I think you and I are pretty similar. I started using when I was in college and overdrafting on my account was a real risk, so tracking every dollar made sense. Now I'm at the point where I'm fine with transactions being automatically categorized so I can focus on the bigger picture and longer term goals. So at first it felt like Monarch would be great.
I just can't wrap my head around the Goals feature. I've noticed the following:
1. Monarch expects specific accounts to be used for specific Goals, for example, a savings account for a vacation fund.
2. A transaction can only be associated with a goal if it is from the account attached to the goal.
I actually completely agree with Monarch on this. If you're using a savings account for your vacation fund and you buy plane tickets with checking, you should have to transfer money to match. In YNAB you don't have to. I choose to regularly create transfers so my account balances match the category balance in YNAB, but YNAB doesn't require me to.
However, this completely breaks down with:
3. Some account types don't support transactions. Retirement accounts show your portfolio but not transactions.
So if I have a Goal to contribute $100 to an IRA every month, and I debit $100 from my checking to transfer it to the IRA, it's impossible to mark this Goal as complete because there is no corresponding credit of $100 in the IRA. The balance of the portfolio increases but that doesn't matter.
I just can't wrap my head around the Goals feature. I've noticed the following:
1. Monarch expects specific accounts to be used for specific Goals, for example, a savings account for a vacation fund.
2. A transaction can only be associated with a goal if it is from the account attached to the goal.
I actually completely agree with Monarch on this. If you're using a savings account for your vacation fund and you buy plane tickets with checking, you should have to transfer money to match. In YNAB you don't have to. I choose to regularly create transfers so my account balances match the category balance in YNAB, but YNAB doesn't require me to.
However, this completely breaks down with:
3. Some account types don't support transactions. Retirement accounts show your portfolio but not transactions.
So if I have a Goal to contribute $100 to an IRA every month, and I debit $100 from my checking to transfer it to the IRA, it's impossible to mark this Goal as complete because there is no corresponding credit of $100 in the IRA. The balance of the portfolio increases but that doesn't matter.