Why I built Farcast
For years my financial plan lived in a Google Sheet. Money in, expenses, what's left for savings and investments. A second tab for goals. That's it.
It worked, until it didn't.
My budgeting app handles the money I already have. It takes what's in the account and slices it into categories. Great for tracking, great for a high-level view of where things should go. But it falls apart the moment I ask the question I actually care about: not where my money went, but where it's headed. Which account should this go into to grow? Which goal does it get me closer to, and when?
Because I don't have one account. I have a handful, each growing at its own rate, ETFs and stocks and a few other things I'm hopeful and nervous about in different measures. And my goals don't line up either: some have a hard date, some are just eventually. The only thing that isn't independent is my income. One limited pool, feeding all of it at once.
So every time something changed (a raise, a new goal, a rough month, losing a job, or just spending more than I should've) I'd reopen the sheet and redo the math. And I do overspend sometimes. A plan that can't survive me living a little isn't a real plan. But are the goals still feasible after? When do they land if I move money around? No picture. Just gut feeling and ad-hoc math, every time.
I got tired of doing that math. So I built the thing that does it for me.
Farcast takes my accounts (with their real return ranges), my budget, and my goals, then projects years ahead and tells me, plainly, whether the plan works. Move money between accounts, push a goal's date, add a new one, and the forecast updates to show what each choice did. The question stops being "let me redo the spreadsheet" and becomes "will I get there?", answered.
I made it for myself. Then I showed a friend, and watching him want it made me think the rough idea was worth polishing into something other people could actually use.
I'm still building 0.1. I'll release it the moment I'm happy with the first version, not before. This landing page is the first step: a place to see what Farcast is and join the waitlist. I'll email you when it's ready, and nothing else.
— Monty · [email protected]