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Show HN: Keep, an app that helps you love how you spend every dollar
- reshambabble 12y agoWow. You've taken a key insight and created something that directly hits the emotions of your users. You're engaging their feelings, passions, and desires. It will be nice to see how your website, communications, and even your product evolves!
- welly 12y agoI'm finding the terminology a little strange for this one.. "Helps you love how you spend every dollar"? While I get the gist of what you're saying, it makes my head hurt a little bit. Am on Android (Moto G) and every time I tapped the goal amount text box, it requested me to "Rotate device to portrait" despite my portrait lock being turned on, so was unable to add a goal amount. I like the idea of this app but not quite sure it works for me. I need more than a pretty picture to keep me motivated to save! :) Good luck with it though.
- cjf4 12y agoAgree completely, this current trend of slapping "love" and "beautiful" on every start up product is watering down the word a little bit. I love my family, not paying rent.
- xwes 12y agoThere's a lot in this comment, so I'd like to explicitly second the bug report in here. In Chrome on Android, it's impossible to complete the goal amount, so it's impossible to continue.
- tomrohlf 12y agoThanks for the bug report, we are looking into it.
- delosfuegos 12y agoI had the same bug on Nexus 5. I like the psychology behind the app and would use it, but I fear it will become boring and I will quit. Maybe gamify it a bit more.
- tomrohlf 12y agoWe are looking into that aspect of the app and will likely add some mild forms of gamification to make it more engaging over time. If you don't mind sharing, did you have anything particular in mind?
- delosfuegos 12y agoOff the top of my head: - sub-goals ("you have already saved x% towards paying of your debts") - smaller awards (Amount: "$5 saved", Frequency: "3 taps a day award", Time: "you saved something every day this week") - a ranking (not sure how that would work) This would not only provide incentive to save, but it would also increase usage, which makes the app harder to forgot/uninstall. Good luck! PS: On your website, add a subscribe via e-mail box. Then you can capture people (like me) who would be interested to sign up when you build a native app.
- Poiesis 12y agoI liked the terminology. Don't know which one of us is more representative of the target demographic, though. It's not (necessarily) just marketing fluff. A lot of people view budgeting as "here's what I can't spend money on". It can be easier to stick to a plan when viewed through the lens of getting the maximal enjoyment for the money. There's a lot of people out there who "don't know where it's all going"; the idea is that you consciously decide if you'll be happier spending $100/month on, say, Starbucks or a Beaglebone. Once you know where it's all going, you can decide if you want to spend it on things that might be more enjoyable.
- meisterbrendan 12y agoThanks for the feedback. The perspective you articulate is exactly what we're trying to do with money management. A lot of people feel pretty bummed when they think about managing their money, and consequently avoid thinking about it and realizing that they could derive more short and long term satisfaction with the ways they spend their money. We think that a positive, visceral experience can help people reframe their relationship with their money and ultimately derive more satisfaction--aka, "love"--the way they are spending their money.
- gamerDude 12y agoI really like this idea for more than just money. I think having a habit like this to get rewarded to focus on long term goals over short term rewards would be awesome to have. It will be interesting to see if they can create a reward system good enough to be effective.
- dansimau 12y ago$ telnet m.trykeep.com 80 Trying 54.87.165.213... telnet: connect to address 54.87.165.213: Connection refused telnet: Unable to connect to remote host
- bsmith 12y agoI love the sentiment! I'll try this out when I have more time later, but I think it's worth noting that, of course, saving is only part of the equation. There is so much you can (and should) do to reduce expenses outside of the mundane day-to-day, as well! For great advice on pursuing financial independence or betterment, much of which has changed my life and habits, see: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ "Financial Freedom Through Badassity"
- sergiotapia 12y agoI read that blog yesterday as it was mentioned on a different thread. It seems most of his advice is don't buy anything you literally don't need to survive. What's the point of living if you can't enjoy your life? You'll be a rich corpse, who cares? What am I missing?
