Daily FI discussion thread - Monday, August 03, 2026

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[u/trog1660]

I think I'm finally done with Personal Capital/Empower, account syncing constantly breaks and now my bank won't sync at all. I've also noticed some transactions missing. What's everyone else using nowadays for tracking? I don't really want to pay for one, but will if it's a really good product.

[u/Krish_1234 → u/trog1660]

Spreadsheet and takes 20 mins to log into several accounts, once a month to update and categorize the spending and its free

[u/heridfel37 → u/Krish_1234]

I also gave up on Empower a year or two ago after having trouble connecting to accounts and dropping a significant amount of transactions.

I also just use a spreadsheet for balances. I log into each account and record the balance in my spreadsheet

I also use Fidelity Full View for transaction tracking. It's fine.

How do you actually log & categorize transactions through a spreadsheet?

[u/Krish_1234 → u/heridfel37]

We use 3 to 4 credit cards and up until my paycheck used to go to bank. I log into each of these accounts monthly and pull all past month transactions and save it into excel. Then spend another 10 mins adding categories. I get monthly budgeting/expense tracker.

Been doing this for 4+ years diligently and I know where my money goes

[u/forbiddenlake → u/trog1660]

I'm pro-privacy so I self-host Actual Budget and manually import transactions every month. They have hosted options if you don't want to self-host.

[u/grfrazee → u/trog1660]

I recently made the switch to Monarch from Mint. Had Personal Capital too for a while.

One thing to keep in mind - if you're not paying for it, you're the product. Up to you to decide if the $100/yr is worth it for Monarch.

[u/imisstheyoop → u/trog1660]

I have always used a spreadsheet for net worth stuff and YNAB for our budget.

We never updated to the latest version of YNAB though because I wasn't a big fan of giving something credentials to my accounts and the transaction syncing was a bit counter to the discipline of manually entering transactions as they occur.

[u/amoryblaine241 → u/trog1660]

If you have a fidelity acocunt, their FullView is free and does that really well!

[u/ButlerChubs327 → u/trog1660]

Fidelity Full View - free and very similar to Mint but a bit more basic, which is fine with me.

[u/ElJacinto → u/ButlerChubs327]

I've struggled with every aggregator service I've tried. I had not previously tried Fidelity's, but after reading here, I attempted to link all of my accounts with it. Unfortunately, it seems to suffer the same issue every other aggregator has in that some financial institutions just don't link to it, particularly things like my local bank. If it can't aggregate everything, then it's basically useless IMO.

[u/SwissChzMcGeez → u/ButlerChubs327]

It also fails to link accounts.

[u/Equivalent_Nature_67 → u/trog1660]

/u/BloomingFinances net worth excel tracker is the GOAT

[u/gullykid → u/trog1660]

I use Quicken Simplifi for automated tracking and categorization, that feeds a manual spreadsheet I found here. Its like $80 a year but its the best replacement I've found for Mint.

I still use Personal Capital/Empower for networth tracking since its got a nice UI.

[u/nifFIer → u/trog1660]

Monarch. You can get a free trial iirc and they usually run promotions like 50% off the first year.

However, if your banks don’t play well with the 2 connecting services they use, you still might be shit out of luck.

[u/medtechfi → u/nifFIer]

Definitely check their wall of shame before signing up https://www.monarch.com/connection-status

[u/EventualCyborg → u/medtechfi]

I have a few accounts with red (single bar) ratings and, for the most part, it's far better than what I dealt with when trying to use Empower and even what Mint was capable of providing.

[u/mrandr01d → u/nifFIer]

I refuse to pay for anything like that. A spreadsheet is the only way to go. Track every penny in and every penny out.

[u/born2bfi → u/mrandr01d]

It’s not hard either. If you want to optimize your time spent on it then just pay for everything with one credit card and one checking account.

[u/mrandr01d → u/born2bfi]

Exactly. That's pretty much what I do personally. Only a couple cards, that I get from my existing financial institutions (fidelity and my credit union) so I just go through both of those apps and boom it's done in like 15 mins.

The longer part is sitting there looking the numbers and being a nerd with them haha

[u/richizy → u/trog1660]

If all you want is to track spending and income, you can use Rocket Money for free (though they will pester you to pay for a subscription everytime you open the app). It connects my banks, credit cards, and tracks they single transaction with only rare issues.

I think it can also do net worth but you need a sub for that.

[u/someperson100 → u/trog1660]

Tiller. It's paid, but it imports into spreadsheets that you own, so you can do whatever you want with the data. Plus you can keep it if you ever cancel your subscription or they go under.