I've Tried 19 Personal Finance Apps in 3 Years (Mint, YNAB, Empower, Copilot...)—Is This Normal or Am I Doing FIRE Wrong?

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I’ve Tried 19 Personal Finance Apps in 3 Years (Mint, YNAB, Empower, Copilot, Spreadsheets…)—Is This Normal or Am I Doing FIRE Wrong?

Background: I’m a software engineer (DevOps) who got serious about FIRE planning in 2023. Coming from a tech background, I thought tracking finances would be straightforward—pick a tool, track data, optimize, done. Narrator voice: It was not straightforward.

I just counted my “Finance Tools” folder. Nineteen different apps, websites, and spreadsheets. Some I used for a week. Some I’m still using. Most are abandoned with guilt.

And here’s what’s bothering me: Every FIRE blog, Reddit thread, and YouTube video recommends a completely different stack. There’s zero consensus. How is that possible for something as fundamental as “track your money”?

My 3-Year Tool Journey (A Graveyard Tour)

2023: The Beginner Phase

  • Started with Google Sheets (loved it—version control habits from Git!)
  • Added Mint for automatic categorization (it was free and easy)
  • Tried Personal Capital for investment tracking
  • Built a custom spreadsheet (abandoned after 2 months—too manual)

2024: The “Optimization” Phase

  • Mint shut down → panic migration to Monarch Money ($99/year)
  • Tried YNAB because r/personalfinance swore by it ($109/year—abandoned after 3 months, too strict)
  • Experimented with Copilot (beautiful UI but iOS-only, I have Android for work)
  • Discovered Empower (rebranded Personal Capital—free, still using)
  • Built Notion dashboard #1 (abandoned—too slow)
  • Built Notion dashboard #2 (abandoned—sync issues)

2025-2026: The Existential Crisis Phase

  • Tried ProjectionLab for FIRE projections (loved the Monte Carlo simulations)
  • Tried Fireleap for community tracking
  • Discovered My Financial Freedom Tracker (supports 5 FIRE variants)
  • Tried Actual Budget (privacy-focused, self-hosted—loved the concept, not the maintenance)
  • Built Airtable setup (too complex)
  • Tried Tiller Money (spreadsheet + auto-sync—finally, the dream?)
  • Found plain text accounting (Beancount/hledger)—currently experimenting

Current state: Using Empower (free), custom Python scripts, and experimenting with Beancount. But I have decision fatigue.

The Problem: No FIRE Community Consensus

I’m active on r/financialindependence, r/leanfire, and a few Discord servers. Every time someone asks “What tool should I use?” the responses are:

  • “Just use a spreadsheet” (Bogleheads crowd)
  • “Empower is free and good enough” (minimalists)
  • “YNAB changed my life” (despite $109/year)
  • “Monarch Money is worth $99/year” (design-focused folks)
  • “Build your own in Python/Excel” (engineer types like me)
  • “Personal Capital—wait, it’s Empower now” (old-timers)
  • “Copilot if you have iOS” (best UI but platform-locked)
  • “Plain text accounting” (the nerds—maybe I’m one of them now?)

There’s no dominant standard. That’s weird, right? For something as critical as “track progress toward financial independence for 30 years,” you’d think we’d have convergence by now.

Why This Bothers Me (The Engineer Perspective)

In software development, we have standard data formats:

  • JSON for API communication (not proprietary vendor formats)
  • Markdown for documentation (portable, text-based)
  • Git for version control (works with any text file)
  • SQL for databases (standardized query language)

But in personal finance?

  • Every tool has a proprietary database
  • Export formats are CSV at best (no transaction relationships preserved)
  • Switching tools = complete data migration nightmare
  • No interoperability between systems

When Mint shut down in 2024, I watched friends lose years of transaction history because the export format was garbage. I spent 12 hours migrating my data to Monarch Money. Then Monarch changed their pricing structure 6 months later and I almost switched again—but couldn’t stomach another migration.

This feels broken. We’re planning for 30+ year retirements using tools that might not exist in 5 years.

What I’m Experimenting With Now: Plain Text + Tools

I’m trying a hybrid approach inspired by software architecture patterns:

Layer 1: Source of Truth (Beancount)

  • Plain text ledger files (.beancount format)
  • Version controlled in Git (because I’m a developer and I can’t help myself)
  • Never locks me in—it’s just text files
  • Will outlive any commercial tool

Layer 2: Convenience Tools (Empower, Scripts)

  • Use Empower for day-to-day tracking (free, auto-sync, good mobile app)
  • Use Python scripts to periodically export to Beancount format
  • Empower could shut down tomorrow—I’d still have my complete financial history

Layer 3: Analysis & Visualization (Custom)

  • Build reports on top of Beancount data using Python
  • Fava (Beancount’s web UI) for quick browsing
  • Custom dashboards when needed

The idea: Let commercial tools handle convenience (bank sync, mobile apps), but keep data in an open format that outlasts any vendor.

My Questions for the Community

1. Is 19 tools in 3 years normal, or am I uniquely indecisive?
How many FIRE tracking tools have you tried? What’s your graveyard count?

2. Does tool stability matter more than features?
Would you rather use a “good enough” open-source tool that’ll exist in 20 years, or a “perfect” commercial tool that might disappear?

3. Has anyone solved this with plain text accounting?
I’m experimenting with Beancount as my “data warehouse layer.” Is this overkill? Or is this actually the right architecture?

4. Should we push for data portability standards?
What if FIRE tools agreed on a common export format (like Beancount’s ledger format)? Then we could switch tools freely without data migration hell. Is this realistic?

5. How do you handle the guilt of abandoned subscriptions?
I’ve spent probably $600+ on tools I no longer use. That’s not very FIRE of me. Anyone else feel this?

The Bigger Question: Format vs. Features?

I’m starting to think the FIRE community optimizes for the wrong thing. We debate which tool has the best features (Empower vs Monarch vs YNAB vs Copilot), but we ignore which data format will survive longest (proprietary database vs plain text).

In software, we learned this lesson decades ago: open standards outlive proprietary formats. HTML outlived Flash. Markdown outlived Word’s .doc format. Git outlived SourceSafe.

Maybe FIRE tracking should follow the same principle? Plain text ledgers + whatever pretty frontend you prefer = data that survives tool churn.

Or maybe I’m overthinking this because I’m a developer and I see everything as a data architecture problem. :sweat_smile:

Am I alone in this tool fatigue? Or is everyone secretly hopping between apps and just not talking about it?

References: Empower, Monarch Money, YNAB alternatives, Copilot review, Beancount, Plain Text Accounting