- drivers99 12y agoI haven't read the blog, but I wonder how it compares to the philosphy of the book "Your Money or Your Life". In that book, it talks about a fulfillment curve in which the least pleasure is to be found in having too little (poverty, deprivation) and in having/spending too much. Optimization is to be found in having (spending) "enough" but not too much.[1] The book walks you through tracking your spending and then at the end of the month, deciding whether each category's spending was above or below what you think it should be in terms of the enjoyment you got out of it. It then walks you through how to cut back on what you're overspending on with the ultimate goal of getting into better a financial position, up to and including early retirement. [1] http://newroadmap.pbworks.com/w/page/10458661/The%20Fulfillment%20Curve http://newroadmap.pbworks.com/w/page/10458661/The%20Fulfillm... "'Enough' is appreciating and fully enjoying what money brings into our lives, yet never purchasing anything that isn't needed and wanted." So I just googled "fulfillment curve" and one of the top results was from a mr money mustache forum post: http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-shame-and-comedy/the-fulfillment-curve/ http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-sham... The way he writes it as "fulfillment curve" being in contrast with "MMM" makes me think you have a point.
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- lazyant 12y agonon-mobile link: http://trykeep.com/ http://trykeep.com/
- cocolos 12y agois the link dead?
- meisterbrendan 12y agoIt doesn't seem to be. Are you running into an error?
- fideloper 12y agomint.com, while not really innovating...at all...anymore... is still pretty nice for tracking your various accounts, including investments and debts (student loans, etc)
- logician76 12y agoThe email address is @intuit.com, so I'm guessing it's related to mint.
- lost_name 12y agohttp://moments.intuitlabs.com/ http://moments.intuitlabs.com/ You would be correct.
- ampedlemon 12y agoYep, this is a side project that a couple of us are working on but it has no integrations with the Mint product.
- MrMeker 12y agoNot a good choice for a name. Google Keep has been around for a while and does something similar: organization.
- BorisMelnik 12y agoImmediately what I thought of as well, I use Google Keep for everything notetaking / todo etc and would really have a hard time adopting this.
- schnevets 12y agoI love it! A big part of my financial philosophy is based on a similar thought exercise: Before you make an impulsive decision, imagine a stranger walks up to you. In one hand, he has the thing you're about to buy. In the other hand, he has the amount of money you are about to spend. He will give you one or the other for free with absolutely no catch. Which one do you take? Besides that, I like the "hold to add cash" interface and I like that it's a mobile web platform (although I hope an Android widget is in the works). Hopefully they can get their server problems ironed out soon.
- mfwziegler 12y agoWhy do you like that it's a mobile web platform?
- nilkn 12y agoBased on my experience at least, YNAB (You Need A Budget -- http://www.youneedabudget.com/ http://www.youneedabudget.com/) is the best budgeting software out there. It's a lot more complex than this, and unlike something like Mint it does require you to manually enter transactions. However, it is really the best interface I've found for setting a budget. Probably the best feature is that it can naturally incorporate overspending. If you set your grocery budget to $200 and you spend $250, YNAB isn't just like "yo, reduce your grocery spending." It remembers that you overspent by $50 and encourages you to incorporate that into next month's budget in a flexible way. Unless you're a multimillionaire, you can probably benefit from using it. In fact, even if you are quite wealthy, plenty of celebrities have demonstrated repeatedly that it's still possible to go broke in just a few years.
- jonlucc 12y agoMy wife and I were discussing this a few weeks ago. If YNAB could automatically grab my bank transactions like Mint, I would be sold. I love their philosophy on budgeting.
- Haul4ss 12y agoThe whole point of YNAB (Rule #1 of their program) is that you need to proactively allocate every dollar you have. Every dollar has a job, and then you need to manually enter when that dollar is doing its job so you feel when that money actually gets spent. I tried for years to use Mint, but it's too passive. Too easy to ignore. With YNAB, every purchase goes in when we make the purchase, and I found it keeps us more honest about our budget estimates and also helps to curtail frivolous spending. To each his own, of course.
