Author Topic: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!  (Read 33382 times)

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« on: October 24, 2016, 08:06:20 PM »
A Little Background:
I was introduced to MMM and the concept of Financial Independence 5 years ago and have since been making strides to turn my goal of FI into a reality. From the beginning, I have always been tracking my progress, initially building Excel spreadsheets, then moving onto Google Sheets and now finally, a web application.

Throughout the iterations, I always returned to the idea that a web based tool would be the best solution. So I set out to build it; first by teaching myself web development (Ruby/Rails) and then over the last two years, working nights and weekends to make my idea a reality. I am proud to say through sheer stubbornness and determination, I have successfully bootstrapped and launched trackFI (https://www.trackfi.com).

One of the main drivers of building trackFI was to recapture that initial surge of enthusiasm you get when you first learn about financial independence. Those rosy first couple of months are great, but unfortunately, the journey to FI takes years of dedication. I wanted to build a tool that allows you to quickly & easily track your journey to financial independence. But more importantly, a tool that provides the much needed motivation to keep you moving towards financial independence, month in and month out.

Features:
  • Explore motivational insights. See where you could retire to today based on current cities cost of living, your net worth and expenses
  • Interact with rich visual charts and dashboards. See how many more years you have left until financial independence, your Savings Rate, Net Worth and more
  • Centralize all your financial accounts to get a clear picture of your assets and liabilities
  • Know where your money is going each month and how its changed over time
  • Export your data at any time
  • Receive email/SMS reminders to create monthly entries
  • Fully responsive - works great on both mobile and desktop
  • Highly customizable

Coming soon
  • See how you are doing compared to others in your cohort (age/gender/location/etc)
  • Receive custom, intelligent recommendations on how to get to FI sooner
  • Option to create a public profile to interact and engage with other community members

How Does it Work?
trackFI is based on tracking the monthly values of all your Accounts, Expenses and Incomes. After you sign up, you will be guided through the onboarding process by a short tour.

  • Add Your Accounts. Accounts consist of both assets and liabilities such as banks, investment accounts, credit cards, mortgages, loans, real estate and other assets and/or liabilities.


  • Add Expense Categories. Expenses consist of all items you spend money on. These include items such as rent/mortgage, electricity, internet, groceries, gas, eating out, etc. You can think of expenses as typical things you would see in a budget.


  • Add Your Incomes. Incomes are your sources of money that will help you achieve financial independence. These typically include income from jobs, investments or passive streams.


  • Create Your First Entry! Put it all together as an Entry. Entries are monthly snapshots of your Accounts, Expenses and Incomes that power all the underlying charts, tables, dashboards and insights. The information provided in Steps 1 - 3 is automatically used when creating Entries.


  • Explore trackFI and All Your New Insights!


I would be honored if you took a look. I put a massive amount of thought and care into making trackFI a reality and would highly value your feedback, criticisms, suggestions! I also hope you find it useful in tracking your own journeys to FI.

https://www.trackfi.com

Thanks,
Kevin
« Last Edit: October 24, 2016, 08:15:30 PM by Kevin »

SandyBoxx

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 81
  • Location: BC, Canada
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2016, 08:37:06 PM »
Looks really interesting!

I will definitely check it out when I am on my computer (and not my phone.). :)

I would love to integrate my YNAB budget with something like this to track our journey to FI!
« Last Edit: October 24, 2016, 10:02:04 PM by SandyBoxx »

randellman

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 5
  • Location: NB, Canada
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2016, 09:14:01 PM »
Hi Kevin, I like what I see so far. Where would you like to receive feedback? I'll add my first feedback here... I am currently adding accounts in trackFI.com and as soon as I went over 10 it automatically wrapped to page 2. I would love to see other options for number of accounts per page (ex, 25, 50, 100). Thanks!

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2016, 10:04:02 PM »
Hi Kevin, I like what I see so far. Where would you like to receive feedback? I'll add my first feedback here... I am currently adding accounts in trackFI.com and as soon as I went over 10 it automatically wrapped to page 2. I would love to see other options for number of accounts per page (ex, 25, 50, 100). Thanks!

