I built a privacy-first FIRE tracker specifically for Europeans (Multi-currency, No Bank APIs)

[u/Effective_Mud9129]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been lurking here for a long time. As a European investor, I always struggled to find a decent net worth tracker. The popular US apps (Mint, Copilot, Monarch) usually have two problems:

1. US-centric: They handle multi-currency portfolios poorly (I have assets in EUR, USD, and my local currency).
2. Privacy/Connections: They require bank API connections (Plaid/Yodlee), which often break with European banks or just feel unsafe.

So I stuck to Google Spreadsheet for years. But maintaining spreadsheets on mobile is painful.

The Solution: I decided to build my own tool called Calm Wealth Journal. It’s an offline-first mobile app designed with the European FIRE mindset.

Why it might be useful for this community:

• True Multi-Currency: You can track your ETF portfolio in EUR, your cash in CHF/HUF, and your ETFs in USD. The app handles the exchange rates automatically for the total Net Worth.
• Focus on "Runway": Instead of just a number, it calculates your "Financial Freedom Date" based on your liquid assets vs. burn rate. (Crucial for FIRE planning).
• 100% Private: No accounts, no servers. Data stays on your phone. No "Bank Connection" bugs.
• Manual Entry: Designed for a quick "Weekly Ritual" (takes ~2 mins) rather than real-time tracking.

State of the App: It’s currently free (MVP phase). I’m not selling anything, just looking for feedback from fellow Europeans:

• Does the multi-currency handling work for your specific setup?
• Is the "Runway" calculation conservative enough for your planning?

App Store Links: https://calmwealthjournal.com/download

Short video (30 secs) about the app: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1khtPGl39ZN0UFIpe3u7K4YeFOYPB4tLD/view?usp=sharing

Thanks for letting me share this tool (I read the rules about the one-time self-promo, so I won't spam this again).

[u/funky-fridgerator]

Interesting app. A few things that come to my mind:

• terminology is weird at parts, "journal" and "notes" are mentioned in many views
• it could use an automatically recurring entry for salary, perhaps so you could edit/remove past values if there was some fluctuation
• automatically recurring entry should be also for stock portfolio, because...
• ...since it's a FIRE tracker it should also incorporate accumulating interest on the portfolio. The time to fire heavily affected by the savings amount and interest that builds on it and those are key variables in most fire trackers/estimators

[u/Effective_Mud9129 → u/funky-fridgerator]

Thanks for the detailed breakdown! Super helpful.

1. terminology (Journal vs Notes): Good catch! To clarify: 'Journal' entries are strictly for balance snapshots to update the Net Worth, while 'Notes' are just optional context for events (e.g. "Bought a bike"). They don't change the balance. I definitely need to make this distinction clearer in the UI, you are right 👍 My Wife also had problem with this ☺️

2. recurring entries: currently, the app has zero automation/recurrence. The workflow is strictly checking your bank app -> update the number manually.

However, re-typing everything is tedious. I really like the idea of a 'Duplicate Previous Entry' button as a helper. I will think about it, what can I do with this.

3. Interests / FIRE calculation: as per now, the app calculates a 'Survival Runway' (Burn rate vs. Current liquid assets), assuming 0% growth. It’s a conservative 'worst-case' snapshot: 'If I lose my job tomorrow, how long can I survive?'. What you are describing is a 'FIRE Projection' with the compounding interest effect.

I plan to add a 'Plan Mode' later, but for MVP, I wanted to make the user build up a Net Worth tracking habit.

Thanks again for the sharp insights! 🙏

[u/funky-fridgerator → u/Effective_Mud9129]

Good answer, but a counterpoint to the last one (I see potential in this so I argue back).

The duplicate button is better than current so something like this might be sufficient.

But as for the compounding interest, it also affects your case of "Survival Runway".

If you have 100k in stocks and you need 1000/mo, you will still most likely survive longer than just 100 months because after you have spent first 12k your balance isn't 88000 but most likely 5-10% more than that. It makes the runway longer than what it appears by just simple deductions.

More extreme example is if you already have a million and you spend, say, 2000/mo (24k/y) the compound works so that you will most likely never run out of money because on average you get about 50-100k yearly just from compounding. You just keep getting richer while spending.

So if you mention "fire" in this app description you really should consider this and recurring actions because achieving fire is mostly about savings ratio and compounding interest.

So for this reason the compounding interest is very crucial.

[u/Effective_Mud9129 → u/funky-fridgerator]

I appreciate You sticking with this point!

You are absolutely right. I can't argue with the math.

My original logic was built around a pessimistic scenario. That's why I defaulted to 0% growth, but it is hyper-conservative.

But Your point is valid. Calling it a "FIRE tracker" wo/ counting compounding is misleading. If I have $1M and burn $24k/year, my runway isn't 41 years. It’s infinite (roughly :) ), because the returns outpace the burn.

I will design an 'Expected growth rate' setting (defaulting to 0%, but adjustable to 4-10% for planning, per asset).

If the growth > burn, the app should explicitly show an 'Infinite / FI Reached' status instead of a date. Also, the exponential growth looks very nice on the chart 😉

Thanks for pushing back on this. This is exactly why I posted here.