- gohrt 12y agoTo be most useful, YNAB should know my passive spending, and then harass me about all the dollars I am not reporting. Otherwise, I can just leak money and not talk about it.
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- aculver 12y agoOne trick I found really helped me curb thoughtless spending in the past was calculating the cost of purchases based not on the sticker price, but on the sticker price + whatever the compounded interest would be for the same amount of money on my mortgage. (At the time our interest rate was 5% with about 27.5 years left on our mortgage, so it effectively doubled the price of everything.) The thought was that if we spent that money vs. putting it on the mortgage, we were essentially locking those dollars in to being charged interest for the life of the loan. It doesn't take into account re-financing, etc., but it was a lot easier not to buy $10 smoothies vs. $5 ones. :-)
- tomrohlf 12y agoI love that idea... creates a more accurate picture of exactly how much you could be "saving."
- JoshTriplett 12y agoThinking about interest and growth does help put prices in perspective. Using mortgage interest rates doesn't work as well these days, since they've fallen so much, but you can use the standard market growth rates instead: either 7% or 4% depending on whether you take inflation into account.
- andkon 12y agoI really really like it. I see the value and have signed up and added to my homescreen. Truly a great interface compared to typing out numbers. Also I really want to turn this into an iOS app! There's some cool stuff you can do with it natively, like add a buzz + sound when you save a buck, which sure would feel satisfying (ever used the task management app Clear?). Let me know if you wanna go that way and I'd be happy to put a weekend towards it.
- tomrohlf 12y agoAwesome, I'm glad to hear you've found value in Keep! We're thinking about making it native and will be sure to let you know if/when we do.
- stronglikedan 12y agoA direct input would be nice. It took me five seconds to keep eight dollars by holding, but it could have taken only one second with direct input. Any particular reason that it's limited to this mechanic? Also, it seems to be stuck on the eight dollar screen. It keeps asking me to hold to $8, but never shows me a new photo. This is the stock Note 3 browser. EDIT: Now I can't even get it to register $3. Perhaps we are hugging the site too hard.
- tomrohlf 12y agohmmm... We've been optimizing for safari and chrome. Maybe give it a try in one of those?
- stronglikedan 12y agoYup. Chrome worked well. Nice work!
- JRobertson 12y agoI opened this on my iPad expecting to find an app store link at their m.trykeep.com. I did not find one, instead I found a web page that kept asking me to touch and interact with it, but that barely wanted to react. I had to tap and hold 7 times to get the first "example" to work, and then closed it and gave up after 5 attempts on the second. I could not find it in the app store either, so is this a browser based solution? If so, I highly recommend getting the touch sensitivity worked out on chrome on the browser. I do realize this may be load based from your servers getting hit and so if I remember I will try again later. Also, I get the impression this might require requires server connectivity, if it does then you're excluding so many people without data plans. I like the idea, just couldn't get the execution to actually work for me in a way I'd consider using it.
- tomrohlf 12y agoWe haven't built a native app just yet but we're thinking in that direction. If you have a chance to try it again open it up in safari or chrome on your phone. Thanks for being patient!
- ampedlemon 12y agoThanks for the feedback! Eventually we would build this natively, but we wanted to get something out quick and dirty via mobile web just to see if theres any interest/value for users.
- Ended 12y agoThis is a cool idea. My bank recently introduced a similar feature in their mobile app. You can move a small amount of money from your current account to your savings account in a couple of clicks (no need to log in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12xjelPXqWo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12xjelPXqWo
- tomrohlf 12y agoAwesome video, thanks for sharing! Looks like we aren't the first ones to build something for saving in the moment.
- DLarsen 12y agoPretty neat. I'm also working on a side project in the same vein. The key to improving spending behavior in my own household has been to focus on and evaluate decisions. http://www.spendlight.com/ http://www.spendlight.com/ My approach is a bit broader in that I find it useful to record both the good and bad decisions with a view toward improvement. I also prompt users for a bit of self-evaluation. When you goof, you are asked something like "What could you have done without in order to stay within your limits?" When you do well, you are asked something like "What was the key to making wise choices today?" I'm not a big fan of the input mechanism. It's novel and fun, but I'd bet that the fun wears out quickly.