Great suggestion! Thanks for your feedback. I just rolled out the change.


I'm glad you like what you see so far. Please feel free to post anything else you'd like to see added or fixed!

Kevin

randellman

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 5
  • Location: NB, Canada
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2016, 10:25:42 PM »
Quote
Great suggestion! Thanks for your feedback. I just rolled out the change.

Talk about Agile development!! I saw your implemented change and I thought I must of missed it first time around! :-)

I really like what you've done. I have been maintaining this exact type of data in my own spreadsheets on a monthly basis but without the graphs and the FI insight.

Do you have the functionality to export from trackFI.com?

I will continue to back enter my entries so I'll have more data from which to see my progress visually. I can see how this is going to be another something to look forward to at month end!! (along with updating my old school "Money or Your Life" wall chart!).

randellman

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 5
  • Location: NB, Canada
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2016, 10:38:05 PM »
I would love to integrate my YNAB budget with something like this to track our journey to FI!

I also use YNAB and for the expense entries in trackFI.com I've decided to only input my high level category group expense totals from YNAB (ex. Monthly Bills, Everyday Expenses, Rainy Day Funds, Giving) to cut down on duplicate entry. Works great! The trackFI.com fields also easily accept copy & paste entries.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2016, 10:41:07 PM by randellman »

englyn

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 422
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2016, 11:25:40 PM »
That is SO COOL.
User interface is simple but spiffy. Easy to use. Great amount of tutorial. Love how you have the option to keep things really simple or you can make them very detailed.
So, you can only create monthly entries? And it works out the overview (time to FI, etc) based on an average of the months over time?  I track expenses quarterly, and (most) investment income and expenses annually. I don't know how you'd work that in.
Two suggestions - adding an entry, I would like to use the tab key to go to the next entry field instead of to the 'remove' button. And for some reason when I try to edit an entry it sometimes works, but sometimes goes to the Accounts page instead.

englyn

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 422
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2016, 12:01:02 AM »
And for some reason when I try to edit an entry it sometimes works, but sometimes goes to the Accounts page instead.
Never mind. Found the edit button, it wasn't really the Accounts page, that's just all I saw on my small window. PEBCAK.

Sayonara925

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 131
  • Location: Point B
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2016, 12:53:53 AM »
Amazing.

I wonder if you would be interested in incorporating a feature I've pondered:
An algorithm that calcs the user's 'FIRE Score'.  Analogous to FICO score, except this would take into account parameters related to FI and capacity to RE.  Preferably, the score range would mimic the same range as FICO does (up to 850) to give some relative familiarity.  So someone with a FIRE Score say around 800 would be considered to have a stronger probability for FIRE success than someone in the sub-700 range, for example.

Something fun along those lines?

Folks could monitor and endeavor to improve their FIRE Score over time in the same way they do their credit score.  For example, $10K of assets added to their portfolio would add X amount of pts to their score, whereas a new car purchase would cause a drop.

CarrieWillard

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 95
  • Location: metro Atlanta, GA
    • Not your average frugal, homeschooling mom of 7
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2016, 05:34:34 AM »
Wow, this is awesome. Great job!
Also - you may want to add the link to this in your profile so everyone can find it easily even if they don't see this post.

randellman

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 5
  • Location: NB, Canada
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2016, 05:52:10 AM »
Hi Kevin, A few more suggestions that should hopefully be straight forward updates:

1.) For the Income and Expense tables on the Dashboard, could you add a bottom row called 'Total" that sums the income and expenses for each entry month. This would allow us to the see total average income and expense numbers in the average column.

2.) On your pie charts you now show the current month. Could you keep the default graphs as the current month but add a dropdown list that would allow you to view graphs from previous entry months.

Thanks again. Keep up the great work!


frugledoc

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 743
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2016, 06:19:17 AM »
Is this open to U.K. Savers? 

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2016, 06:33:24 AM »
Quote
Great suggestion! Thanks for your feedback. I just rolled out the change.

