# SimpleFinances

> SimpleFinances is a personal finance web app that automatically categorizes your transactions, surfaces recurring charges and subscriptions, and shows a spending review, a financial health score, a net-worth timeline, and a cash-flow calendar — so you can see where your money actually goes.

SimpleFinances is an independent personal finance web app founded by Jonah Kubath (SimpleFinances.co). It is not affiliated with any lender, bank, or financial-data provider. The core idea is to answer one question — where did my money actually go — by reading your real transactions instead of asking you to log spending by hand.

You connect an account through Plaid, a trusted third-party service used by thousands of apps. The connection is read-only: SimpleFinances can see transactions to categorize spending and detect subscriptions, but it cannot move, send, or withdraw money. Your bank login is entered with your bank through Plaid and is never stored by SimpleFinances. If you would rather not link a bank, you can add accounts and transactions manually and the same categorization, spending review, and health score still work. Everything runs in a web browser on any device — there is nothing to download.

## What SimpleFinances does

- Automatic categorization: Every transaction is sorted into a category (dining, groceries, transport, bills, and more) as it comes in, with no tagging or spreadsheet formulas.
- Spending review: See each category with its total for the period — the honest picture of where money went, kept current as new purchases post.
- Recurring & subscription tracking: Groups the charges that repeat — monthly, annually, or on an odd cadence — into one list, with the amount, billing frequency, and projected yearly cost, so a converted free trial or forgotten annual renewal surfaces before its next bill.
- Financial health score: Turns the numbers into a single read on how you are doing.
- Net-worth timeline: Cash, investments, cards, and loans combined into one number tracked over months.
- Cash-flow calendar: Maps what is coming in and going out so nothing catches you short.
- Safe-to-Spend: Shows what is actually free to spend after upcoming bills and goals are covered.

## Pricing

Pricing is flat and printed plainly. There is no free trial on any plan, and no "pay what you want" prompt.

- Premium — $19.99/month, or $100/year. The annual plan works out to about $8.33/month and saves $139.88 versus twelve monthly payments (roughly 58% off). Includes: sync unlimited accounts, net-worth tracking, spending by category, budgets, debt tracking & payoff, bill & balance alerts, recurring & subscription tracking, Safe-to-Spend, cash-flow forecast, full account analysis, tax-ready reports & CSV export, weekly recap & emergency-fund roadmap, and Avalanche vs Snowball debt strategies.
- Full Financial Review — one-time $49.99. One payment, no subscription: a complete financial review plus 7 days of full Premium access, and the report is yours to keep.

## Main pages

- [Home](https://www.simplefinances.co/): The overview of SimpleFinances — how it reads your accounts, categorizes spending, and surfaces the fees, markups, and forgotten subscriptions that make your real spending higher than you think.
- [About](https://www.simplefinances.co/about): Why SimpleFinances exists and who builds it — a plain-language personal finance app from solo founder Jonah Kubath, covering the mission, values, and the founder's story. Not affiliated with any lender, bank, or financial-data provider.
- [Pricing & upgrade](https://www.simplefinances.co/upgrade): Upgrade to Premium (in-app checkout). Annual and monthly Premium billing are the same Premium tier.
- [Security](https://www.simplefinances.co/security/): How SimpleFinances protects your data — read-only Plaid connections, credentials never stored by SimpleFinances, and bank-level encryption in transit and at rest.

