In managing my personal finance over several years, I realized that the commercial off-the-shelf personal finance products/services did not meet my specific needs. Moreover, many of these commercial products also directly accessed my bank accounts - something I wasn't comfortable with. Over several years, I have used my software programming skills to build my personalized tool with two primary tenets.

1. Automate as much data as possible

2. But do not make it too intrusive to compromise data privacy

In 2009, I finally built a tool based on Microsoft Excel. I collected my learning over several years and included them all into this personal finance tool called “Dhanam” (in Sanskrit, it means ‘money’) developed in a week during the Christmas shutdown break at Hewlett Packard where I used to work. Though useful, it needed a lot of manual intervention and did not weave into the daily routine like a mobile app. 

So, I started working on FinanceGuru – an Android app continuously evolving from Android Lollipop to Android 10. FinanceGuru became my Android playground as I built this app first with native Android, then with Kotlin, and finally with Flutter. 

Eventually, in 2023, it became very difficult to keep my app updated with the ever-changing rules of the Google Play Store and newer versions of Android. So, I started exploring no-code platforms for Android apps which culminated in re-building FinanceGuru with a new name FinanceWise on Google's no-code platform called AppSheet. I am now working on making this app shareable for free. Please get in touch with me at jagan999 at yahoo dot com if you need FinanceWise app to manage your finances and build your wealth. If you are more comfortable using a raw spreadsheet, I have a nice template in Google Sheets that you can use right away - see below. The nice part of using this sheet is that FinanceWise works off the same spreadsheet - so your data will be seamlessly migrated when you want to switch to the app. 

Note that you can maximize your benefits from FinanceWise if you do the following:

• Build a fiscal discipline to review data at least once a month

• Update all control parameters to reflect market reality…As an example, set target values for your ideal investment profile based on your risk appetite. In the world of personal finance, no one size fits all. 

• Use this app to guide your investments and financial decisions

• Happy investing and wealth management!

Jagan