Why I Stopped Using Excel for My Finances (And What I Actually Needed)
For several years, I managed my finances in Excel. It wasn’t just any spreadsheet: I’d invested time building it, it had formulas that worked, neatly organized categories, color coding. At the time, it was exactly what I needed.
Until it wasn’t.
It wasn’t a dramatic moment. It was an accumulation of small frictions that, over time, turned the spreadsheet from a useful tool into something I avoided opening.
The first problem: recurring expenses
The specific point where I started noticing things weren’t working was with recurring expenses and future projections.