Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nico401 1520 days ago
I have spent couple hours trying your product, it's pretty damn good! Couple remarks:

1. It would have been great if I could make other variables used in Monte Carlo simulations than the market. It would allow one to model uncertainty. For example, an event could happen following a random distribution (kid arrival, move between 3 and 5 years), or a future salary could follow some normal distribution, etc.

2. The main dashboard for a plan is GREAT. UI/UX-wise, considering the number of dimensions to factor, I find it surprisingly simple to iterate over a plan.

3. Having the option to show expenses on the main plan chart would be great. Expenses are a big part of optimizing personal finances.

4. The plan comparison may deserve a different UI than the simple plan analysis. Seeing differences on the right is not completely intuitive.

5. I'm currently living in France, and we have some accounts with no amount limit but with an annual transfert limit. For example, you cannot add more than 20K€/year to the account. I believe it's currently not possible to set a cash allocation such that it maximizes transfert amount/year instead of overall amount.

6. Related to 5., but we cannot withdraw from that account without paying taxes until retrieving, then it's tax-free up to some amount per month. Maybe similar to a 401k. But it's impossible to set that up on a custom account.

7. I have set that model up, still in trial, but now I'm really scared that my browser might bug or hit refresh by habit and loose everything. The find the saving feature to be really harsh. It'd be nice to find some alternative so that it can be saved, and maybe retrieve it after subscribing? Or limit the number of parameters/events that can be added to the model? Or show in much simplified mode. In my case, I'd like to show my partner and discuss it before subscribing: I want to make sure it contains enough features needed to model our finances.

Really good job overall, I'll certainly follow your work!

1 comments

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

1. Definitely looking to add more degrees of freedom to Monte Carlo scenarios over time. A couple examples: https://changemap.co/projectifi/projectifi/task/5736-flex-on... https://changemap.co/projectifi/projectifi/task/5926-allow-s...

3. Have you seen the Plot Builder? (open plot selector and hit new). Expenses are one of the metrics you can use.

4. Totally agree. Eventually I want this to show more than the deltas in the yearly summary, just haven't gotten to it yet.

5. I actually just added some more options for savings type goals to the early access site here: https://projectifi-201a2--dev-xsmyy9im.web.app. let me know if that helps at all.

7. I'd like to make some improvements here too. Losing data sucks, and I should take more steps to reduce the likelihood of that ever happening. I'll see if I can come up with a good approach that's not easy to take advantage of.

1. Looking forward to seeing that. With the current UI for Monte Carlo simulations, I think it'll be great!

3. I haven't seen that, wow! It can do a lot.

4. Makes sense. Just switching between plans works, anything more is nice to have, not must have.

5. I can see a Yearly Contribution Limit, that rocks! It's exactly that.

7. Good luck with that! I read you got couple ideas and remarks on here, I'm sure there is some solution ticking most boxes.

I'll probably be a customer very soon! Good luck and again: well done.

I appreciate it! And if you have any other feature ideas or suggestions, reach out any time.