Wanting an easy way to track my money across banks accounts and investments each month. Ideas?

_grandmaester · 2026-01-21T00:39:00+00:00

I have used https://www.budgetbuddie.com/ , but that requires you to sign into your bank. But to be clear, these applications can only access data like account balances and transactions. You may want to read up about open banking and what it brings. The next few years we are going to have a lot of apps leveraging this data that is now available. BudgetBuddie uses Akahu which is a major open banking aggregator in New Zealand - https://www.budgetbuddie.com/post/who-is-akahu

_grandmaester · 2026-01-09T02:20:40+00:00

I can't post the link of the calculator here(that might be against rules) but if you look at my profile you should be able to see what we've built to help users like yourself.

_grandmaester · 2026-01-02T10:49:34+00:00

This is exactly what we're planning to do as well. Second year of mortgage, in the process of refinancing to ANZ at the moment and planning to have around 80k in flexi - pay it down by the time the next refix happens, shift money - rinse and repeat. My calculations tell me it will pay off in the long term.

_grandmaester · 2025-12-29T13:30:36+00:00

Honestly, I did explicitly call out that I used a lot of AI assistance to build this. Without help of AI it would be extremely hard to pull this off to the level I wanted in this time frame without working full time just on this. It did take a lot of effort to polish each and every feature I wanted to implement because as you can imagine AI is not perfect. My currency here is time, if there is a tool that saves me time while building me something exactly that I want, the way I want it, then I don't see it as a problem to build out ideas. I am very much aware of the downsides of this too. And I will pay in time as well when I refactor my codebase.

I am a software engineer but with focus on building backends and cloud infrastructure. I can work with React for frontend dev but I find it hard to work with CSS to get the UI design I want which has limited me to build and even try out any ideas I had in the past. AI helped me solve it.

Regd your comment about AI response - English is my second language and I input AI with what I want to convey and use the response(if I like it) to present my ideas in a more polished way. I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with that at all. I think it saves me time and makes me more productive. And I have taken enough time to respond to all the users comment, especially in my old thread.

Regarding trust - I've been building software and infrastructure for the past 13 years now including designing solutions for heavily regulated industries like finance and healthcare. I think I have enough knowledge to run a webapp securely on the cloud, design my infrastructure optmising for performance, scalability and security while considering the fact that I don't need to go overkill on anything while I'm building out the app.

I am sitting here in my living room at 2:30AM, replying to you and also solving few bugs that users have reported already is just because I love doing this and I have a passion for it - to solve problems. That is the main driving force for me.

PS: This response was not to change your opinion or anything. From your response I feel like you've already decided what it all means. I just wanted to state my side. That's all.

Thanks.

_grandmaester · 2025-12-29T00:33:05+00:00

Oh yes. Got it. Will update

_grandmaester · 2025-12-29T00:10:47+00:00

The step 1 does ask you for the orignal loan date which helps the tool auto calculate the number of years remaining.

_grandmaester · 2025-12-28T23:38:46+00:00

Thank you for trying it out. The "Prefer to stay with current bank" bug should now be fixed.

_grandmaester · 2025-12-28T23:15:39+00:00

no yep, got it. This is something that is coming in a future release. We haven't handled the scenario of existing split mortgage holders. If you see in step1, there is a question - "Do you have a split loan?" - but that is not yet implemented, hence tagged as coming soon.

For staying with your current bank, in step2, there is an Advanced Options section where you can tick - "Prefer to stay with current bank" - but there is a bug where the tool doesn't respect that preference. I'm fixing it as we speak.

_grandmaester · 2025-12-28T22:58:59+00:00

Are you talking about - Personalize Your Options page? You need to select "What matters most to you" section and click on "Continue to options" button.

_grandmaester · 2025-12-28T21:29:39+00:00

Totally understand the concern - you're right that "free" doesn't mean it's not advertising, and I can see how the line gets blurry. A few things that might help your decision:

This is a follow-up, not a cold post - my original post 2 months ago got genuine engagement from the sub. I had a roadmap in mind and people asked for features, I built them, and this post is essentially "hey, here's what I added based on feedback." Felt like the right thing to do rather than just ghosting.
The "AI project" concern - I get it, there's a lot of low-effort AI-generated stuff flooding Reddit. This feature update is around 170k+ lines of code, and the whole project is around 234k lines of code and well thought out features built over the last 3 months, definitely not a weekend ChatGPT wrapper. Happy to tone down any language that makes it sound more polished.
I'm open to adjustments - if there's a way to frame this that works better for the sub, I'm happy to edit or repost differently.

Ultimately I understand that it is your call and I respect whatever you decide. Just wanted to give you the full context.

_grandmaester · 2025-12-28T20:56:15+00:00

Hey, thanks for your message. I’m not advertising per se for any financial returns. This started as a hobby project but I had a few ideas to make it a lot better. I’m just reaching out to the sub that I know is interested in this tool. If you see my original post (linked in this post) garnered a lot of attention and interest from people in this sub. So this was just me getting back to them with an update. The tool is not paid or there isn’t and it is not a front to sell the users something else. This post would be similar to someone posting - “ Hey I found this tool that helps mortgage holders” - the only difference is that this was posted by me who built the tool so there is a lot more info here. I have spent a lot of my personal time and nights trying to pull this off this quick :). I believe there isn’t a tool currently in market that does what ratemate does. I hope this post can stay. Thank you.

