Will Your Beancount Ledger Be Readable in 100 Years? Permanence, Encoding, and Legacy

General
1

Started thinking about this after realizing my Beancount ledger is the most complete financial record I’ll ever have. 15 years of transactions, decisions, growth. In 100 years, will my great-grandkids be able to read it?

Plain text should survive. But Git is fragile (depends on GitHub, and future developers might not understand it). Encoding could drift. Python (bean-query) will evolve or disappear. So: is my data truly preserved, or am I just delaying loss?

I’ve started printing annual summaries (paper backup, very analog). But that feels paranoid. Curious what others think about century-scale data preservation.

2

My great-grandkids

Do you actually think they’ll care? My kids have no interest in my ledger. Assume it dies with you, and preserve what matters (tax docs, assets to inherit).

3

The permanence of plain text is overstated. You’re right about encoding, Git, Python drift. But it’s still better than QuickBooks Online, which vanishes if the company folds. Relative advantage matters.

4

Export to CSV yearly (universal format). CSV will survive longer than anything. No Git, no Python, just columns. Boring but permanent.