Talk about Agile development!! I saw your implemented change and I thought I must of missed it first time around! :-)

I really like what you've done. I have been maintaining this exact type of data in my own spreadsheets on a monthly basis but without the graphs and the FI insight.

Do you have the functionality to export from trackFI.com?

I will continue to back enter my entries so I'll have more data from which to see my progress visually. I can see how this is going to be another something to look forward to at month end!! (along with updating my old school "Money or Your Life" wall chart!).

Once you create an entry, you have the ability to export a CSV, PDF or print your data. Right now its limited to the drill down view of a specific account, expense, income or entry.



If you have specific export requests, feel free to let me know. I can add them to the to do list :)

Great to hear you are liking it so far! I'd love to hear more about your 'Money or Your Life wall chart'. It sounds like something that might be useful to others via trackFI.

I also intend to build out a world map feature that shows you where you've been, figuratively speaking, each month that you've been recording entries.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2016, 07:08:05 AM by Kevin »

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2016, 06:36:06 AM »
Looks really interesting!

I will definitely check it out when I am on my computer (and not my phone.). :)

I would love to integrate my YNAB budget with something like this to track our journey to FI!

The website works great on mobile but for the best experience desktop is the preferred choice :)

GREAT idea! I'll have to spin up a YNAB account tonight as I don't have one. More specifically, do you mean the ability to export your YNAB information directly into trackFI via a csv upload?

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2016, 07:06:12 AM »
That is SO COOL.
User interface is simple but spiffy. Easy to use. Great amount of tutorial. Love how you have the option to keep things really simple or you can make them very detailed.
So, you can only create monthly entries? And it works out the overview (time to FI, etc) based on an average of the months over time?  I track expenses quarterly, and (most) investment income and expenses annually. I don't know how you'd work that in.
Two suggestions - adding an entry, I would like to use the tab key to go to the next entry field instead of to the 'remove' button. And for some reason when I try to edit an entry it sometimes works, but sometimes goes to the Accounts page instead.

Regarding tabbing, fantastic suggestion. I just rolled out an update to address that.


Unfortunately, right now, trackFI is setup to track information at a monthly level. That's not to say in the future it could not record entries at a quarterly or yearly level. Monthly entries hit that sweet spot of keeping finances top of mind without the obsessive feeling of always watching them. Also, more data points (compared to yearly or quarterly) provide for prettier charts :)

Regarding time til FI, it is calculated with the assumption of 5% growth after inflation. I intend to allow the growth rate to be adjusted by the user in the near future. The time til FI is a function of inflation adjusted growth rate, monthly savings (for that month), current net worth (for that month), and the 25x rule AKA 4% rule (expenses of that month extrapolated out for the year, times 25). With those variables, you can calculate time til FI via the NPER function.

Thanks for taking trackFI for a spin! I hope it helps you on your own journey!

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #15 on: October 25, 2016, 07:10:27 AM »
Is this open to U.K. Savers?

Absolutely! If you are willing to bear with seeing dollar signs for the time being. I am hoping that by this weekend, I can roll out a change that will allow you to choose your currency.

But for the time being, ignore those $ signs and pretend they are £ signs!

NESailor

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 257
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #16 on: October 25, 2016, 08:02:16 AM »
Oh man it looks neat.  I have a friend coming over tonight to help her figure out what is going on with her finances (she's motivated but has no clue).  Maybe we could test your tool!

I'll come back if we do actually set it up.

Good luck!

jeeebus

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 20
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #17 on: October 25, 2016, 08:05:44 AM »
This is really useful! Well done and thank you!

ducky19

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 763
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2016, 08:23:32 AM »
Definitely plan to check it out, thanks Kevin!

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #19 on: October 25, 2016, 09:13:39 AM »
Wow, this is awesome. Great job!
Also - you may want to add the link to this in your profile so everyone can find it easily even if they don't see this post.
Good idea, thanks!

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #20 on: October 25, 2016, 10:34:45 AM »
Amazing.

