side project but my motivation for it fluctuates.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a chance they just needed to raise the price. I wonder how people land on something like $4. At that price your demand for something like this is not price sensitive. $5 and you have 20% growth, $8 and you’ve doubled. To the users it’s just a few bucks.

Moreover, everything on the website implies that Actual was a high-end, exactingly designed product for discerning, well-off people. But it was priced like general-audience commodity SaaS. My guess is that most subscribers would have been more than willing to pay, say, 20 dollars a month instead of 4, particularly for something that has "saving you lots of money" as a core value proposition.

It's open source... We could try. :D

Re: Actual is going open-source

#105
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My read on that is that it is total comp, so it includes bonuses/RSUs/options. If you're not negotiating for those things, what are you doing. Though $200k base salary is not a crazy salary for a staff/principle/high-level engineer. I don't think people realize how corrosive to mental health a $200k engineering job can be though. I was making very close to that as a base salary, and the amount of responsibilities I h…

Again, what part of the world are you on? Even in Berlin, with all the talks about it becoming a top destination for tech people, I'm yet to hear any 6-figures offer. Even the blockchain companies that were flush with cash were paying 90-95k€ to their top people, maybe a 10-20% performance bonus. Mind you, we are talking about Germany where the tax is ~42% of your income at this bracket if you are single. When I was…

yeah as another tech worker in Berlin, reading these salaries on consistent basis is kinda depressing. The 70-80K is like a starting tech salaries in larger part of US. Here in Berlin you have to toll for multiple years and then before you know you have hit the 90-100K ceiling.

Just compare Berlin with any big American US city, Berliner's PPP is still quite low. This is after the salary "boom" in Berlin.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#106
post #35

I’ve used YNAB before and really liked it, this seems conceptually similar. Did anyone use both and would like to share their experience? My main problem with YNAB was that entering transactions manually all the time was time consuming, and I wasn’t able to stay consistent for more than a few months at a time (in my country there was no way to import automatically).

YNAB drastically changed their pricing (double for "grandfathered" customers), but even more importantly American Express import has been broken for about 6 months now. That was the final straw.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#107
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$200k is increasingly a mid-career engineering salary in many parts of the US. Some quick examples taken from companies reported on levels.fyi, where pay around $200k was reported for people working outside the most expensive US cities plus Austin: - Lowe's (Charlotte): https://www.levels.fyi/company/Lowe-s/salaries/Software-Engi... - Equifax (Atlanta): https://www.levels.fyi/company/Equifax/salaries/Software-Eng...…

As a technical lead (one level above senior software developer in my current company), I make €96k in Germany. I had an interview with Klarna, and they offered me €85k (they actually started with 75 and went up to 85), and the interviewer nearly laughed at me when I asked for €110k. Different continent, different problems? :)

For me it was Shopify laughing at me for asking for 90K with 7 years of experience.

EDIT: Shopify not Spotify

Re: Actual is going open-source

#108

"I completely underestimated how much work it takes to build a business. There's so much overhead. I'm always figuring out why a build failed, taxes, how to triage issues, responding to support, designing UIs, responding to Apple's complaints, and more. There's so much that goes on behind the scenes. There's no way a single person can possible do this alone, especially as a side project." This is the part that resona…

> Also the cost of doing something so small can add up when you can have a cushy tech job making 200K relatively easy.

You've hit it on the head. The fastest way to wealth is not a startup (though VCs want everyone to look the other way that most fail), but to get a job at a FAANG or FAANG adjacent company.

A friend just switched jobs and he made a hit list of companies based on his analysis of expected RSU appreciation.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#109
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes you can make that, but only if you are in a tiny (and normally very privileged) set If we're talking about people talented enough to actually build and ship their own apps independently, a $200K or more compensation package should be easy to come by remotely or in any medium size city. For the truly average developer, $200K is definitely not the norm according to any compensation data I've seen.

> If we're talking about people talented enough to actually build and ship their own apps independently, a $200K or more compensation package should be easy to come by remotely or in any medium size city. I've been able to build and ship my own apps for almost a decade now and have never received an offer close to that, even in SF. Maybe things have changed in the last 5 years, but whenever I see the 200k figure I al…

Sounds like the missing piece is the interviewing and negotiation skills. The money is there, you just have to convince them that it is in their best interests to give it to you.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can have a cushy tech job making 200K relatively easy Some of these claims seem to come from people living on a different planet to me. Yes you can make that, but only if you are in a tiny (and normally very privileged) set. The way it's breezily posted on this forum at times shows perhaps just a leeetle disconnect with the mainstream tech world

> Yes you can make that, but only if you are in a tiny (and normally very privileged) set If we're talking about people talented enough to actually build and ship their own apps independently, a $200K or more compensation package should be easy to come by remotely or in any medium size city. For the truly average developer, $200K is definitely not the norm according to any compensation data I've seen.

It's not that simple. Even if you are a great developer, but not from first-world country, you can forget about 200k unless you literally bust your ass for years and years in order to get US visa.
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