October 2021
The end is nigh - at least for the current year :smile: So I took the opportunity to rethink my personal finances and experiment with different - open source - accounting tools. The result of this effort is a personal finance dashboard which turns data from a local GnuCash file into a neat overview of your financial situation.
{% hint style=“info” %} GnuCash is a free and open source accounting software which has been around for decades. It is highly stable, actively maintained and supports double-entry accounting. {% endhint %}
You are free to use and modify the GnuCash Dashboard as you wish, because I released it under GPLv3 :tada: Simply head over to its GitHub repository, hit the download button and you are ready to go!
Please Note: The current state of work is tested on elementary OS 6 (based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS). If you’d like to run the dashboard on another platform and run into issues, feel free to let me know in the issues section of the GitHub repository.
Metrics¶
A lot of inspiration for the KPI’s is drawn from Michael Walker’s approach on personal finance.
Net Worth Absolute¶
If I paid off all my liabilities right now, how much of my assets would remain?
net_worth = assets + liabilities🟢 Good: Greater than 0.
🟠 Medium: Equals to 0.
🔴 Bad: Less than 0.
Net Worth Trend¶
What is the net worth growth trend for the last n months?
net_worth_trend = linear_regression (assets_last_n_months + liabilities_last_n_months)
# Default: n months = 6🟢 Good: Ascending slope (the steeper the better).
🟠 Medium: Straight slope.
🔴 Bad: Descending slope (the steeper the worse).
Net Worth Prediction¶
If my net worth keeps growing at the current rate, when will I achieve a certain goal?
net_worth_predicted_at_date = extrapolate(net_worth_trend, until=goal)
# Default: goal = 100_000🟢 Good: Less than 10 years.
🟠 Medium: 10 to 20 years.
🔴 Bad: More than 20 years.
Income vs. Expenses¶
This should be pretty self explanatory. Defaults to the last 6 months.
Runway¶
If my income stopped right now, how long would I be able to survive?
runway = assets / average_daily_expense_last_n_days
# Default: n days = 180🟢 Good: More than 90 days.
🟠 Medium: 60 to 90 days.
🔴 Bad: Less than 60 days.