I wonder if you would be interested in incorporating a feature I've pondered:
An algorithm that calcs the user's 'FIRE Score'.  Analogous to FICO score, except this would take into account parameters related to FI and capacity to RE.  Preferably, the score range would mimic the same range as FICO does (up to 850) to give some relative familiarity.  So someone with a FIRE Score say around 800 would be considered to have a stronger probability for FIRE success than someone in the sub-700 range, for example.

Something fun along those lines?

Folks could monitor and endeavor to improve their FIRE Score over time in the same way they do their credit score.  For example, $10K of assets added to their portfolio would add X amount of pts to their score, whereas a new car purchase would cause a drop.

This is a really interesting idea. I like the concept of showing how your decisions impact a score. I'll have to noodle over how to implement it and the underlying algorithm (for lack of a better word).

Thanks for the suggestion!

Roboturner

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 535
  • Age: 35
  • Location: MCOL
  • No Snacks, Just Math
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #21 on: October 25, 2016, 11:16:52 AM »
Hey Kevin,

Really neat layout, really enjoy it. I would love to see a direct link to accounts established.

Or if that's not possible, it may be helpful to have an "upload external csv" option. - even if there is an excel template that needs to be attached.

Finally - really love the "where could you live now" feature, it would be cool if it allowed you to scroll through different options - rather than just the one it auto-comes up with

Thanks again! it's neat!

mozar

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3503
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #22 on: October 25, 2016, 12:31:29 PM »
So I haven't actually used it yet but it sounds like you have to input your information every month? Is it possible to set recurring income/expenses? I don't want to have to reenter my mortgage every month. And yes to being able to import a csv from ynab, or for me, upload my credit card info .

ooeei

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1142
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #23 on: October 25, 2016, 12:34:36 PM »
Pretty cool, just signed up.  Seems like a more advanced version of the Madfientist FI tracker. 

Glitch

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #24 on: October 25, 2016, 01:23:24 PM »
Hey Kevin,

This is really neat! I have found something that I consider to be a bug though. I currently have a positive balance on a credit card and there is no way for me to enter that info (from what I can tell).

Also, when logged in I don't see any way to find info on how to contact you. If I log out I can access that info, but it's not in the footer when logged in.

mindaugas

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 367
  • Location: Littleton, CO
    • Mike Says Meh
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #25 on: October 25, 2016, 01:36:16 PM »
This looks great. What did you use to teach yourself Ruby/Rails? Who's hosting, AWS?

I'm going to register, check it out, and provide feedback as well, not just ask unrelated questions :)

frugledoc

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 743
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #26 on: October 25, 2016, 01:37:54 PM »
Where do I put P2P loans in accounts?

BigHaus89

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 212
  • Age: 35
  • Location: NW
  • Ride the Spiral to the End
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #27 on: October 25, 2016, 01:41:59 PM »
Very awesome site! It looks very well done. On the graphs, having them show up without hovering over the month would be useful and also adding a total in with the itemized assets/liabilities/whatever.

Roboturner

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 535
  • Age: 35
  • Location: MCOL
  • No Snacks, Just Math
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #28 on: October 25, 2016, 01:56:45 PM »
Where do I put P2P loans in accounts?

I did other (asset)

FrugalByChance

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 74
  • Age: 51
  • Location: The Netherlands
    • Net Worth Progress
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #29 on: October 25, 2016, 02:34:47 PM »
Thank you ! It looks very good.

I would like to be able to make difference between my "net worth" and "stash". I own my home but that asset should not count for the 4% rule.
I'm wondering if I also should not count my emergency fund in the "stash". Maybe have a boolean field on each account to determine if it is part of the "stash" or not ?

Quote
I am hoping that by this weekend, I can roll out a change that will allow you to choose your currency.
Cool ! That would have been another feature request.


frugledoc

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 743
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #30 on: October 25, 2016, 02:45:34 PM »
I think this may become my new monthly net worth calculatir

iamlindoro

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1520
    • The Earth Awaits
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #31 on: October 25, 2016, 03:11:34 PM »
Really nicely done! The long development and your attention to detail and a great user experience really show.

onlykelsey

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2167
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #32 on: October 25, 2016, 03:30:56 PM »
Nice! I'm going to play around with it.  I'd second the request from RoboTurner for a way to upload from an xls since I imagine direct connections would be years and years of work.

starguru

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 752
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #33 on: October 25, 2016, 03:32:00 PM »
How do I count income from RSU vesting or ESPP events?  They arent really investment income.

