Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Actual is going open-source

actualbudget.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 332 posts

Re: Actual is going open-source

#171

Post by troupe »

bern4444 wrote: post #60

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…

You might take a look at Personal Capital. Their free service will answer many of those questions for you and they have a decent retirement simulator to understand what your chances are of having enough money for the rest of your life.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#172

Post by the_gastropod »

lkrubner wrote: post #144
rglullis wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Europe is a very different system. Suppose I work freelance in New York City, so I make $20,000 a month. $8,000 -- city, state, and federal taxes take 40% $3,500 -- rent $1,500 -- health insurance $4,000 -- care for my elderly mom total: $17,000 In other words, it is easy to make $20,000 a month in New York City and feel like you are barely surviving. I'm grateful I don't have children, as it allows me to take care o…

If this a realistic representation of your situation, I have a tiny piece of unsolicited advice: open a retirement account like a SEP IRA. You can contribute up to 25% of your salary in there, and avoid those steep NY/NYC taxes. That can save you a truckload of money.

And I know NYC rent is steep. I lived there as of 6 months ago, and spent a hell of a lot less on rent, and had an apartment no reasonable person would describe as "barely survivable"—it was a beautiful place in Downtown Brooklyn. Rents have increased a bit, as they have everywhere, this past year. But $3,500/month is.. more than ~1/3 of NYC residents take home a month total.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#173

Post by troupe »

bern4444 wrote: post #63
whoopdeepoo wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal capital? Sigfig?

I've heard of personal capital - though I've read lots of reviews that say they always try and upsell you to their paid management platforms. Will take a look at sigfig!

They do, but the way they fund the development is to check with people using their platform and ask if they want financial advisement services. It is probably one of the better business models out there that still gives you something valuable for free.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#174

Post by strikelaserclaw »

rglullis wrote: post #161
Dig1t wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in the US, my parents are very blue collar, neither of them went to college, and they worked hard to give me and my sibling a decent childhood. I went to the cheapest college I could (a local university you've never heard of) to get a BS in Computer Science. I worked my ass off, grinding on interview studying, working internships and jumping companies whenever I could get a better offer. I'm about to turn 3…

You were born and raised in the US. That by itself is already a huge privilege.

also most cs people who are smart tend to think they are average because they are surrounded by other very smart people. I hate that mindset of "oh if you work hard, you too can get a FAANG job making 400k"

Re: Actual is going open-source

#175

Post by brushfoot »

encoderer wrote: post #70
brushfoot wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone else with a SaaS side business of around the same age, it gets painful around then: You have to make tough decisions and the early fun is gone. Plus keeping up with new and existing customers can make it feel like you're not really steering the ship anymore but being tossed around by the storm. I understand James's desire to step back, though MIT is an interesting choice since now anyone can do anything wi…

Went full time in 2020! Immediately took an 80% pay cut, but I spend 0 hours in bullshit meetings and no longer have to play the corporate employment game.

Was hoping for that answer. Good for you! I've been weighing when to take the plunge myself. I can't support my family with what mine is making on the side right now (10% of my day job salary), though I know if I were full time on it I'd be seeing more return. Just feels like a high dive into a small pool and I'm trying to suss out the right moment. Any tips/lessons learned?

Re: Actual is going open-source

#177

Post by aidenn0 »

shankr wrote: post #105
rglullis wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Straight out of University, I started in the $70-80k range in the US almost 20 years ago outside of SV (but still an expensive area).

Re: Actual is going open-source

#178

Post by aidenn0 »

daenz wrote: post #162
maccard wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite a generally higher cost of living in Europe, salaries across the board are lower. A £100k salary in the UK puts you in the 96th percentile for example. It's not just engineers, it's everyone.

This is probably a controversial thing to say, but based on your and other comments in this thread, it seems like the social safety nets aren't worth the lower salaries. Or are they? It seems like non-Americans in this thread are unhappy that their ceilings are lower.

It seems expected to me that the welfare state is not going to be worth it for the top quintile? That's kind of how redistribution of wealth works?

Re: Actual is going open-source

#179

Post by dwild »

amelius wrote: post #101
codegeek wrote: post #25

"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?

Based on the post, he was on his 4th year, and his current number of monthly paid subscriber was 810 for 4$ a month (thus less than 40k$ a year)...

I got a feeling that he just didn't see an opening toward making this viable against YNAB. An important fact is that YNAB increased their pricing recently, which caused quite a bit of stir up and an exodus to competitors. Everything was in his favor, cheaper than YNAB, people were freely advertising his app. As he mentioned he started to try to implement Plaid, I guess he did the math and found out that he would get too close to YNAB price (for sure it's going to be a few dollars a month)...

Re: Actual is going open-source

#180

Post by nerdjon »

cstoner wrote: post #164
nerdjon wrote: post #89

I am curious, what do people use for budgeting? Mint seems like the most feature rich, but not only do I not want to support their parent company because of their Tax lobbying... but I don't trust them from a privacy standpoint (Considering its free). YNAB and Monarch both seem like really good options. But I have not looked into them much yet. I currently use Copilot (iOS only... really just iPhone, no iPad app). I…

I've been using YNAB since March 2014. I started doing manual entry with YNAB4 and was an early adopter of YNAB5. I manage my own personal budget as well a joint budget for myself and my fiance. Here's my takeaway: * The YNAB model to budgeting is how I want all future budgeting tools I use to work. They call the framework "The Four Rules" ( https://www.youneedabudget.com/the-four-rules/ ) and they are a very pragmat…

The price is where I am finding myself hesitant to switch unless I find something that has a life changing feature (like features for couples).

Copilot had a price hike to $9 a month (or $70 a year I believe) but grandfathered everyone who had a subscription for $3 a month "for life" (as long as you have an active subscription).

I do keep hearing great things about YNAB and I don't mind paying for it, but if they are being that aggressive on raising pricing that is concerning.

Post reply on HN