Most budgeting apps allow users to set overall budgets, budget by category, rolling budget, etc… So why none of these features is available in Nova Money?
The quick answer: because it quickly gets too complicated, is high maintenance, doesn’t help to make decisions… and worst of all: turns personal finance into tedious accounting instead of thinking ahead.
Let’s say you have set a total monthly budget of £1000, broken down into 10 categories. You’ll inevitably overspend on some categories, and understand on others. So what do you do? The right approach is to rebalance all these categories whenever you exceed them. Concretely, you may need to rebalance your budget after each new transaction!
If you have the discipline and mental energy to do it with the rigour of an accountant, kudos to you. But we want to provide a simpler solution for everybody else that simplifies.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you want to spend on shopping, restaurants, theatre… It’s all money out. What matters is that you’re able to control your spending page throughout the month in order to avoid the last-minute bitter surprise.
That’s why we designed the Budget Line: