I spent 2 years building a personal finance simulator

In plain words

ProjectionLab is a privacy-focused personal finance planning tool that lets users create detailed financial projections beyond traditional retirement calculators. Built by a solo developer, it offers Monte Carlo simulations and forecasting capabilities on a free basic plan, with paid premium tiers for advanced features. The tool now supports self-hosting for lifetime subscribers, providing users control over their financial data.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Create beautiful and nuanced financial plans that truly represent you, your loved ones, and the paths you choose. Run Monte Carlo simulations, backtest on historical data, and figure out how to live your best life and reduce anxiety around your finances.

Simulate your financial future. Modern financial, retirement, and estate planning tools to plan for early retirement, financial independence, and more.

Disclaimer: The content, tools, and resources on ProjectionLab.com are intended solely for informational and educational purposes and should not be construed as professional financial or investment advice. Our materials are designed to provide general guidance and are based on the input and data provided by users. ProjectionLab makes no guarantee of the accuracy, completeness, or applicability of this content to individual circumstances. Effective financial planning and investment involve comprehensive consideration of a wide array of personal financial factors. The tools and resources available on ProjectionLab are aimed at helping users develop an understanding of their financial…from projectionlab.com

In the maker’s words, at launch

Hey everyone! After another year of building as a solo dev on nights and weekends, I'm back with an update on this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31083093. TL;DR - ProjectionLab (https://projectionlab.com) is a privacy-friendly personal finance planning tool where you can create…

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  RayApr 2026 · rayfinance.app · ▲293

  I've been using this daily for 4 months and figured others might find it useful. This is my first open source project so would love any feedback. Ray connects to your bank via Plaid, stores everything in an encrypted local SQLite database, and lets you ask questions about your finances in natural language. No cloud, no account, your data is stored on your machine. Before anything reaches the LLM, all PII is stripped — your name, companies, transaction details are redacted and replaced with tokens, then rehydrated locally in the response. The AI never sees who you are.

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  I made a simulator for personal finance2021 · projectifi.io · ▲479

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  Write It Down – Personal finance tracker2025 · write-it-down.com · ▲271

  Everyone’s chasing AI hype. I built a Google Sheet and it quietly took off. In 2020, I made it to track my own finances for income, expenses, savings, yearly summaries etc. I shared it once on Reddit, forgot about it for a year… When I checked back, it had over 130k views and I was honestly stoked! No launch. No funding. No AI. Just a spreadsheet people actually stick with and find useful. I finally gave it a proper home: write-it-down.com Now, more than 2,300 people use it. It’s intentionally boring and that’s why it works. People don’t always need AI. They just need something that actually…

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