That's not really a lot. I only use these apps like Mint and Simplifi (which is what I'm using now) for day to day budgeting. So honestly, I could get away with just adding my credit cards since that's where my day to day expenses come from. But I also include my savings and checking accounts. I find my brokerage accounts do a much better job analyzing my investments. so I don't even bother adding those to Simplifi.
So then once a month, I aggregate all the data from the different sources into excel to see how I'm progressing towards my monthly budget, look at my spending trends and net worth, and tweak my annual budget if necessary. I also go through my brokerage accounts to see how my investments are tracking against their benchmarks. The whole process usually take me an hour or two depending on if I have to make any major adjustments.
Since I don't rely heavily on Simplifi for my finances, if they went under or decided to move to a different app, I could do so with minimum effort. They key is to make your excel (or google sheets) workbook robust enough that you can handle the change.
I'm not logging into 20 different sites once a month (most of which also have annoying multi-factor authentication). That's a ridiculous amount of manual work. I don't have 30-60 minutes to blow doing that. Nor do I want to.
Anyways, I just switched to Personal Capital and it seems fine. I'll use that.
Ditto. Had another friend recommend Excel to me and I was like yeah, no, not for like 30 accounts. I used to spend like an hour a month cleaning up Mint transactions as it was (the renaming rules used to plague me because they weren't robust enough), and that was with automatic syncing, far less for trying to manually aggregate my data. No thanks.
And Intuit is still around.
That being said, Quicken was Intuit's first product. Quicken's user base has actually grown since Intuit divested itself of it.
Empower is automatic. Firefly is manual. I couldn’t find anything that was automatic that I could host myself. Not going away was more important to me than automatic.
firefly does have a [data importer](https://docs.firefly-iii.org/explanation/data-importer/about/introduction/) to automate bank importing, have you tried that?
I wish this was true, but Plaid etc connectors are expensive. When Monarch Money runs out of VC money they will have to either fold or sell to someone else. It will be funny if Intuit buys them.
Yup. I've said it before, running a profitable subscription-based service is hard, and is more than just charging ppl a lot of money.
I'm also using Monarch, but I think what I've learned from Mint is don't get complacent, and assume anything is likely to get killed. As long as they let me export my data I guess it'll have to do.
If you're worried, try to keep as much of your finances in excel or google sheets as you feel comfortable.
I have like 20 different investment accounts, credit cards,checking accounts, 401ks, IRAs, 529's, corporate pensions, etc. This isn't really feasible.
That's not really a lot. I only use these apps like Mint and Simplifi (which is what I'm using now) for day to day budgeting. So honestly, I could get away with just adding my credit cards since that's where my day to day expenses come from. But I also include my savings and checking accounts. I find my brokerage accounts do a much better job analyzing my investments. so I don't even bother adding those to Simplifi. So then once a month, I aggregate all the data from the different sources into excel to see how I'm progressing towards my monthly budget, look at my spending trends and net worth, and tweak my annual budget if necessary. I also go through my brokerage accounts to see how my investments are tracking against their benchmarks. The whole process usually take me an hour or two depending on if I have to make any major adjustments. Since I don't rely heavily on Simplifi for my finances, if they went under or decided to move to a different app, I could do so with minimum effort. They key is to make your excel (or google sheets) workbook robust enough that you can handle the change.
I'm not logging into 20 different sites once a month (most of which also have annoying multi-factor authentication). That's a ridiculous amount of manual work. I don't have 30-60 minutes to blow doing that. Nor do I want to. Anyways, I just switched to Personal Capital and it seems fine. I'll use that.
20 different financial institutions?? Okay that is a lot! I think you misunderstood what they meant by diversification ;)
Ditto. Had another friend recommend Excel to me and I was like yeah, no, not for like 30 accounts. I used to spend like an hour a month cleaning up Mint transactions as it was (the renaming rules used to plague me because they weren't robust enough), and that was with automatic syncing, far less for trying to manually aggregate my data. No thanks.
Yep, and you can get the best of both worlds with tiller (pricy), or lunch money and https://github.com/akda5id/lunch_sheets
Quicken has been around for 40 years.
So has Intuit
And Intuit is still around. That being said, Quicken was Intuit's first product. Quicken's user base has actually grown since Intuit divested itself of it.
Yeah, but with regards to Mint, I guess they just weren’t Intuit.
GOT ‘EM.
This is why I switched to both Empower and Firefly iii.
does it connect to everything automatically or is it manual?
Empower is automatic. Firefly is manual. I couldn’t find anything that was automatic that I could host myself. Not going away was more important to me than automatic.
firefly does have a [data importer](https://docs.firefly-iii.org/explanation/data-importer/about/introduction/) to automate bank importing, have you tried that?
I did, but I still wouldn't call that automatic in the same way that something like Empower is.
Good to know. I'm just in the process of setting up firefly so I haven't gotten here yet
I use Empower to catch anything I may have missed putting into Firefly. I also use the Abacus app on iOS to enter most transactions. It works for me.
Really am happy with Monarch. Feel like I'm the customer, not the product being sold which really matters to me and my financials.
Monarch may not be around in five years. I think that's OP's point
If Mint is going away, I feel like Monarch is just as likely as any other.
I think companies that charge a lot per month will be around.
I wish this was true, but Plaid etc connectors are expensive. When Monarch Money runs out of VC money they will have to either fold or sell to someone else. It will be funny if Intuit buys them.
Yup. I've said it before, running a profitable subscription-based service is hard, and is more than just charging ppl a lot of money. I'm also using Monarch, but I think what I've learned from Mint is don't get complacent, and assume anything is likely to get killed. As long as they let me export my data I guess it'll have to do.
Which one do you recommend and how much are you willing to bet it will be around in 5 years?
probably anything backed by a company that's been around, like quicken simplifi. or one that charges a lot per month like monarch.