Do you remember the finance management app Mint from back in the day? I used it all through university to budget and track goals. Then Intuit bought and eventually shut it down, and I haven’t had a good way to see my finances in one place since.
That got even more annoying after I got married, because now there were two sets of accounts scattered across even more places.
We’ve tried a bunch of other apps over the years, even gave YNAB a solid try, but it just didn’t fit how we think about money. Too rigid, too much philosophy baked in.
A few months ago, I started looking again for something that could give us a complete view of our finances, with forecasting and reports. I came across a strong recommendation for Monarch and finally had time this week to set it up.
And… I love it. It’s exactly what I’ve been missing. The only thing I wish it had is goal forecasting, which, according to an email I got last night, is coming soon. Now I can see all our family’s transactions, investments, and accounts in one place.
You can’t manage what you don’t track, and since my spouse and I keep separate finances1, it’s been tricky to get a truly complete picture. So while I think we’ve been doing alright, I couldn’t say for sure. We’re generally conservative with our money, have no real debt2, save at least 20% of our income, and contribute regularly to our RRSP3 , long term savings, and our kid’s RESP4. But now I can see how it all fits together instead of just a mental estimation, and that’s super helpful.
Now that we’re both in our 30s and have a kid, we’ve started thinking more seriously about the future. Getting strategic means having data, and that’s where Monarch comes in for us.
It’s so satisfying to forecast, categorize, and pull reports again. It’s been years since I’ve had such a clear picture of our family finances, and it feels great.
I’ll do another post soon about the retirement strategies we’re exploring, but for now, I just wanted to share how much I’ve been enjoying Monarch.
If you want to try it, you can get 50% off this this referral link. Totally optional, of course; it’s just a nice win/win.
- This is purely for convenience reasons and to be able to take advantage of loyalty rates and programs at our respective banks. ↩︎
- We have a mortgage, which is debt, but that’s managed debt. ↩︎
- Registered Retirement Savings Plan account, roughly equivalent to IRA and 401(k) in the States. ↩︎
- Registered Education Savings Plan account ↩︎