Cash as Cash Can

Mike Schilli uses the YNAB tool to keep an eye on his finances. Until recently, YNAB didn't have a terminal Ul programmed in Go, but Mike delivers it here.

- Mike Schilli

Credit and debit cards, savings and checking accounts – can you really keep track of all the transactions that take place every month? Subscriptions for streaming services, bills for cloud storage, your Internet connection, and so on all add up. If you take the time to break down the details of where your hardearned cash goes, you can make important financial decisions to prevent potential waste.

Figure 1: The YNAB web interface showing a sample bank account with transactions.

YNAB, which predates Intuit Mint, has been on the market for a good 20 years. It tracks entries across all your accounts and means of payment and encourages you to create a budget and assign a task to every unit of currency you earn true to its motto of “give every dollar a job.” YNAB is not limited to the dollar zone or the conditions on the US market; users can choose euros as the currency and import transactions from their favorite local bank.

Figure 2: The terminal UI also displays the YNAB accounts for this budget.

Instead of the Web

YNAB already offers a neat smartphone app, and the website also offers a super-fast user interface (UI), practically just like a desktop app (Figure 1). What I missed personally was a command-line tool to connect to the YNAB API server in the same way as these apps and to show me my financial status quo in a terminal UI at the push of a button (Figure 2).

Figure 3: A CSV file from a financial institution that I converted with ynabler.