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YNAB moving to a subscription model
dr_andus:
I don't mind having some things in the cloud. But my financial information? I want it in as few places as possible. And with all that they have access to?
-wraith808 (January 01, 2016, 01:19 PM)
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But doesn't your bank, credit card company etc. already keep your financial information in the cloud anyway? What these cloud-based services seem to do is pull the data and aggregate it in a read-only form (i.e. it should not be possible for a hacker to execute transactions, should 'only' be able to read info in one place which otherwise might not be in one place).
I'm in the market for a PC-based or cloud-based personal financial management solution. One thing in favour of a cloud-based system is that it is accessible from any device (for me this mainly means my work PC or my Chromebook), rather than being tied to my home PC, which is not always on.
How do PC-based apps like Intuit store your data pulled from your bank etc. accounts? Doesn't it pass (and is stored) in their cloud somehow before they aggregate it in your desktop software? I don't know, I'm asking, trying to get my head around this category of software.
I was thinking of aggregating my various bank account and credit card data manually, but it just seems such a waste of time, and if I want to share it with my significant other, then I might put it into a Google Sheet, in which case it's in the cloud again.
It seems to me that the first step is to aggregate all the various account data as quickly and as painlessly as possible, so that the more valuable process of budgeting can begin. So, don't all these software somehow gather the data via clouds one way or another?
I'm also wary of using a Yodlee-based cloud service, on the other hand the service they provide is invaluable, as it would be a nightmare to aggregate all this data manually on a daily or even a monthly basis.
So, what is there to lose and gain one way or another (using a PC-based vs. cloud-based personal finance software)?
dr_andus:
Yeah, so to answer one of my questions, I was looking at the free "Money Dashboard" (a Yodlee-based service), and wondering "How does Money Dashboard make money?" and found:
Money Dashboard may offer suggestions for products and services like credit cards, home loan offers or insurance providers that can save you money. If you select a product based on our suggestion, Money Dashboard may receive a fee from the product provider.
Money Dashboard also provides insight and market research services to help companies better understand trends in consumer behaviour. We identify shifts in consumer preferences using anonymised spending information from groups of Money Dashboard users.
We guarantee that Money Dashboard will never share any personally identifiable data with a third party without our users express permission.
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I don't like the sound of that. I'd rather pay a subscription fee, if I can be confident that I'm not being cross-selled and advertised to and my personal data is not being sold on. Maybe I should check out YNAB then?
wraith808:
But doesn't your bank, credit card company etc. already keep your financial information in the cloud anyway? What these cloud-based services seem to do is pull the data and aggregate it in a read-only form (i.e. it should not be possible for a hacker to execute transactions, should 'only' be able to read info in one place which otherwise might not be in one place).
-dr_andus (January 01, 2016, 08:18 PM)
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There are stringent regulations that apply to their systems and their use of the information. A vendor like this? Not so much. That's the difference, see? The financial systems keep your information on their computers and on their networks. That's not the same as the "Cloud". Replace "Cloud" with "Someone else's computers", and see how much you trust them then...
How do PC-based apps like Intuit store your data pulled from your bank etc. accounts? Doesn't it pass (and is stored) in their cloud somehow before they aggregate it in your desktop software? I don't know, I'm asking, trying to get my head around this category of software.
-dr_andus (January 01, 2016, 08:18 PM)
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That's simple. I don't use those services. Which was one of the reasons that I liked YNAB. I download the data from the bank- manually- then import it into the software. I am the middleman, and it's not stored anywhere.
So, what is there to lose and gain one way or another (using a PC-based vs. cloud-based personal finance software)?
-dr_andus (January 01, 2016, 08:18 PM)
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Your financial data and security. Because what you look at as an inconvenience, I look at as a necessary security measure. And my wife already has access to my records through other means. I don't need it in the cloud to facilitate that. And if you think that only having read only access to financial information can't cause chaos... think in a little wider box.
superboyac:
I understand them wanting to establish a regular revenue stream. But from my experience, most users aren't at all pleased with the "software as a service" concept. Especially if they're like me and prefer to own rather than rent whatever they're using.
I think YNAB (which I own and think highly of) is making a bit of a mistake with this move. The program pretty much is what it is. The philosophy and approach it teaches doesn't need updating. If anything it's just a nicely presented rework of some solid and classic financial advice. The program is simple and efficient - so it shouldn't require much if any updating to do its job. So I'm not sure what the additional value moving to a subscription revenue model is providing to their customer. Especially since so many people (myself included) are very uncomfortable having their finances stored anywhere other than on their own drive.
I wish them luck. But I'm afraid that unless they can hook up with some financial guru seminar or similar service, and bundle it in as an add-on service, it isn't going to fly.
The sad thing is that although there's a market for personal finance software, nobody seems to be interested in doing it. Because it's essentially a one-off sale. Most users of these packages aren't interested in new features. And without new features, there's no incentive to ever upgrade.
Intuit is looking for someone to take over Quicken right now. They've assured their customers that Intuit is going to make sure whoever takes over it's ongoing support and development will continue to keep Quicken going as a top notch desktop app.
And nobody with an ounce of brains believes Intuit for a single minute.
I'm sure Quicken will shortly be going the way of Microsoft Money, Andrew Tobias's Managing Your Money, and all those other nifty personal finance programs we used to know.
-40hz (January 01, 2016, 09:54 AM)
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this happens so much, where are the pressures coming from? as a person who dabbles in this sort of business, it feels like if you don't do these kinds of things (saas, bloat, etc) then you won't be able to survive. the optimist in me wants someone to tell me that that is not the case, and there are other ways. but i'd like to be convinced of it.
40hz:
I don't use bank integration features at all. I log onto my bank's secure portal, then generate and pull down a file of any activity I need to import. It's a slight extra bit of effort for a huge amount more security.
But I also tend to manually key in my transactions on a regular basis so I seldom need to import anything.
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