Edit: What is the "Share" column in the Accounts page?
Edit: Not sure what the correct way to enter a property with a mortgage is.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2016, 03:58:24 PM by starguru »

Threshkin

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1088
  • Location: Colorado
    • My Journal
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #34 on: October 25, 2016, 04:43:53 PM »
Signed up.  Will enter data soon.

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #35 on: October 25, 2016, 06:03:47 PM »
Hi Kevin, A few more suggestions that should hopefully be straight forward updates:

1.) For the Income and Expense tables on the Dashboard, could you add a bottom row called 'Total" that sums the income and expenses for each entry month. This would allow us to the see total average income and expense numbers in the average column.

Thanks again. Keep up the great work!

Great suggestion! Just rolled out an update that includes this!


I'm working on the second one as well!

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #36 on: October 25, 2016, 06:05:00 PM »
Oh man it looks neat.  I have a friend coming over tonight to help her figure out what is going on with her finances (she's motivated but has no clue).  Maybe we could test your tool!

I'll come back if we do actually set it up.

Good luck!

Thanks! Thats so great you are helping out a friend! Let me know if you run into any issues if you decide to try trackFI!

Secretly Saving

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 418
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #37 on: October 25, 2016, 06:10:43 PM »
Looking forward to setting aside some time to see your site.  Thanks for sharing!

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #38 on: October 25, 2016, 06:37:27 PM »
Hey Kevin,

This is really neat! I have found something that I consider to be a bug though. I currently have a positive balance on a credit card and there is no way for me to enter that info (from what I can tell).

Also, when logged in I don't see any way to find info on how to contact you. If I log out I can access that info, but it's not in the footer when logged in.

Thanks for giving it a shot and providing feedback, it means a lot! Good point on not having contact info on the website once you are logged in. I went ahead and added an email address to the footer.

Regarding a positive balance on a credit card, I am torn as to what the right approach is in this scenario. I could change the validation to allow negative values. However, I am afraid that if I do that, some users will enter negative values for their credit card entry, thinking that they should enter a negative value as its money they owe. However that is already compensated for when they created the account and selected the account type as 'credit card', which sets the account to being a liability on the back end.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the positive balance on the credit card? I ask because, if its under $1000 or so, entering the balance as $0 will not really effect your results all that much. I would imagine that by next month the positive balance will either be smaller or be negative. Right now, I feel that by allowing negative values to be entered, it would be introducing confusion and and accidental misuse :(

I am open to any ideas you might have though!

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #39 on: October 25, 2016, 06:38:25 PM »
This is really useful! Well done and thank you!

Thank you for giving it a try! If you think of anything you'd like to see added or changed, let me know!

randellman

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 5
  • Location: NB, Canada
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #40 on: October 25, 2016, 06:44:24 PM »
Hi Kevin, A few more suggestions that should hopefully be straight forward updates:

1.) For the Income and Expense tables on the Dashboard, could you add a bottom row called 'Total" that sums the income and expenses for each entry month. This would allow us to the see total average income and expense numbers in the average column.

Thanks again. Keep up the great work!

Great suggestion! Just rolled out an update that includes this!


I'm working on the second one as well!

Thanks again for updating these features Kevin! I have never seen anyone as responsive to feedback as you have been! Keep up the great work!

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #41 on: October 25, 2016, 06:48:06 PM »
This looks great. What did you use to teach yourself Ruby/Rails? Who's hosting, AWS?

I'm going to register, check it out, and provide feedback as well, not just ask unrelated questions :)

Thanks for checking it out! I have been tinkering around with front end web design (html/css) for a while but got serious about true web development about 2 years ago. I enrolled in an online bootcamp that is self paced with weekly live sessions and study hours. It was an amazing experience and I learned a ton!

