Nethaven Blog

Practical notes on budgeting, transaction review, portfolio tracking, and building a calmer financial routine.

By Nethaven Team

September 12, 2026

8 minute read

How to calculate your savings rate from real transactions

The same fictional month reconciles to anywhere between 15.0% and 25.2% depending on the definition. Here is how to pick one and calculate it from real transactions.

By Nethaven Team

September 12, 2026

9 minute read

When a central-bank rate rise actually reaches your accounts

The ECB raised its key rates on September 10, 2026. Your own rates move on their own contractual dates. Here is how to list those dates and price the next reset.

By Nethaven Team

September 12, 2026

7 minute read

Is your raise keeping up with inflation?

US average hourly earnings rose 3.1% in the year to August 2026 while prices rose 3.4%. Run the comparison on your own pay, then decide where the difference goes.

By Nethaven Team

September 12, 2026

7 minute read

How to build a budget for reduced work hours

A layoff plan assumes income stops and an ordinary budget assumes it continues. Reduced hours need a shortfall calculation, a runway figure, and a dated review.

By Nethaven Team

September 7, 2026

7 minute read

Why your budget can rise faster than headline inflation

A higher grocery bill can reflect higher prices, more purchases, or both. A worked household basket shows how to separate them and revise your budget.

By Nethaven Team

September 7, 2026

7 minute read

How to check what your cash is actually earning

Balance growth includes your own deposits. Reconcile the statement, estimate interest under the account's terms, and check when you can access the cash.

By Nethaven Team

September 7, 2026

7 minute read

October 2026 energy price cap: build your own winter bill estimate

The price cap headline isn't your household bill. Use a worked winter calculation to connect energy use, supplier credit, and the payments in your budget.

By Nethaven Team

September 5, 2026

5 minute read

Nethaven on TRMNL: your finances at a glance

Check dividend income, see your asset mix, or keep your budget in view. Nethaven brings four focused finance screens to TRMNL, with layouts for a full display, half, or quarter.

By Nethaven Team

August 31, 2026

8 minute read

Leaving Monarch Money: What Actually Transfers

A Monarch transaction export preserves activity fields, but it does not by itself establish account closing balances. Check the export range and import preview.

By Nethaven Team

August 31, 2026

8 minute read

What to Do With Your Old Mint Export File

A saved Mint CSV can preserve categorized transaction history. Check the file, import preview, and account balances before relying on the new ledger.

By Nethaven Team

August 31, 2026

8 minute read

Leaving Copilot Money: What Actually Transfers

Check which exported transaction fields reach the preview, which records need rebuilding, and how to reconcile balances and transfers after Copilot.

By Nethaven Team

August 31, 2026

8 minute read

Leaving Rocket Money: What Actually Transfers

A cancellation tool is not a balance sheet. When the recurring charges are under control, the question becomes what the rest of the money is doing.

By Nethaven Team

August 31, 2026

4 minute read

Moving from Actual Budget to Nethaven: What Transfers

Export Actual Budget transactions, review the preview, and reconcile balances. Keep historical budgets separately and rebuild the current plan in Nethaven.

By Nethaven Team

August 31, 2026

4 minute read

Moving from Lunch Money to Nethaven: What Transfers

Export Lunch Money transactions, review the preview, and reconcile balances. Keep historical budgets separately and rebuild the current plan in Nethaven.

By Nethaven Team

August 27, 2026

8 minute read

How to Find Every Subscription You're Paying For

The subscriptions you remember are rarely the expensive ones. The damage is usually done by a trial nobody cancelled and an annual renewal that lands once a year, quietly.

By Nethaven Team

August 27, 2026

9 minute read

How to Choose a Net Worth App: The Questions That Matter

Every net worth app claims to show your net worth. The difference is what happens after the first screen: whether it remembers last month, and whether it covers what you actually own.

By Nethaven Team

August 27, 2026

8 minute read

Personal Balance Sheet Example: A Filled-In Template

Reading about a personal balance sheet is not the same as seeing one filled in. Here is a full example, row by row, with the awkward assets included rather than skipped.

