this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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Quicken,
I really wish there was a FOSS alternative that supported the autodownload of transactions across my plethora of banks/accounts (some I even chose specifically for better integration) but its sooo incestuous that theres really not much and what alternatives are available are usually cloud based where you cant guarantee the security of all your financial data.
I am... Really confused about your use of the word "incestuous" here. It may be that there's, uh... Another context for the word that I am not aware of, but how is the lack of integration between FOSS alternatives and banking platforms... Incestuous?
Companies like Intuit aka Quicken pay large sums of money to not only access banking API's but also lobby heavily to keep them closed source. They also make sure that other access to the same API's come at a higher rate so that competitiors will pay more for access or support when things break. Its why theres very few alternatives and of what alternatives there is either generally requires you to setup your own export/import system for transactions or is backed by huge sums of VC (ie: Mint, which is also now owned by intuit).
Similar to how companies like TaxAct or TurboTax (another Intuit brand) lobby heavily to make tax filing overcomplicated and confusing AF so they can sell tax filing services. Even getting to the free file is purposefully designed to push to you pay some company 350 bucks to tell the government what you made (which they already know and tell you in your tax filing).
Basically banks and merchants (or more accurately their processing systems used by banks and made by companies like Jack Henry, FIS etc) are in co-hoots to avoid progress and keep their walled guarden closed.
how is it incest though?
It’s a general term used to denote that two companies of the same/very similar sectors are in bed with each other with an arrangement that is exclusive and specifically designed to keep outsiders out
I have never heard the word used that way before. Thank you for the clarification.
I think it’s shorthand for “buddy-buddy.”
Like they’re keeping it in the family and not letting any outsiders in.
You might want to check out YNAB? It's not quicken, it's budgeting. It has a lot of banking connections.
It’s been a while since I tried it, along with gnucash and some other web based self hosted budget project that was abandoned.
I les s want the budgeting aspect but more the itemizing and ledger/balancing features. I use the budget to predict and track certain spending but often it’s more just tracking purchases and consolidating transaction spending. Even quicken kinda sucks at auto categorization, but does well enough.
I'd like to understand - why do want tracking and not budgeting?
It’s good to know where you are spending money, what your monthlies are. Where you can cut down and nickel and dime. Helps with things at the macro level with patterns. Especially with the new found subscription service culture.
I use quickens auto budget, kinda, but if I go over it’s whatever. We live well below our means overall. We pay our CCs off in full each month etc.
It also helps with taxes for things like write offs (though the standard deduction is almost always still the best deal for me) and helps when deciding on bigger spend projects etc (ie: house fixes, cars etc). Like if I have had to put a ton of money into a car and it gets close to the point of the value, is it better to get a new car? Well with quicken I can very quickly go look and see exactly how much I have spent on my truck in the last year.
Look at this guy and his multiple bank accounts
I work in IT. Redundancy and high availability are not just IT terms to me.