Wait, you guys manage your finances?
The heresy!
Ask HN: How do you manage your finances?
11–20 of 55 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your finances?
#12YNAB.
ynab.com - for power users only. If you don't actually care about tracking your money, don't bother.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your finances?
#13Spend less than you make. Stack rank your expenses and optimize from the top down. Take advantage of 401k match. Volunteer your time and preferably your brain. Invest in index funds.
This is almost exactly what I do, as well. There are only two other things that I do on top of that: I practice "pay yourself first" -- that is, I take 10% off the top of every dollar that comes my way and park it where it's really hard for me to get at it. Then, I practice "repay your neighbors" -- that is, I take 10% off of the remaining money and use it for philanthropic purposes primarily focused on my local comm…
I like that, keeps it very simple and straightforward. Have you always done it this way, or was there a previous iteration?
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your finances?
#14I spend much much less what I make (maximum 35%). So every month I save at least 2 more months of living. Over the past 3 years doing it regularly I have enough saved for some 10 years.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your finances?
#15Poorly.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your finances?
#16Lunch Money is a beautiful little independent app for personal finances: https://lunchmoney.app/
Won't do lots of complex stuff like investment strategy and estate planning, but covers all the essentials for a personal / family budget.
Gives you a good overview of your spending, net worth over time, and lots of charts and querying functionality. Made a big difference for me. Before I was spread across a bunch of Google sheets that I rarely updated.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your finances?
#17- Adaptive Asset Allocation and The Intelligent Asset Allocator
- Define what your long term goal is then work backward, doing the math
- Risk isn't the risk that you lose money, it's the risk that you won't reach your long-term goal. Everything you do should aim at the goal
- Prioritize your retirement fund over house and car expenses. Make monthly deposits into a high interest savings account for house and car maintenance. Withdraw when you use the balance. Always, always contribute to your retirement fund.
- Save for insurance payments through the year in a high interest savings account, pay a lump sum at the end of the year. This way you earn, and don't pay interest.
- With investing you probably want a robo investor, and adaptive asset allocation is the way to go
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your finances?
#18Assuming your income and assets are reasonably well funded, hire a hourly rate personal financial planner. Many finance books I've read failed to mention INSURANCE (life, disability, umbrella, etc.). In my view, insurance is paramount to secure your long term future.
If you are still starting out, here is the general guideline:
1. pay yourself (emergency fund first, then retirement funds (401K, IRA), after that, special funds such as wedding, down payment, etc.)
2. protect yourself (term life if you have kids, medical, rental or home owner insurance, etc.)
3. pay your debts (pay off debts with the highest interest rate first, that's usually credit cards, student loans, etc.)
4. pay it forward (sponsor some worthy causes. I do children international for 20 years now. Open source, etc.)
5. be frugal, but enjoy life (frugal is good, but sometimes, it's good to enjoy finer things every now and then)
6. the remaining money goes to portfolio focus on growth
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your finances?
#19Read widely online and find a financially-oriented community that matches your level of expertise and situation. Serendipity can play a major role. Stumbling across early on LEAP (i.e. long-term option) trading and later learning to navigate the complex world of closed end funds, helped me -- after many twists and turns -- realize a very comfortable existence. Ruthless self-awareness of one's limitations is useful. Expect to make many mistakes.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your finances?
#20I am using firefly iii but recently testing actual budget.
- https://www.firefly-iii.org/
- https://actualbudget.org/
Quite interesting self-hosted tools with overlapping features. Actual can also periodically sync with your bank to have your most recent transactions on the app. it works with read-only tokens.