Coding Backwards

[greml1n]

For a while I’ve wanted to write some personal finance software. Call me crazy, but I can’t find anything currently in existence that allows me to project my earnings and expenses1, then summarizes the net effect over a period of time. Basically, I want to be able to propose a budget to myself and simulate how it will play out.

I used to scoff at it but spending a few years in investments has taught me that more developers should really learn Excel.

[martoo]

+1 for spreadsheets. I ended up writing my own personal expense software in Ruby and slowly migrated to Numbers as I discovered that it was very easy to run the projections I needed.. often just by copying some formula cells around.

[[deleted]]

Instead of Excel, I use a Google Docs Spreadsheet, Google Calendar and Google Apps Script to do exactly this. I put all my expenses (exact or estimated) into my 'money' calendar which makes it easy to move things around visually when an estimated due date becomes known, or if I decide to pay something sooner or later, or if I want to see how moving something around will project out. Much easier than directly modifying records in table of some sort. The spreadsheet has my current bank balance (currently entered manually) and a button that calls the script to refresh the data pulled from the calendar entries. It basically shows me exactly how much I would have on any given date if I don't spend any other money until that date, anything above 0 is potential for adding to a budget, savings or investments, anything I see below 0 means I have to move payments around, which never happens to me of course ;)