
What do you use a personal budget for? - twodave
I&#x27;m working on sort of an early-stage idea for a personal budgeting product. So far, its main feature is going to focus on answering a single question: how much runway do I have? I wrote something rudimentary like this years ago when I adopted my first child, and it helped me make it through the rough financial patch(es) that followed with my sanity in-tact.<p>The question is, then, is just answering the one question enough of a value proposition? I don&#x27;t think it necessarily is, so I&#x27;m trying to build on the idea to get people to the point of wanting to commit the time to enter the data&#x2F;credentials the engine will need to make accurate predictions.
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brandrick
I use YNAB and do it all manually — as such, it's a notable mental and time
commitment.

YNAB has a little feature called 'Age of Money' which I guess is like a
reverse way of thinking about a runway. Maybe worth looking at?

In terms of the question asked — what level of friction people will put up
with in order to get that prediction is interesting. I put a lot into my
personal budget in order to get a crystal clear picture, so something that can
provide even a vague idea for lower effort is bound to have some appeal.
Depends on how the data gets in I guess?

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twodave
I also use (and enjoy) YNAB. I have some manual accounts and some automatic. I
suppose what I'm working on isn't even technically a budget so much as it is a
forecast. But of course it'll still be only as accurate as the data it
receives.

