The search for a personal finance tool continues
I've never been adept at saving or managing my personal finances. I'm getting there with occasional bouts of learning, even though my impulse purchases and undying belief in retail therapy pose quite the obstacle. It wasn't until I started long-term investing that I realised how much of a hassle managing my finances is.
The silver lining, though, was what I could glean from whatever I could manage to record. A bird's-eye view of my portfolio and the trends it followed, sure. I was also interested in the minutiae of my everyday expenses and the hidden trends there.
To get there, I'd need to do some rigorous recording. Recording my expenses and investments was the first step. Over the years I've tried every single expense tracker and budgeting app I could get my hands on. Monefy has been my go-to app, with Cashew - recommended by a colleague - a close second.
While these apps are great at recording expenses, they don't keep track of amounts lent - something that Splitwise specializes in. Conversely, Splitwise does not let you track personal expenses. What I've needed for quite a long time now is a combination of these two paradigms in one app. What I want is a way to track
- incomes and expenses,
- amounts lent to different individuals/groups,
- and any amounts I borrow from my savings (to be repaid later).
Search as I might, I've not been able to find a system that does this for me, so my personal finance tracking has been relegated to the depths of Google Sheets. What I use now is a Frankenstein's-monster-esque 15-sheet (and growing) workbook on Google Sheets with custom formulae and a bolted on double-entry bookkeeping system. It's clunky, it's hard-to-use, data entry takes way too long, but it just works™. For now.
Occasional frustration with my current system inevitably leads to moments where I'm inspired to create my own app - which should be easy enough. But if I'm too lazy to enter transactions into my home-brew double-entry bookkeeping system, what chance do I have with a web app?
Nevertheless, my search for a tool that fits my needs continues. If you know of any tools with this specific set of features, let me know.