The program I went with was https://launchschool.com/. About a year ago they rebranded from gotealeaf and changed their pricing slightly. It is still a steal from when I went through the program. I think I spent $3000 total. Their new pricing is $199/month.

Just a heads up though, its a lot of work. I spent most of my work nights and weekends getting through the material. If anyone has any interest in web development (specifically rails), I highly suggest you check them out. They have a good Is this for me overview.

They also have a ton of awesome free resources that you can use today. https://launchschool.com/books

Regarding the hosting, Heroku is my best friend :) I could not imagine trying to provision, administer and babysit servers. Heroku makes deploying rails applications super simple. Long story short, yes, the site is hosted on AWS, as Heroku is a reseller.


Glitch

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #42 on: October 25, 2016, 08:21:23 PM »
Regarding a positive balance on a credit card, I am torn as to what the right approach is in this scenario. I could change the validation to allow negative values. However, I am afraid that if I do that, some users will enter negative values for their credit card entry, thinking that they should enter a negative value as its money they owe. However that is already compensated for when they created the account and selected the account type as 'credit card', which sets the account to being a liability on the back end.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the positive balance on the credit card? I ask because, if its under $1000 or so, entering the balance as $0 will not really effect your results all that much. I would imagine that by next month the positive balance will either be smaller or be negative. Right now, I feel that by allowing negative values to be entered, it would be introducing confusion and and accidental misuse :(

I am open to any ideas you might have though!

I can see why you would be hesitant to add the ability to enter a negative balance. I don't remember the exact text, but entering a negative balance does provide a message after you submit. Something like "Balance must be a positive number". Maybe in that blurb you can add some additional text as to why you can't add a negative number? You do have a point that a small positive balance does not mean much. I think some sort of additional explanation there could be beneficial. The balance is only $42 so it really doesn't matter much. :)

englyn

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 422
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #43 on: October 25, 2016, 08:29:30 PM »
Amazing.

I wonder if you would be interested in incorporating a feature I've pondered:
An algorithm that calcs the user's 'FIRE Score'.  Analogous to FICO score, except this would take into account parameters related to FI and capacity to RE.  Preferably, the score range would mimic the same range as FICO does (up to 850) to give some relative familiarity.  So someone with a FIRE Score say around 800 would be considered to have a stronger probability for FIRE success than someone in the sub-700 range, for example.

Something fun along those lines?

Folks could monitor and endeavor to improve their FIRE Score over time in the same way they do their credit score.  For example, $10K of assets added to their portfolio would add X amount of pts to their score, whereas a new car purchase would cause a drop.

This is a really interesting idea. I like the concept of showing how your decisions impact a score. I'll have to noodle over how to implement it and the underlying algorithm (for lack of a better word).

Thanks for the suggestion!

Wanted to add, if you do this, it'd be better to have it in % like cFireSim has % probability of success. I'm not in the US and have no idea what a FICO score is and a score out of 850 would be meaningless.


atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #44 on: October 25, 2016, 09:57:08 PM »
So I haven't actually used it yet but it sounds like you have to input your information every month? Is it possible to set recurring income/expenses? I don't want to have to reenter my mortgage every month. And yes to being able to import a csv from ynab, or for me, upload my credit card info .

Mozar, awesome idea! I went ahead and implemented your suggestion, this should really become a time saver for power users!


With the change, when you create an account, expense or income record there is now a recurring flag that is by default set to false. If you want to change that, you can go into the record and edit it by toggling the recurring flag.

Now when you go to create an entry, if you have more than 0 entries, and the recurring flag is set to true for the record, the new entry will automatically pull in the most recent prior months value for that record.

