hledger for managing money

I’ve been using hledger to manage my finances for the past week, and I find it to be a spectacular tool for this purpose.

For the uninitiated, hledger is a command-line plaintext accounting tool. It allows you to generate overviews and statements about your spending to anaylze your finances. This can help you identiy spending habits and patterns.

Since I started using it, I’m more conscious about my spending. I know that I have to add every purchase to my hledger journal file, and that I’ll be looking at how each purchase is tied to my spending goals. This allows me to follow my budget.

Another reason I love hledger is that it works flawlessly on my phone using Termux. It’s identical to how it works on my desktop, which eliminates the need for a separate application.

hledger also has a vast array of features related to investments. I find it handy to see my investment performance. It gives lots of advanced metrics, many of which I never heard of. It feels like a complete tool in this regard.

I also used the HTML output feature more times than I’d like to count. It allows you to view your expenses in the browser, which makes it easier to navigate and view your reports on a bigger screen.

I mainly use the is (income statement) and bal (balance) commands, as they provide the most useful overview for me. I aliased them which makes viewing my spending effortless.

Since hledger deals in plaintext files, I found it to be easy to edit on-the-go. I love being able to do work without internet access. Backing up and syncing is also simple.

I used to use a spreadsheet. hledger is freeing. I’m finally able to view detailed information about my spending with just a few keystrokes. It would have taken me hours trying to do that on a spreadsheet.

In conclusion, I’m very happy with hledger. It has made me more conscious of my spending and fits my workflow perfectly. I highly recommend trying it out!