Personal Finance

Money Manager Ex. It saves the file as a SQLite database, which makes it easy to parse. I have a couple python scripts that extract the numbers, and generate a JSON file with numbers, png graphs using matplotlib, and I have another module that takes the generated graphs, numbers, and a latex template, and generate a nice PDF.

For instance, when the script finds a brokerage account, it separates out deposits / withdrawals from actual P/L to calculate true time weighted returns.

Budget-wise, I look at it on a yearly basis. This is important because some significant expenses have an annual frequency (practice insurance, housing insurance, etc), or bi-annual frequency (car insurance...) And some expenses are discrete frequencies throughout the year (vacation, etc....)

It requires more discipline than on a monthly basis, but the reasoning behind it is if we spend more than we earn on a given month, it is not necessarily bad, because it might just be the month we went on vacation, or the month we had our yearly insurance premium. The important goal is to spend less than we earn on average . So over the long run wealth accumulates naturally. Short term deviations are not important as long as our long term lifestyle is aligned with our income.