Regarding the CSV import, it is a top priority as a lot of people have been requesting it!
« Last Edit: October 25, 2016, 09:59:54 PM by Kevin »

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #45 on: October 25, 2016, 10:00:40 PM »
Regarding a positive balance on a credit card, I am torn as to what the right approach is in this scenario. I could change the validation to allow negative values. However, I am afraid that if I do that, some users will enter negative values for their credit card entry, thinking that they should enter a negative value as its money they owe. However that is already compensated for when they created the account and selected the account type as 'credit card', which sets the account to being a liability on the back end.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the positive balance on the credit card? I ask because, if its under $1000 or so, entering the balance as $0 will not really effect your results all that much. I would imagine that by next month the positive balance will either be smaller or be negative. Right now, I feel that by allowing negative values to be entered, it would be introducing confusion and and accidental misuse :(

I am open to any ideas you might have though!

I can see why you would be hesitant to add the ability to enter a negative balance. I don't remember the exact text, but entering a negative balance does provide a message after you submit. Something like "Balance must be a positive number". Maybe in that blurb you can add some additional text as to why you can't add a negative number? You do have a point that a small positive balance does not mean much. I think some sort of additional explanation there could be beneficial. The balance is only $42 so it really doesn't matter much. :)

Good call on clarifying the error message. Will add it to the to do list :) thanks!

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #46 on: October 25, 2016, 10:04:55 PM »
Nice! I'm going to play around with it.  I'd second the request from RoboTurner for a way to upload from an xls since I imagine direct connections would be years and years of work.

Agreed, the next big iteration will be to support CSV imports.

Regarding direct integrations, I have zero desire to connect to peoples financial institutions. No way am I going to ever want to collect and store that type of information. Talk about a massive security vulnerability.

atribecalledquest

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 77
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #47 on: October 25, 2016, 10:27:43 PM »
How do I count income from RSU vesting or ESPP events?  They arent really investment income.

Edit: What is the "Share" column in the Accounts page?
Edit: Not sure what the correct way to enter a property with a mortgage is.

Hi starguru, sorry it's not more clear as to what to do regarding a mortgage! Hopefully I can clear it up for you.

The best way to represent a home with a mortgage would be to first create a new Account with the type of property. Then, since you don't own the home outright, you would want to create a second Account with a type of loan.

Then when you go to create a new monthly Entry, you can enter the values for those two accounts for the month in question. For the Account with the type of property, put in the total estimated value of your home. For example, if realtor.com says your house is worth $340k, enter that amount. Next in the second Account with the type of loan, enter in the outstanding balance that is remaining on the mortgage.

Now you will have two accounts, one being an asset (albeit illiquid) and the other being a liability (the mortgage). The difference between the two is your equity in the house.

You are also going to want to represent the house as an Expense as well if you are still paying a monthly mortgage.

It's a little confusing but it starts to make sense once its all modeled out.

Regarding the "Share" pie chart, I did away with it in the most recent build tonight. It initially showed what percent an Account/Expense/Income made of the most recent Entry. Not the most useful or clear metric. I've had other people stumped by what it means so I removed it for the time being.

Regarding income from RSU vesting or ESPP events, if you are actively withdrawing from them, I would say to add them as an Income and record how much you are withdrawing as income each month in the Entries. However, if you are not, I would classify them as an Account (type asset).

For example, I track my 401k as an Asset as I am not withdrawing from it even though it is technically making me money via interest. Those gains in interest are not being withdrawn so I don't consider it income and the gains are reflected in the month over month entries.

Hope that helped clear up some confusion!

Bracken_Joy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8927
  • Location: Oregon
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #48 on: October 25, 2016, 10:28:17 PM »
Looks like an awesome tool! I'll be sinking some time into this tomorrow =)

Very sleek so far, I'm really impressed with the "feel" of it. (Not tech heavy over here, obviously).

StashthatCash

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 70
  • Age: 33
  • Location: Beloit, WI
Re: I Just Launched trackFI.com - I Would LOVE Your Feedback!
« Reply #49 on: October 26, 2016, 07:59:02 AM »
I noticed you can't make an expense (example mortgage payment) a reoccurring expense until you have created the expense and then go in and edit it.  Tiny suggestion would be to have the reoccurring expense option pop up when you first select your type of expense.  So far though I am really liking the site, great work!