After getting married in 2021, navigating the shared finance space was something we were truly unprepared for. Extensive Google searches left us feeling limited in our options. It seemed as if there were only three approaches: Combine everything, split bills and spend lots of time managing our money every month, or keep everything separate. None of these felt right for us.

It was clear that we needed a more flexible approach. We needed a system that allowed us to do a few key things:

• Give each of us a sense of autonomy to manage money in accordance with our goals, both shared and individual.

• A way to track our progress toward those goals. We needed something to give us a sense of accomplishment when we met our goals and enough flexibility to change our strategy if our initial plan was not working.

• Measurable and actionable insights based on our specific financial situation.

We tried the apps but found we were spending lots of time categorizing each transaction and feeling like we weren’t understanding how our money was growing. We looked at other spending trackers but were left doing lots of math on the side to move money between accounts. So, we decided to make our own tool that worked for us.