amitpm

Hi HN! I've tried many budgeting apps in the past, but I've never been able to build the habit to rigorously manage and update my expenses as they came in. Typically I would try something out, would fail miserably, give up and then live in guilt that I do not know where my money was going.

I built OpenArgentum for people like me - who want to check in on their finances once every few weeks - and see where their money is going, if they're trending correctly, and so on.

With OpenArgentum, you upload whatever statements or transaction exports you have (it supports pdfs, csvs, zip files). It then uses an (configurable) LLM model to correctly classify and tag your expenses as well as identify duplicates, potential transfers (you don't want to double count your credit card payment in both your chequing and your credit card statements inflating your category/income/expense numbers) and much more.

Since we're dealing with transactions in bulk (once every few weeks), Aurelia, the chat assistant, allows you to mine through them, categorize and manage them, and even report on them with charts and graphs generated on the fly. So this allows you workflows such as "I travelled to Japan in the first week of may. Identify all transactions during that period that seem travel related and add it to my japan project. Also, how much did I spend on food there?".

I wanted something that was self-hosted and that I controlled. So OpenArgentum is completely self-hosted. It currently uses the Gemini model for it's AI features - local model support is a top roadmap item.

To explore, just clone the repo and run `./start.sh --demo` to boot into a synthetic dataset. Add a Google AI studio API key if you want to try out the AI features (there's an example statement you could upload).

I'll be around for the next few hours - happy to get torn apart :)

I built an advent calendar with a twist, to introduce my kids to simple math, logic, cryptography and programming concepts. Try it out here.

That is true and I apologize for the projection. I should have really said “one” instead of “you”.

As in - “But in one’s heart one knows that isn’t true. There are answers if one seeks. But giving up and not thinking about death is nothing but a cop out.”

But I believe your point still stands, even if it is one we may disagree on.

Personally, I do believe in an afterlife. And I apologize if this reply gets a little mystical, but the topic warrants it :)

When I said “raging against dying”, I really mean making peace with the thought of death. I strongly believe it isn’t something to be swept under the rug, but rather something to be wrestled with, thought through, and truly considered, with genuine honesty. In a sense, there can be nothing more important.

Your individual consciousness is special, it is unique. You have memories and experiences. Deep thought, shallow urges, appreciation for beauty, relationships, love.

If you believe that consciousness ends at death, each time it does, its like a whole universe winks out. And everything that consciousness experienced is meaningless. If this is true, then no amount of self generated “meaning in this life” can make up for even an ounce of pain this consciousness experienced - because that pain was experienced for nothing. No “meaning” endures. It’s universe ended when it did.

But in your heart you know that isn’t true. There are answers if you seek. But giving up and not thinking about death is nothing but a cop out.

The article’s arguments can be summarized as two main points -

1. “Death is not the end of your matter, only of your particular consciousness.”

To which I say, big whoop. I don’t really care that the carbon atoms in my body go on to be part of another animal, or continue being part of the “universe”. I don’t care that “energy” is eternal - there’s nothing special about energy. “I” start and stop at consciousness, and I see no reason to NOT rage against the dying of that light.

2. Don’t think about death, it’s a thought that isn’t productive.

To which I say that is impossible. Even if it were possible, that is sacrificing one’s humanity to be no better than an animal. Reading a bit of Kierkegard may help.

Rust is the language of choice for dApps on Solana as well (which I thought was an interesting choice.)