- _lce0 12y agoit's really annoying that you wont allow me to open m.trykeep.com on my desktop.. without even telling me why I can't .. simply redirecting to the not-mobile page where I was before is asking the end-user to go away, like I did
- zheshishei 12y agoFor anyone who doesn't want to pull out their phone, reduce the width of your browser to about the size of a smartphone and then click the link.
- Rakathos 12y agoFYI, it looks like the mobile site has some issues in IE on Windows Phone. The white text is a bit hard to read with the background image [1], and refreshing the page results in this [2]. Looking forward to trying it out though! [1]: http://imgur.com/vtp2PnZ http://imgur.com/vtp2PnZ [2]: http://imgur.com/3iEI4kw http://imgur.com/3iEI4kw
- resurge 12y agoI also had the problem that when I selected an input box, the keyboard would open and the app would think that I had flipped the phone. It then showed me the black screen prompting me to flip it back which caused the browser to lose focus of the now nonexistant input box causing the keyboard to collapse again.
- ampedlemon 12y agoThanks for the feedback, we'll push some fixes for the orientation bug tonight
- avens19 12y agoI've made something to track spending on a weekly basis. I've found that most budget apps are too heavy, and most run on a monthly cycle. I can easily calculate rough figures for fixed income and expenses, I just need something to track spending money. Doing a budget by week is much easier to track and plan, and makes it easier to answer the question "Can I afford this?". Anyway, here is the Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andrewovens.weeklybudget https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andrewoven... And the mobile app: https://budgetapp.azurewebsites.net/ https://budgetapp.azurewebsites.net/
- emeltzz 12y agoThis is a really neat piece of interaction design.
- meisterbrendan 12y agoThanks for the feedback! What about this works for you? What could be even better?
- cpayne 12y agoI think its very clever. I really like how your example takes me through the steps first, then asks to sign me up for an account. Much better than asking to create an account first, then walk me through the app.
- meisterbrendan 12y agoThanks for the feedback! As you use the app, please let us know if there is anything we could do to make it better for you.
- mrpoptart 12y agonexus 4: goal amount: this will cost put cursor in field keyboard opens window registers as landscape due to width/height problem keyboard closes repeat.
- qwerfdsa 12y agoI would do that the other way around. If you wanna spend something you gotta hold your finger down and thus punish your behavior. For me it seems that the app punishes you with waiting time when you wanna save money.
- Paul_Dessert 12y agoI think it's great. I love the simplicity and the UI. A lot of times we over complicate things. This is a great example of getting back to basics. I'd argue that this is not budgeting software, nor should it be. Instead, it's a way for users to stop and think about what they are buying and ask themselves if they really need to make the purchase. I know someone who buys two drinks at Starbucks every day. To them, this was about $7/per day. No big deal. I quickly did the math and showed her the result, $2555 per year. Sometimes, perspective is a huge motivator. Also, nice job on the design and web based app. I'm happy that I simply needed to navigate to a URL on my phone. I didn't have to install another app, grant permissions etc. etc.. Great work! Good luck!
- smsm42 12y agoThe app is clever, but as somebody with long-time interest in personal finance, I feel the premise is a bit on the wrong side. Avoiding bad buys doesn't mean the same sum is now somehow free to spend. You need to both avoid bad buys and have a sane budget with money allocated for your needs and wants - which should come out of real money you earn, not imaginary money you "saved" when not buying what you didn't need anyway. Otherwise it reminds me a joke about a man who brags to his wife that he saved money by running after the bus instead of taking it and paying the fare. The wife says - next time run after a taxi, you'd save more! Unfortunately, savings don't work exactly like that.
- sddhrthrt 12y agoOn windows phone, keeping on holding opens a right-click menu and I cant go ahead.
- swah 12y agoDo all of those services process emails w/ your online purchases?