By Nethaven Team

August 27, 2026

8 minute read

Net Worth Tracker for Android: What to Look For

Check current Android availability, then test the accounts, manual assets, exports, and household workflows you intend to use.

By Nethaven Team

August 19, 2026

5 minute read

Does a Pension Count in Net Worth?

A pension pot and a right to future income need different records. Choose a consistent net worth convention and keep retirement access restrictions visible.

By Nethaven Team

August 18, 2026

7 minute read

How to Build a Budget From Scratch

Most first budgets fail because they start from a template instead of your actual bank statements. Here's a method that starts from what really happened last month.

By Nethaven Team

August 18, 2026

8 minute read

Mint Alternatives for Crypto and Net Worth

Exchange balances, public wallets, and manual holdings need different tracking methods. Compare three Mint alternatives by how they bring crypto into net worth.

By Nethaven Team

August 8, 2026

8 minute read

How to Export YNAB to Nethaven Without Losing Budget History

YNAB exports CSV or TSV depending on number format. Nethaven’s ZIP import currently selects CSV files. Verify the archive and preview before importing.

By Nethaven Team

August 8, 2026

8 minute read

What Counts in Net Worth? Cars, Pensions, Deposits and IOUs

The first net worth session stalls on the same question: does this count? Here is the test that settles it, and a verdict on the fifteen items people actually ask about.

By Nethaven Team

August 8, 2026

8 minute read

What to Do With Last Month's Budget Surplus

A surplus needs a recorded decision. Nethaven can carry it forward, allocate it to savings, or keep it unassigned; recording a transfer does not move money at the bank.

By Nethaven Team

August 8, 2026

8 minute read

Personal Balance Sheet: How to Build One and Read It

A net worth number is one figure. A balance sheet is the working paper behind it, and it answers the question the total cannot: how much of this could you actually reach?

By Nethaven Team

August 8, 2026

7 minute read

Net Worth Tracking for Couples

Two people, four banks, and one number nobody can state out loud. Here's how couples build a joint net worth view that both partners actually trust.

By Nethaven Team

August 8, 2026

8 minute read

How to Value Your House and Car in Net Worth

The home you live in and the car you drive are usually the two biggest numbers on a net worth statement, and the two nobody can verify. Here's how to value them honestly.

By Nethaven Team

July 31, 2026

9 minute read

What Is Your FIRE Number? How to Calculate It

A FIRE number is a planning estimate. Start with measured spending, then test the withdrawal rate, retirement length, taxes, and income assumptions.

By Nethaven Team

July 31, 2026

9 minute read

How to Save More Money: Find the Leaks First

Most savings advice starts with tips. That is backwards. Measure four weeks of real spending first, then apply the two or three changes that match what you find.

By Nethaven Team

July 27, 2026

4 minute read

How to Log Expenses With a Siri Shortcut on iPhone

Use Nethaven’s Add Transaction action for manual expenses. Choose an account, map the inputs, and review the saved transaction for category or duplicate mistakes.

By Nethaven Team

July 21, 2026

7 minute read

What Is a Net Worth Aggregator?

Aggregation is the difference between a net worth number you maintain and one that maintains itself. Here's how it actually works.

By Nethaven Team

July 21, 2026

7 minute read

How to Track Dividend Income

Dividends are the one part of a portfolio that pays you without you doing anything, and the part most people can't state a number for.

By Nethaven Team

July 13, 2026

10 minute read

Coast FIRE Explained: How to Find Your Coast Number

You may be closer to financial independence than you think. What Coast FIRE is, how to find your coast number, and why it buys flexibility rather than idleness.

By Nethaven Team

July 13, 2026

10 minute read

The 4% Rule: How to Use It in a FIRE Plan

One number turned retirement planning into arithmetic. What Bengen's research actually found, the 25x shortcut, sequence risk, and how to pick your own rate.

By Nethaven Team

July 13, 2026

11 minute read

Passive Income and FIRE: What Actually Counts

A dividend yield is only part of total return. Use explicit income assumptions and keep rental costs, taxes, and portfolio withdrawals in the same plan.

