About Pocket Wise

Pocket Wise started as something I built just for myself.

My first experience with tracking finances was through one of those apps that needed my bank login (mint?). It worked okay, but I didn't feel comfortable sharing my password, and over time it felt slow and not really helpful in building better financial habits.

Later, I came across double-entry accounting. It looked intimidating at first, but once I understood the basics, it clicked. Just keeping track of things manually made me much more aware of my spending and savings.

That's what gave me the idea for Pocket Wise - an app that keeps things simple, respects your privacy, and makes manual tracking easy enough that you'll actually stick with it.

I've been using it for a while now, and it's been surprisingly useful. So I decided to put it here, maybe it'll help someone else too.

My workflow is simple: every time I buy something, I open the app on my phone, use speech-to-text, and enter the transaction with Smart Entry. Takes about 10 seconds.

Then once a week, I check the reports to see how much I'm spending in each category. That gives me enough course correction so next time I'm more mindful of my spending.

If you try it and have thoughts, I'd love to hear from you.