Watrline
(If you drop enough vowels, your app becomes cool)
You can think of Watrline as a planning app. But you can also think of it as an advisor. The idea of Watrline is that nobody knows what you want like you do, but you don't necessarily know how to get it. That's where Watrline steps in.
What Do I Do With This Thing?
Have you tried talking to it?
Well, you tell it what you want. I mean, what you want to buy, not, like, happiness- Watrline can't provide that...yet. Just start listing goals you have and you're off to the races.
A goal has a few important parts:
- A name - because it's better than referring to your goals by different-length silences
- A price - If you don't have to pay for it, Watrline can't help you accomplish it
- A deadline - When do you want to achieve this goal?
- A monthly contribution - How much will you put towards this goal every month?
But Wait (you might be saying)! Some of these things depend on each other. If I know how much something costs and I know when I'm going to get it, I can calculate how much I need to spend every month between then and now. And you're completely right! Watrline only needs you to decide on any two of these for each goal and, through the magical powers of "Math", can figure out the remaining information for you.
- If you're planning on sending your daughter to college, the timeframe is going to be pretty fixed. 18 comes at the same pace. And you're probably going to set aside money every month, so if you set these two pieces of information ("Deadline" and "Monthly Contribution"), then you'll get told how much money you'll have to send her off.
- If you want to put in a down payment on a house, you might not know when you'll be able to afford it, but you might know how much it'll be to get 20% of that house you want. You might also decide on how much you're comfortable contributing to your house fund every month. From that, Watrline can tell you when you might expect to leave the ranks of the perpetual-renters.
...Is That It?
Nope!
Just doing some basic arithmetic may impress some, but I doubt it helps you very much. I have faith in your ability to use a calculator. Where Watrline starts to shine is the questions it pushes you to answer. You see, your goals have an additional constraint- how much money you actually have lying around in your life. The unfortunate yoke of capitalism is placed on us all, so you can only spend as much money as you have lying around. If every month your goals cost more than the amount of available cash you have, you're gonna have to make some hard choices. That's where Watrline comes in.
You put money towards your goals in order of importance, pretty much by definition. If you're paying for a boat before saving for a down payment, well then, that boat is more important to you! And that's totally okay, but it's good to know. Watrline asks you to put your goals in order and tells you when you've definitely got enough money to pay towards a goal, when money's getting tight and when it's just not gonna happen. If you don't like those answers, cool! All you have to do is reorder them so the ones you want more are paid for. Or change how much money you're putting towards your high priority goals so that you can pay towards more of your lower priorities.
This is what a financial advisor would help you with, but they'd also try to sell you a life insurance policy that you Do Not Need.
Okay...that's pretty useful
But wait! There's more!
Not everybody knows how much cash they have lying around. It can be hard to know how much available cash you've got. Watrline tries to help you there, too.
It's totally okay to start off with a guess, but if you want help, Watrline will be there to ask you the questions you need to be asked- where does your money come from? Where does it go? From this information, you'll know how much money you actually have to spend on your goals.