By Nethaven Team

July 7, 2026

8 minute read

Net Worth by Age: See Where You Stand in 2026

Average net worth looks impressive at every age, until you see the median. Here is the real Federal Reserve data on net worth by age, and how to read it.

By Nethaven Team

July 6, 2026

5 minute read

How Much Do Subscriptions Really Cost?

Add up the recurring charges across your accounts and app stores. Convert billing cycles to an annual comparison, then check the services you still use.

By Nethaven Team

July 2, 2026

4 minute read

Crypto in net worth: what to include

Ownership, valuation, and access answer different questions. Record supportable crypto values, label restrictions, and avoid counting underlying tokens twice.

By Nethaven Team

June 30, 2026

6 minute read

Snowball vs avalanche debt payoff

Avalanche saves the most money; snowball is the one people actually finish. How to pick between motivation and math, and a hybrid that captures both.

By Nethaven Team

June 27, 2026

5 minute read

Use Claude or ChatGPT as a Personal Finance Assistant

You can now ask Claude 'What's my net worth?' and get a real answer from your live Nethaven data, no CSV exports, no copy-paste. One URL, OAuth sign-in, done.

By Nethaven Team

June 24, 2026

9 minute read

How to Start Managing Your Money

Personal finance for beginners, made simple. A clear, step-by-step order of operations to manage your money from zero, track, budget, clear debt, save, invest.

By Nethaven Team

June 24, 2026

11 minute read

HENRY: High Earner, Not Rich Yet

A high salary does not establish wealth. Compare what you earn, spend, own, and owe before choosing changes to your saving plan.

By Nethaven Team

June 23, 2026

12 minute read

FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early

Financial Independence, Retire Early comes down to two numbers: 25x your annual spending and a ~4% withdrawal rate. The FIRE rules, its types, and how to start.

By Nethaven Team

June 21, 2026

7 minute read

Freelancer finances: business vs personal

Keep business and personal separate inside one dashboard: dedicated accounts, clear categories, a tax set-aside rule, and a way to smooth lumpy freelance income.

By Nethaven Team

June 18, 2026

6 minute read

Weekly vs monthly subscription billing

A $9 weekly charge annualizes to $468 over 52 weeks, equivalent to $39 a month. Actual calendar charges can differ, so check the schedule as well as the price.

By Nethaven Team

June 13, 2026

6 minute read

Rental Property in Net Worth: Track Equity, Not Value

A rental is two entries, not one: the asset and the loan against it. Track the equity, keep rent out of net worth, and the landlord side of your balance sheet stays honest.

By Nethaven Team

June 9, 2026

6 minute read

SnapTrade vs manual brokerage tracking

Brokerage sync reduces manual updates but can lag or need repair. Manual entries cover unsupported holdings and need a dated review against the source account.

By Nethaven Team

June 4, 2026

7 minute read

Subscription tracking: what to review

A subscription list is useful, but context turns renewals into decisions. Review amount, timing, owner, category, and whether the service still earns its place.

By Nethaven Team

May 30, 2026

6 minute read

Shared budget without shared passwords

Sharing a budget should not mean sharing passwords. Invite-based access shows partners categories, goals, and spending while each login stays private and revocable.

By Nethaven Team

May 22, 2026

9 minute read

Transaction Rules: When to Automate, and Why They Fail

Rules should shrink your review queue, not hide transactions. What is safe to automate, what is not, and the four failure patterns that quietly distort a budget.

By Nethaven Team

May 20, 2026

7 minute read

Money timeline review: a monthly routine

A monthly timeline review helps you notice new transactions, balance changes, and upcoming bills without reopening every account separately.

By Nethaven Team

May 12, 2026

7 minute read

Savings goals that stay visible

A visible savings goal connects target amount, deadline, monthly contribution, and tradeoffs so the plan does not disappear between paychecks.

By Nethaven Team

May 5, 2026

7 minute read

Debt paydown check-in: a monthly routine

Debt payoff plans need a recurring checkpoint. Compare balances, interest, minimums, extra payments, and budget pressure before choosing next month.

By Nethaven Team

April 28, 2026

6 minute read

What belongs in a net worth dashboard

Cash, debt, investments, property, and manual assets all tell a different part of the same financial story.