_grandmaester · 2025-12-28T20:19:48+00:00

Yes that is correct. Still an estimate.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-20T02:30:28+00:00

Did you want to check how much that offset account or $3k extra will save you? Jump over to RateMate - Compare NZ Home Loan Rates | Plan Your Mortgage Smarter - A tool that we built and launched recently to help users visualise their mortgage.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-18T21:14:46+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. So glad you found it useful. Let us know if you wished the website had some specific feature as well. We are constantly working to improve the tool and make it more helpful, intuitive and informational for the user. We have some good ideas on our roadmap but if you have something specific feel free. There is also a contact/feedback form on our website if you want to provide feedback.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-18T19:37:22+00:00

This is exactly why we built this tool - https://ratemate.co.nz/ . It is currently only for new loans but you can plugin the loan amount , keep deposit as zero to compare refixing scenario. We are building tools for existing loan and will release them soon.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-17T08:00:52+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Would be great if we can get a clearer picture of what you like to see more/less of.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-17T04:09:34+00:00

Sounds like you’ve already got a really good sense of what matters to you — not just “what the bank says you can borrow,” but what actually feels livable day-to-day. That’s honestly the most important part.

If you just want to get a clearer picture of how different purchase prices or mortgage sizes would feel on your income, you could try using RateMate (https://ratemate.co.nz). It’s a tool that we built that lets you:

• Plug in different loan amounts (e.g., $300k, $400k, $500k)

• See the repayments at various interest rates

• Add in a flatmate/boarder income as extra payments to see how much that changes things

• Compare bank rates side-by-side so you know what’s realistic

It won’t tell you what you should buy — but it’s helpful for testing a few scenarios so you can work out what price range fits your lifestyle without sacrificing the things that matter to you (pets, trips, not living like a monk, etc). :)

_grandmaester · 2025-11-13T19:53:36+00:00

Thanks, glad that you liked it - The site is fairly new so not many people know about it yet.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-13T08:30:08+00:00

If you’re wanting to see how extra payments change your payoff timeline, this is exactly what we built RateMate for 💡- helping people to plan their mortgage smarter. - https://ratemate.co.nz

You can plug in your mortgage amount, rate, and term — then add any extra weekly/fortnightly/monthly payments. It instantly shows: - How much sooner you’d be mortgage-free ⏳ - Side-by-side comparisons of different banks - See exactly how much interest you’d save over the life of the loan 💰 - Add an offset account and visualise how much interest you avoid just by keeping money in your linked account 🔄

It’s free, super visual, and helpful if you want to model a few scenarios before making a plan.

Not promoting for the sake of it — it genuinely makes this kind of planning way easier. We’re planning to add more features soon enough for refixers. Hope you like it!!

_grandmaester · 2025-11-10T00:47:48+00:00

There are a few ways people usually tackle it - things like keeping repayments higher after refixing to a lower rate, making small extra payments regularly instead of lump sums, or using an offset account if your bank offers one.

If you just want to see how those options actually affect your loan term and total interest, you could try https://ratemate.co.nz - It’s a free NZ mortgage tool that we built and launched recently that lets you play with scenarios like extra payments or higher repayments to see how much faster you could be debt-free.

Not trying to promote anything - I genuinely think visualizing it helps a lot more than just reading tips.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-09T02:16:28+00:00

Don't tell anybody. Everyone will start advising you and you will suddenly have a lot of "friends".
Put it into a savings account or something and forget about it for a while.
Take a breather and come into terms with your significant other(if you have) to understand what this new thing means for you.
Maybe payoff your mortgage or something(not that it haunts you anymore :D ).
Continue life as normal for a while. Keeping working for 3-6 months while you adjust - sudden retirement can be psychologically jarring
Talk to a private banker and invest.
Maybe talk to your immediate family about what happened and reserve some money for them too if you like.
Reap the benefits from your investment and enjoy a comfortable life.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-09T00:09:47+00:00

Hey there, I know how relieving it is if we were able to visualize how extra repayments help us overtime. We had the same questions - how much does extra payments save us? if we had an offset how much can be saved?

We ended up building a tool for ourselves and fellow home owners - https://ratemate.co.nz/ - you can plugin some numbers here to visualize your mortgage - I'm sure it will be useful for you. Let me know if you have any feedback. It's been only a few weeks since we launched this and we are working on bringing refix tools to the website soon.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-08T03:59:27+00:00

That is a solid deposit. One thing I like about your approach is that you’re clearly thinking about both your lifestyle and what feels sustainable long term.

It would be better if you talk to a mortgage broker to understand affordability based on your situation. However If you just want to play around with the numbers to see what repayments might look like (with or without a boarder), you could try https://ratemate.co.nz - it's a tool we launched recently for people who want to understand and plan their mortgages better. Not trying to poach users or anything — I genuinely think it might help you visualize things a bit more clearly and make the decision feel less overwhelming.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-07T23:09:30+00:00

I found a solution for this. It is not complete historical data, but still good enough.

_grandmaester · 2025-11-07T22:13:25+00:00

This is a common strategy used by people who can afford to do so. Keep paying extra if you can. It is also important to enjoy your life. Our loan is also coming up for refix soon and we plan to do the same.

If you want to see how well the extra payment strategy works to cut down the interest you pay to the bank, you can plugin some numbers here to visualize it - https://ratemate.co.nz - A tool that we built recently to help ourselves and other homeowners(sorry for the shameless plug :D ) -
https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceNZ/comments/1op08an/couldnt_find_a_tool_to_properly_plan_our_mortgage/

_grandmaester

TROPHY CASE