## Guides & comparisons

- [Subscription tracker](https://www.simplefinances.co/subscription-tracker/): Explains how SimpleFinances reads your transactions, groups the recurring ones, and shows every subscription in a single list with its yearly cost worked out. Covers how detection works, whether it is safe to connect a bank, manual entry as an alternative, and how it differs from cancellation apps (SimpleFinances finds and tracks subscriptions but does not cancel them for you, so you keep every dollar you save). The subscription finder is part of Premium.
- [Expense tracker](https://www.simplefinances.co/expense-tracker/): Describes automatic expense tracking — connecting an account so every purchase is categorized on its own, turning scattered swipes into honest category totals. Covers the step-by-step flow, whether you must connect a bank, a spreadsheet-vs-app comparison, and how the same data powers the subscription finder, health score, net-worth timeline, and cash-flow calendar.
- [Find forgotten subscriptions](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/find-forgotten-subscriptions/): A thorough guide to auditing subscriptions by hand across five sources — bank and card statements, the Apple App Store, Google Play, PayPal automatic payments, and Amazon memberships & Subscribe & Save — then cancelling at the source, plus the faster automated approach. Cites C+R Research finding people underestimate subscription spending by about $133/month ($86 guessed vs $219 actual) and that 42% pay for a subscription they forgot.
- [Budgeting tips](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/budgeting-tips/): 15 concrete budgeting tips with real dollar figures, grouped into measuring where money goes, cutting silent leaks (subscriptions, delivery fees, insurance re-shopping), and automating savings. Includes a 50/30/20 worked example on $4,000/month take-home and the most common budgeting mistakes to avoid.
- [Best Mint alternative](https://www.simplefinances.co/vs/mint/): An honest look at what replaced Mint after Intuit shut it down on March 23, 2024 and migrated users to Credit Karma. Compares SimpleFinances, Credit Karma, Monarch, and Rocket Money on transparent flat pricing, whether the tool sells data or shows ads, categorization, subscription finding, and the full-picture view.
- [SimpleFinances vs Rocket Money](https://www.simplefinances.co/vs/rocket-money/): A fair head-to-head. Rocket Money is strong at cancelling subscriptions and negotiating bills; SimpleFinances offers flat, predictable pricing and a complete money dashboard (categories, health score, net worth, cash flow). Covers pricing philosophy, whether to use both, and the web-only trade-off.
- [SimpleFinances vs YNAB](https://www.simplefinances.co/vs/ynab/): A fair head-to-head. YNAB is hands-on zero-based budgeting that rewards daily engagement (assign every dollar a job); SimpleFinances gives automatic visibility into where your money went without the homework. Covers the methodology difference, pricing ($14.99/mo or $109/yr with a 34-day trial vs Premium $19.99/mo or $100/yr, no trial), and who should pick which.

- [How much of my paycheck should I save](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/first-paycheck/): The honest savings-rate answer — the 20% rule, gross vs net, and what to do when 20% is out of reach.
- [Average savings by age](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/am-i-behind-financially/): Federal Reserve SCF benchmarks by age, the by-30 guideline, and why trajectory beats the average.
- [No spend challenge & No Buy 2026](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/no-spend-challenge/): Rules template, week/month/quarter durations plus the year-long no-buy list, failure modes, and what to do with what you learn.
- [Envelope budgeting (cash stuffing)](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/cash-stuffing/): How the envelope method works, cash vs digital envelopes, and setting amounts from real spending.
- [Moving to the UK from the US: the money guide](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/moving-to-the-uk-finances/): 2026 visa and NHS surcharge costs, UK bills Americans don't expect, US accounts/credit/taxes — by an American who made the move.
- [Can I keep my US bank account if I move abroad?](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/keep-us-bank-account-abroad/): Bank vs brokerage policies (Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab), why one US account and card should survive the move, and the FBAR threshold.
- [Building credit in the UK as an American](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/build-credit-uk-american/): The rebuild sequence, the Amex Global Card Transfer shortcut, and the England-vs-Scotland electoral-roll nuance.
- [How to do a money audit](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/money-audit/): A repeatable audit process with a copyable template, the steps, what a financial checkup calculator measures, and the free 30-second version.
- [Free budgeting apps: what is actually free](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/free-budgeting-apps/): Open-source, manual-entry, and product-funded free tiers explained, with verified prices and where the paid line sits.
- [Zero-based budgeting apps](https://www.simplefinances.co/guides/zero-based-budgeting-app/): How the every-dollar-a-job method works, who it suits, and an honest comparison of the apps that implement it.
- [SimpleFinances vs PocketGuard](https://www.simplefinances.co/vs/pocketguard/): PocketGuard's free tier, Plus and lifetime pricing versus a flat price with bank sync, compared honestly.
- [SimpleFinances vs Goodbudget](https://www.simplefinances.co/vs/goodbudget/): Goodbudget's free plan and Premium envelopes versus automatic categorization.

## Tools

- [50/30/20 calculator](https://www.simplefinances.co/tools/50-30-20-calculator/): Free interactive calculator — enter monthly after-tax income, see the needs/wants/savings split, adjust the ratios.
- [Net worth calculator + average net worth by age](https://www.simplefinances.co/tools/net-worth-calculator/): Free calculator (assets minus liabilities) with 2022 Federal Reserve SCF median and mean net worth for your age group.
- [Debt payoff calculator](https://www.simplefinances.co/tools/debt-payoff-calculator/): Snowball vs avalanche schedules and your debt-free date, free.