How do you track your savings

Doshwaster

colsten wrote: »

* I think the reason Moneydashboard etc can't connect to all providers is that not all providers actually offer Open Banking APIs. As it's not compulsory to offer them, I think this situation will prevail for many years to come. I am quite happy with providers who distribute any spare money they have to their customers rather than on nice-to-have technology enhancements.

That's right - not all banks support the API yet and some do but only for some types accounts. So yes, there are still limitations with MyMoneyDashboard (investment accounts is the big one for me) but it if you starting from scratch and have relatively simple finances then it could be a good option.

As a product it is still a "work in progress" but new features are being added all of the time - unlike MS Money which is stuck as a 15 year old application.

So far I'm happy with MyMoneyDashboard for current accounts, savings and credit cards and now only use MS Money for pensions, investments and my mortgage. The old data is still in Money but I've come to realise that on a day to day basis the new cloud/mobile features are useful but I'm unlikely to want to know how much I spent on petrol in 2007 or what my mortgage balance was in 2012.

oli356

I just setup a Moneydashboard account, I managed to add most of my accounts with the exception of:

MoneyBox LISA (this was a given really)
HSBC Reg Savings
Coventry Building Society Reg Saver
Natwest HTB ISA (again, probably to be expected).

Current I track all of my accounts balances (monthly) in a spreadsheet and I will continue to do so, though I'll try keep the Moneydashboard up to date as well I think.... not sure... Updating 4 accounts in theory should be quicker than updating 10? on a spreadsheet, although if most are regular savers then the balance will grow at an expected amount per month.

silvermum

I also have a 'beast' of a spreadsheet which has grown over the years!

Accounts are listed in categories with things like acct details/ when opened/ interest rates/ balance/ any special conditions etc:

- Current Accounts
- Savings Accounts
- Tax free saving (now only cash ISAs, but used to include NS&I etc)
- S&S ISAs
- SIPP
- Peer-to-Peer

I also have a rental property so I have lines for that:
- Bank account
- Property Value

I also manage some money in trust for my kids and their JISAs/ ISAs etc so there's about 3-4 lines each for them.

I have separate worksheet tabs to log annual ISA and SIPP contributions to check that I don't go over the allowances.

For my own money, the sections sub-total and then are reflected in a pie chart at the bottom so I can see at a glance my total 'wealth' and the % split between cash/ investments/ property/ pension etc.

colsten

Doshwaster wrote: »

That's right - not all banks support the API yet and some do but only for some types accounts. So yes, there are still limitations with MyMoneyDashboard (investment accounts is the big one for me) but it if you starting from scratch and have relatively simple finances then it could be a good option [if anyone wants a membership referral code just drop me a private message]

As a product it is still a "work in progress" but new features are being added all of the time - unlike MS Money which is stuck as a 15 year old application.

So far I'm happy with MyMoneyDashboard for current accounts, savings and credit cards and now only use MS Money for pensions, investments and my mortgage. The old data is still in Money but I've come to realise that on a day to day basis the new cloud/mobile features are useful but I'm unlikely to want to know how much I spent on petrol in 2007 or what my mortgage balance was in 2012.

You getting "shares" in Moneydashboard for referrals doesn't exactly strengthen your case for them, does it

Besides, you do know that referrals outside the referrer's board are not allowed?

colsten

silvermum wrote: »

I also have a 'beast' of a spreadsheet which has grown over the years!

Accounts are listed in categories with things like acct details/ when opened/ interest rates/ balance/ any special conditions etc:

- Current Accounts
- Savings Accounts
- Tax free saving (now only cash ISAs, but used to include NS&I etc)
- S&S ISAs
- SIPP
- Peer-to-Peer

I also have a rental property so I have lines for that:
- Bank account
- Property Value

I also manage some money in trust for my kids and their JISAs/ ISAs etc so there's about 3-4 lines each for them.

I have separate worksheet tabs to log annual ISA and SIPP contributions to check that I don't go over the allowances.

For my own money, the sections sub-total and then are reflected in a pie chart at the bottom so I can see at a glance my total 'wealth' and the % split between cash/ investments/ property/ pension etc.

This sounds like a formidable effort, and an approach that will no doubt give you a lot of / total control over your finances.

I can see this sort of detail managed nicely in AceMoney / MS Money (my overall portfolio is not dissimilar to yours). I can't see any of the modern personal finance managers come anywhere close in the next few years, in terms of total coverage of your / your kids entire wealth in a single report.

Note I am not suggesting you should migrate, not at all. It would be a major nightmare and much wasted time to try and reconstruct your 'beast' in AceMoney / MS Money.

Doshwaster

colsten wrote: »

You getting "shares" in Moneydashboard for referrals doesn't exactly strengthen your case for them, does it

Besides, you do know that referrals outside the referrer's board are not allowed?

Fair point. I have edited my post to remove the offer of a referral.

dont_use_vistaprint

What about Open Banking? I have Halifax, Barclays and Santander within the Barclays app - looks like more are adopting the standard this year

colsten

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

What about Open Banking? I have Halifax, Barclays and Santander within the Barclays app - looks like more are adopting the standard this year

All the newer apps / aggregators depend on Open Banking. All the larger banks, Building Societies and credit card providers will have most, if not all, their accounts enabled for Open Banking. It's the smaller ones, and also some of the investment platforms and some specialist providers (e.g. P2P, IFISA, Currency Converters) who might never be able to justify the investment into Open Banking.

MDMD

Fingerbobs wrote: »

I use a spreadsheet, which started out as a simple list of all my accounts with their respective balances, but I've extended it and added all sorts of features to it over the years and it's now become quite a beast.
I'd be lost without it now, as I'd never remember the details of all my accounts.
Needless to say, it's backed up in triplicate.

I had the same, it now functions as a tracker of accounts, credit card debts, maturity dates, balances, logs of interest payments, which feed into a tax calculation tab that forecasts my income and tax for the year so I can do pension payments etc. I’ve got a regular saver calculator, a PremIum Bond returns calculator plus a history of over a decade of interest payments.

I save it in Microsoft OneDrive, as it was linked to Excel on my laptop although I tend to use the iPad and iPhone apps.

I probably should back up to google drive though.....
It’s been developed over about 14 years and

sebasb

No ones uses GnuCash? no connection to anything (that i tried). I load/save data from an encrypted cloud provider. I think its very good, but it may be slow with 10+years of a lot of data (good idea to save in several files, if convenient). 
I always think i should write my own portfolio manager software for everyday people, but no time to do it! Someone should offer that, with different models applied to your data offering strategies to improve your situation across the board.