6 Comments
Nov 29, 2023Liked by Simon Lepkin

I've had tremendous success (for probably the first time?) using Copilot for managing my money. It has all of the right visualizations and practices for separating recurring expenses from non-recurring, handling them differently from analysis to analysis.

https://copilot.money

I also have come to like Qube more and more as I use it. It's a slightly clunky UX when getting started, and my physical debit card doesn't have a tap, and I had some issues setting up Apple Pay early on, but the upsides more than outweigh all of that. Compared to other services I've used, it's easy to move an expense to a different wallet and to set a default wallet. It also works elegantly with no default wallet setup. It's expensive, but many similar companies (simple, one) have shuttered or been acquired, and the subscription makes their business model feasible.

https://qubemoney.com

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Thanks for sharing your choices! I've heard _great_ things about Copilot, but I use Android and Windows enough that Copilot's (current) Apple-exclusivity is a non-starter.

As for Qube, I'm conflicted. I don't think cost is the issue; Tiller and Monarch cost about the same. And I like the notifications that it optionally sends to your family. But it looks like Qube uses the cash envelope budgeting model, which I've seen a few people struggle with: they hit the limit, they feel like a failure, so they stop budgeting.

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Nov 22, 2023Liked by Simon Lepkin

Good points, and breaking it down in steps also reduces the initial time investment, which is a major reason people give up.

By the way, since Plaid shut down my home-made spending tracker after years I was using it, I found Rocket Money and it's really good. It's $50/y but IMO worth it.

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Good to hear another option!

Yeah, most of the Mint-replacements have a monthly fee. Unlike most software companies, they have high scaling costs in the form of Plaid/Yodlee/Finicity.

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It's hard to trust Intuit, especially when it is so transparently wrapped into Rocket-branded personal loan, credit card, and mortgage products!

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Dec 21, 2023·edited Dec 21, 2023

You'd be amazed at how little actual financial privacy you have. For instance, there's an API you can call passing any US address, that returns the list of people who ever lived there, including full name, date of birth, and complete SSNs. All you need is to pay them and check a checkbox saying you (somehow) have their consent. There are dozens of other legal data providers out there (nobody reads the fine print from their credit cards).

Just assume your financial data is for sale out there... because it is.

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