Personal Finance Software Wishlist

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I always love Gina Trapani’s thinking and work so I had to link to this article she wrote about how to make personal finance software more empowering!

https://postlight.com/trackchanges/personal-finance-apps-should-be-way-better

Here is her feature wishlist from the article:

  • It’s December 1st! If you donate X dollars to tax-deductible charities by the end of the month, you’ll save Y dollars on your income tax in April.
  • People with your title in your industry in your region earn an annual salary of about $Xk more than you do. Maybe it’s time to consider negotiating a raise.
  • Hey, it looks like you’ve got some tax-advantaged accounts that you haven’t maxed out. Consider transferring X dollars sitting in your savings account right now to your IRA before April 15th.
  • Your company matches 5% of your 401k contribution, but you’re only putting in 3%. That’s X dollars you are missing out on getting paid every month.
  • Looks like you spent $X on groceries last month — compared to other people in your area, that’s pretty high.
  • FYI: Your rent or mortgage payment is 3% lower than the average family of three in your zip code. Way to get a deal!

Are there any ways you’ve gotten systems to work better for you? What would your wishlist include?

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I would like to see this kind of percentile info for student loan debt totals and interest rates and also if there’s any way to get solid info on WHAT exact benchmarks (income, cosigner income, credit score, amount of debt already paid off) I have to reach to be able to refinance. Honestly, I would like to see some app specifically for paying off student debt. I have debt with 4 different servicers and it’s be nice to have somewhere to input that info easily all in one place. Advice and useful tools for people who have just graduated college and what to do with the student loan repayment stress and confusion.

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FYI, you can get the type of salary info in your second point from Glassdoor. :slight_smile:

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This is a great topic!

I actually think undebt.it is pretty great for this, and studentloans.gov’s calculator, god love em, sucks less than any thing else they do! but I do wish it was better integrated in some software.

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